Does this method also work with mormons at the front door?
I remember the days when they would try and try to get you to talk. Now, all you have to do is to tell the Mormons, "No, thanks anyway." and they will thank you for their time, and not bother you again. The Jehova's Witnesses, on the other hand, are a bit more, well, let's say, persistant. No, I am of neither religion. My personal opinion is like that one old dead feller said a while ago: "Religion is the opiate of the masses." I figure God is pretty disgusted with the whole religion thing anyway. More people are killed, more wars are started, and more greed and avarice are caused by religion than by any other root source.
I wonder if Glock had to pay out huge dollars to become the handgun of choice for action movies.
I don't know about Hollywood, but the only pistol I've found that shoots sweeter than my.40 Glock is the M1911A.45 that the military used to use (and probably still should, 9mm ain't that great.)
Yep, and I feel the balance should be right about 155mm. If a person can handle the weapon responsibly, more power to them. Back home, at the army surplus store, there was a Vulcan chain gun for sale. The computer cards were missing (the 'firing mechanism', if you will), but otherwise fully functional. 20mm rounds, at 6000 rounds a minute full open. I would actually feel safer with a bunch of those around, and operational than I do now, where you can be arrested for not wearing a fucking seat belt.
I guarantee if the citizens given high-powered full-auto weapons like they are given welfare, crime would go down to nothing, Laws would actually be resonable and just, and no one, anywhere, would fuck with Americans.
Re:Stop it you're helping the terrorists
on
Build Your Own Mortar
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Last thing we need right now is for terrorists to get hold of WMDs
First off, quit being a chicken-shit. Terrorists are not the ones you should be worrying about at this point. The Federal government is currently detroying the American way of life 10 times faster than every terrorist in the world could even dream of. Besides, depending on how you look at the situation, a terrorist could be considered a freedom fighter. Consider the American Revolution. The Colonists wanted freedom from the world's established Super Power of the time (England), but knew they could not win against them using the conventional war tactics of the time. So, they fought in ways considered by the British to be without honor, and without proper military tactics, terrorist tactics if you will. The Colonists attacked the British food supplies, burned houses containing British families, hid behind things while they shot at the British soldiers, all things that were considered to be terrorist tactics at the time. Good thing for us George Washington used those tactics.
Now, that being said, I don't care for the current "Terror regime", and figure the best way to get rid of "terrorists" in the U.S. is, rather than restrict the freedoms of U.S. citizens, the government should issue every last one of us assault rifles, and invite Osama over here for a little game of cat-and-mouse.
Also, if you consider a mortar that chucks a bowling ball a Weapon of Mass Destruction, you'ld better go running to your mommy, and hide sniveling and crying behind her skirts, because you obviously have no concept of anything. Anyone, anywhere in the world can get weapons with way more destructive power than bowling balls.
I think the article was a "blast", and the links throughout to other projects like it. Get a grip, punk, the terrorists don't give a shit about these projects.
That's the truth. I've found that there are other pistols that make a louder boom, but so far, the.357 Magnum has the sharpest crack and most noticable shock wave I've ever experienced. I shot one with a 4 1/2" barrel while standing, and the resulting shockwave caused dust to jump 12 feet to either side of the barrel!(outside range, of course.)
That being said, I'd like to fire a.454 Casul, and a.460 Weatherby some day. Also, where I'm from, there are a bunch of good ol' boys who have full-auto machine guns. Those are real fun. And yes, it IS legal to own them, it's just tons of paperwork to get them, and the cost is tremendous. I.e., an AR-15(semi-auto) at the time was running for about $700.00, and an M-16(full-auto) was running around $15,000.00!!
I too, have lost family members to cancer. I've also lost family members to gunfire(seriously), old age, heart attacks, etc. It sucks, but face it: No one gets out of this life alive.
So, maybe what the point of my post is, anything that works to improve the quality of life is way more important than working to improve the quantity of life. That said, both researching a cure for cancer and researching how/why/whatever a cookie crumbles are both noble causes.
So, think of me what you will, in 75 to 100 years, we will both be dead and who cares then?
My XP - a gaming rig, at that - (sic)botts in about 30 seconds.
That is the thing right there. Your system is a "gaming" rig, and that's probably all you do with it, so you've got it all tweaked and rarely change anything with it. Nothing wrong with that, but, on a "general purpose" machine, or the average XP users machine, I guarantee it slows down to an aching crawl for boot after a few weeks/months of use. This is caused by everything from Quick Books "TSR" bot to default settings in IE that allow every damned search bar/spyware piece of junk to automatically install in the background.
I work on Windows boxes all day long, and I know this happens. Machines I've built for customers, with nothing but XP loaded will boot in under 20 seconds. Two months later, when they've just purchased a new scanner or what have you, and want me to install it, the boot time of the exact same machine is now over 2 1/2 minutes. They had installed Anti-Virus software, Office XP, a few games, Quick Books, etc., nothing exotic. I checked for viruses, there were none. I ran Spy Bot, and there was 350 (non-cookie) issues found. Even after cleaning, clearing temp files, and defragging, the boot time was still just under two minutes. My Mandrake machines' boot times haven't changed by even 2 seconds in three years. My Mandrake boots from power button on to fully loaded KDE desktop in 40 seconds, and I've only got 256MB RAM in it. The XP box I've been talking about has 1GB.
No matter what people say, nor what the benchmarks show, Windows XP appears slow, and feels sluggish. Go to the Add/Remove Programs in the control panel. Even with a 2.6Ghz processor with 1GB of RAM, you have to "Please wait while list is being populated." Sure, you can "prove" with benchmarking that XP is faster than 98SE, but my K6-III Win98 machine feels one Hell of alot faster than any XP machine I've worked with.
So, I guess my point would be, yeah, you are probably right, there's something broken with the parent poster's XP box, but it's probably broken in every other XP box on the planet as well (except for yours.) :)
Now that was funny! Thanks for the laugh after a rough day dealing with clients "smart" enough to install those "Internet Patches" that "Microsoft" so kindly sends out!
Swen, SoBig, Klez, Mimail, Yaha, Dumaru, SirCam. Just a few of Message Labs "Top Ten" Viruses they've determined as the most active for the last 28 days. Klez and SirCam?!?! Man, those are old! WTF are they still doing on the "Top Ten"? Should I be concerned, and patch my Linux box against the Morris Worm?!?
1. No, I do remember the Morris worm, and the Lion. So, to be fair, I'm mentioning them now.
2. Actually, with Windows 2000, it is not normal to run as 'admin'. I work on customers PCs all day long, and, with the advent of Windows XP it is. Even if they have setup individual accounts, they have given 'admin' privledges to each user, as Windows XP is a bitch to install, modify, or network, etc. as a normal user. The workarounds for this (right-click and run as, or logout/in as admin) are not intuitive at all. Mandrake will pop a window asking for the root password as needed, no need to even run chown anymore. And yes, it is default to run the user accounts with admin privledges on Windows XP.
3. I realize your point, and yes, I do blame the programmers, for that is a very poor implementation to use to get a program to run.
4. Yes, the main way to crack any system is by attacking Internet accessible services/daemons, and Microsoft claims Internet Explorer, Media Player, MS Messenger and Outlook Express (all Internet accessable 'services') are an integral part of the underlying OS, and cannot be removed without destroying the enitre OS. Google for "Microsoft Anti-Trust" if you don't believe me. Now, search for "top ten viruses", and peruse the lists you find. The Klez worm, well over a year old, is still up around 5 on most lists. Most of the others are old viruses/worms, or just new revisions of prior ones. The thing about this is, these viruses (some of which were in the wild before Windows XP was even released) are still alive and well. There is a patch or a fix for all of them, but still they persist. How the FUCK does a virus written for Windows 98 infect Windows XP? The number one reason you said yourself, "Internet accessible services...". Now tell me, why, why, why is Media player, IE, OE, and a god forsaken chat program imbedded into an OS?? Why, why, why does a mail program execute code, blindly, and by default? Why, why, why does a server OS (2000 Server) have a Media Player embedded into it, with full access to the Internet?
Okay, before I start frothing at the mouth, suffice it to say, yes, Linux does get hit by worms occasionally, and cracked often, but rarely due to MONUMENTALLY STUPID designs of an OS that is developed by the marketing department, instead of the programmers.
I use Mandrake 9.1, and I just choose 'PDF' as my printer, hit print, and wa-la, instant PDF file of anything I can print. Pretty cool, but I couldn't tell you the underlying tech. I would assume (I know, I know, ass=u+me) it is just dumping to a Postscript file, then running it through one of the several converters out there that convert from PS to PDF.
Yeah, I read the stories about that also. And, since most web and e-mail servers and most small ISPs are running Linux, it could stand to reason. However, even though Linux servers are the most attacked/breached or whatever, when mom and pop ISP #1231 gets '0WNZORD', it doesn't cause the gigantic ripple effect of every server on the 'net falling over, unlike a Windows box. When a Windows box gets '0WNZORD', entire countries get swamped off the 'net. You know, ala the Slammer worm, which knocked South Korea off the 'net, and swamped damn near everyone, no matter what their box was running.
This is what true computer security personnel take into consideration. Not just how many systems are attacked, but what the effects of those attacks are. You know, if one Linux box gets taken over, does it automatically take over more? Very unlikely. Each box usually needs the individual attention of the cracker, and then, when successful, it is usually only with the permissions of the logged in user, i.e. not root. Compare this with most Windows boxes, which, when one is cracked, it automatically turns and attacks more, and way more Windows boxes run as Administrator, either by default, or because some shit-ass program requires it.
So, yes, more Linux boxes are attacked, but the overall effect of these attacks are orders of magnitude less than the overall effects of the attacks on Windows boxes.
First of all starting OpenOffice.org ('.org' at the end of an application name? What's with that?)
The parent post has to be a joke! The above comment is obivously NOT from a Microsoft lover, or they would have commented on how great it was to have the 'dot org', as it would be following in the fine tradition of Microsoft, what with the Visual Studio.net,.net Server, and the rest of the Microsoft.net family!
My attitudes, opinions, and feelings are a part of me. They can be changed, but only under direction of my morals. Nothing can ever change my attitude, opinion, or feeling otherwise. I feel SCO, Microsoft, government, etc. are representative of institution gone wrong. It is my opinion that such entities are a drain on humanity, and have no good will toward humankind, and exist only to increase their own power over others. My attitude is they can all go die, and the world may be a better place.
If they want me to change my opinions, attitudes or feelings, they would have to completely change. No more hoarding of billions of dollars for a select few, but truly give back to humanity, stop invasions of not only other countries, but the rights of all humans, and put people, all people, as priority over profit, power, and promotion.
This is the greatest thing about the Open source/Free Software movement. I hear people rant about how, instead of 115 text editors available to open source, they'd rather see one good groupware suite. Well, the beauty of Open Source is, there were at least 115 people/groups who thought, gee, I see where the things I want from a text editor are lacking, so I think I'll build my own. Accordingly, people who say, gee I really need a groupware suite, have the choice of sitting down and either writing one of their own, or paying someone else to build it.
I can see, just by looking at this, that people involved with open source don't, at this time, see the need for a good groupware suite, as no one has built one yet. When the need gets big enough, someone or some group will build it. Look at Sun and IBM. They must see a need for it, as they are currently working on one (separately.) I guarantee an Open Source groupware suite will become better much quicker than a proprietary one, as anyone, anywhere can contribute to it.
If SCO turns out to have a valid claim, fine. Linux will remove the code and I will still feel complete naked hatred toward SCO, and ALL institutions such as they who see humanity as a pool of consumers to be culled for money or power, as opposed to a customer base who likes their products.
Microsoft, Inktomi, God himself, I don't care who owns or operates the MSN portal, it doesn't fit with what I use a search engine for. I use Google to search for information, which it does very well. If I wanted to know about the latest capers of Justin and Brittany, or read the latest headlines from MSNBC, well, I guess I could use MSN, since that shit is plastered all over MSNs main page. But I tell ya, most of the time, using Google to search the entire internet for MSNBC headlines or tabloid drivel about pop stars, will return the results faster and with more relevance than clicking the direct link to such crap that is prominently sprayed across MSNs own page. If MSN truly wants to give its users a better internet experience, my suggestion to them would be a mass suicide party, and put them out of all of our misery.
As for fact on which is better, check your load times, and if you don't have them stashed in your cache, even on a cable modem MSN takes several seconds to come up. They have gotten a little quicker lately, but if they are turly spending millions and millions of money R&Ding, then I'd expect them to come up with something besides smaller animated gifs.
It is not how the desktop looks, nor is it about user familiarity to the layout of the desktop. It is about what the company is attempting to accomplish with their IT. By using something such as the Mad Hatter and thin-clients, the productivity of the environment is impacted in a non-negative fashion. If, on the other hand, the evironment consists of full Windows installations, then, while you may not use it in ways other than intended, what of the receptionist who installs WebShots, Comet Cursor, and uses Messenger for personal use? Or the guy down the hall running KaZaa?
Sure, there are ways to get around this, port monitoring, policies about what can and cannot be installed, nightly imaging of workstations, but that is not nearly as cost effective as running all apps from a locked down server, with the client system completely unable to do anything locally. That right there would eliminate at least 40% of support issues (ridding the system of KaZaa, Messenger, Comet Cursor, and Webshots specifically.)
When you make a card that doesn't meet industry standards and then lie about it to your customer base and then cover it up with cheats and hacks in your drivers, I don't think that makes for quality drivers, nor quality hardware
You should do a little research on your statement here. This is, and has always been a realm dominated by ATi. And, not too long ago, when Nvidia got caught "cheating" their drivers so MadOnion scores wouldn't suck, ATi got caught either right before or right after that "cheating" their drivers. I don't recall if it was for the MadOnion benchmarks. Suffice it to say, ATi always has done things like this. Nvidia, I don't know. Also, there for a while, the MadOnion benchmark software actually stated in the recommended section of it's requirements that the software worked best on a certain video card. So, if that is true, how good of "general" benchmark is MadOnion?
So, in conclusion, ALL manufacturers are likely to find ways of "optimizing" for a certain test, no different than the car manufacturers testing the crashability of their sub-compact cars in precisely controlled laboratories, usually running the cars into concrete blocks that are precisely aligned with the bumpers, and going at exactly 40.012mph instead of taking them out on the highway, and turning left in front of a cement truck doing 65mph. Also, the benchmark software itself is rarely a completely independant test, with tests like the old WinBench suite, that was supposed to measure the performance of a CPU, but, when it detected a non-intel CPU, it would not use the L1 Cache!! It would use the L1 on an intel processor though. I know MadOnion tries pretty hard to keep anything like this from happening with their stuff, but still, can a benchmark suite give you 100% accuracy and 100% even testing, not just among different GPU manufacturers, but how about using the exact same build of benchmark to test the exact same Radeon GPU on an intel system, an AMD system, and on a Macintosh system? Another post earlier was talking about Radeon 9500s and how, if you got yours at a certain time, it had a completely different core, even though it had the same model number. So, benchmarking is, to me, as useful a guide to buying a video card as crash tests are useful to me when buying a car. I'll be comforted to know that I can get bigger numbers in some benchmark program with different cards, just the same way I'm comforted knowing that if I ever run into a cement barrier that is perfectly aligned with my bumper, and I am traveling at 40.012MPH, one car will get more stars from the government than another.
Look, the IT market is going to shit so fast it seems like diareah (sp?) and you're pissed at folks not wanting to abandon their already shrinking job market because of some stupid political stand?
[spooky voice]Bow before the almighty dollar. If you quit a job, you'll never get another. Your wife will never respect you for having principles, she'll only respect the size of your wallet.[/spooky voice]
Try explaining to your kids why you can't buy them food or pay for their school or why the lights just got shut off. An answer of "Oh well I had to make sure my stance on ensuring the freedom of Linux and GPL software everywhere was loud and clear. Sorry you feel faint from hunger but hey at least my startling irrelevant opinions on the computer industry's morality remain untarnished!"
So, stay with your current IT job, give up your principles, and two months later, tell your kids "I can't buy you food, I can't pay the light bill, nor school for you. I never made a stance for anything, I just worked my job as best I could, but, you know, those CEOs found some guy across the ocean that would do what I do for less money. They figured it would be a real good way to save the company some money on payroll. I heard they are celebrating their newfound savings by flying in the company's new Leer jet down to the Bahamas. Sorry you feel faint from hunger but hey at least I never stood up for anything in my life, so now we can all feel better that I played the company tune, so go to bed hungry knowing that I never gave in to the temptation of having a thought of my own, and being richly rewarded for it.
Give me a break. If you have a wife that is only in the relationship for money, WTF are you still doing there? You won't be able to afford her long. And, if you don't teach your kids about morality, thinking for oneself, and the values of pride, don't come crying to Slashdot when they grow up with the moral compass of the next school yard killer.
So, yeah, stay with a morally bankrupt company, for sooner or later, it is sure to either go financially bankrupt as well, and you're out of a job, or, more likely, they'll sell your job to the lowest bidder anyway. But, by God, you can then sit there and say, well, it isn't my fault, that was a bad company, where's my welfare check?
I know the job market, especially high-tech, is not strong at all, but jumpin' jesus, there's never been a time that I couldn't get a job or even two that would pay the bills and feed my family. There were times I couldn't get my "dream" job, or times I had to take pay cuts, but never times I could not find any work at all. So, instead of telling your kids you have morals, or that you will do any job to insure they have food on the table, tell them the truth, that you think you are so highly skilled in IT, that you must put your career in front of everything else, as you could never do anything else. Either way, if you quit for a principle, or if you just toe the line, your job is in peril.
This isn't the civil rights movement were talking about here. A LITTLE bit of perspective would do you a world of good. You are right, this isn't the Civil rights movement, but it is part of the core of that which makes a human a human. If your main purose in life is the almighty dollar, have at it. If your main purpose in life is individual freedom and family values, I doubt you could stay with a company like that. I have, in the past quit jobs for similar reasons, even turning down large raises to stay on. You see, if I have to go against my beliefs and values just to make a living, then I am no longer living, merely existing. That is unacceptable to me, maybe not you. So, no, it's not the Civil rights movement, it's the Personal rights movement.
And no, I don't know what SCO runs for their receptionists systems, but Redhat does run windows systems.....X-windows that is!!:)
Man, if you are for real, it's no wonder you're losing business.
First off, the conversation you "overheard"...WTF??? No one, anywhere in the entire history of computing has ever said, "Yeah, dude, that's really lete, you'll get lots of respect." in regards to adding files to a P2P network. To get lots of respect means you have to get people to know something is the result of your actions. There is no IRC channel, or newsgroup where you can go and brag, "hey, respect me! I just uploaded Christian rock songs on the P2P!!" And, I guarantee no one who uses words like "lete" respects some one who uploads Christian rock!
This evening, my daughters asked me. "Why do the other kids laugh at us?"
I wanted to tell them the truth - it's because they wear old clothes and have cheap haircuts. I can't afford anything better for them right now.
"It's because they are idiots, kids", I told them. "Don't listen to them."
When the kids went to bed, my wife asked me, "Will we be able to keep the house, David?"
I just shook my head, and tried to hold back the tears. "I don't know, Jenny. I don't know."
When my girls ask me questions like that, I feel like my heart is being wrenched out of my chest. But knowing that I'm doing the best I can to save my family and my business is some consolation. Give me a fucking break! This entire passage sounds almost word for word like some SPAM email that made the rounds a few years ago, trying to get pity donations sent to someone. If this is true, why don't you tell the kids the truth? Maybe they will quit downloading songs off KaZaa while you are at work. Kids CAN handle the truth you know. My dad was a school teacher, and mom didn't work, so I myself had to wear old clothes, and my dad cut my hair. Big deal. No one laughed at me. I even knew why I had to wear old clothes, and to this day, I see no reason to spend $15.00 on a haircut that looks no different than the haircut my wife gives me.
My store specialised in family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
You say this, and you say: People flocked to my store, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase records without profanity or violent lyrics. But, you talk this way to your customers: "That's it. What's your name? You're blacklisted. Now take yourself and your little bitch friend out of my store - and don't come back." I barked. and you think in terms of: I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "So...you're going to copy this to your friends over The Internet, punk?" I asked him in my best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry voice. And, you are:...inspired by artists such as Metallica that have taken a stand against the powerful pirate lobby.
Pirate lobby!?! WTF? I've never heard of a lobby of pirates. Maybe your business is dropping off because your words and actions do not reflect the wares you are peddling.
And finally, Once we know the size of the problem, the police and other law enforcement agencies will be forced to take piracy seriously. They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy? They have fought the war on drugs with skill, eh? Do you know what the number one cash crop in America is? Marijuana, to the tune of many billions of dollars. As an aside, marijuana is illegal to use, distribute, grow, possess, or any thing to do with it. Now, if they fight the "War on Piracy" with the skill they've fought the "War on Drugs"; downloading your precious Christian rock and family tunes that contain no profanity will be an illegal act, however, it will also be the most popular thing since marijuana use!
How about this? Stop buying any and all music. If everyone were to stop buying all music, then, just maybe then, would all artists understand the bullshit the RIAA is shoveling on the world. If you think the voice of 50,000 geeks around the world won't get their ear, how about 50,000 artists? Whether or not they are members of the RIAA, they are all potential members, of which the RIAA could get a hellacious amount of money from.
As an aside, if the law applies equally to all citizens, then, by God, the RIAA should only charge $2,000 to any person they are suing. Selective pricing for the same crime smacks of a complete snowjob. Fuck the RIAA, and any greedy corporation, and especially the politicians.
A security expert does not mean a paranoid person. A security expert will analyze the risks of a given situation, object, whatever. Then the security expert would determine a number of responses to that risk, and weigh whether the response to a risk would be effective, in terms of both cost and effectiveness. Therefore, as Bruce is a security expert, he has looked at the risk of burglary, determined at least one response (lock the door), and weighed the cost of that response. In his analysis of the risk, he found, that for his door, the "cost" of locking it out weighed the effectiveness of locking it.
This shows the government is not expert in the matter of security. Judging by the way they've handled the new-found concerns of terror, if the government were in charge of Bruce's door, they would have, by now, passed laws that no one would be allowed near the door, welded the door shut, strip searched ALL door manufacturers, and finally, they would have removed the door, placed it in some "secure" military compound located on a Communist island in another country's waterway, and forbid anyone, anywhere from talking about it, as "it is us against them," and if "you aren't with us, you must be against us." Then, just to prove their point, they would bomb the hell out of a couple of window manufacturers, to prove the government would not be bullied by burglars. And what of the gaping hole they left behind in the side of Bruce's house? Well, I'd imagine their offical response would be something along the lines of "We have secured the door. No one will ever again be able to use that door. It is your partiotic duty to believe Bruce's house won't be burglarized. Look what we did with the door. That is the safest door in the world."
The paranoid however, would just sit there, never leaving sight of the door, armed to the teeth, ready to kill anything that got too close.
Have you been able to read OpenOffice SXW and SXC files in Microsoft Office? Nope, I haven't been able to, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I can't seem to get the "setup.exe" on the Office cd to run. I mean, I've even tried opening a bash shell to run it manually, but still, my old Yellow Dog distro won't do it. Is it because my Macintosh is too old??:)
This is not meant to be an attack, just a random thought crossing my mind on noticing your slashdot "handle" or name or whatever, e.g "LazloToth", while reading this thread. Lazlo Toth is a fictional character created by Don Novello many years ago:
http://www.chiprowe.com/bookrev/lazlo.html. Lazlo Toth is therefore copyrighted by Don Novello, who would probably be flattered that you are using his copyrighted work. However, unless you are really named Lazlo Toth, or are, in fact, Don Novello himself or have written permission by him to use that copyrighted work, you could possibly be accused or copyright infringement. This leads me to wonder when the big media conglomerates will start sueing over online names, sigs, etc. I know Disney always has some sort of lawsuit going about, trying to "protect" one of their numerous characters, but what about the publisher of Don Novello books, or the local newspaper, or television stations? Is a fan's adoration of a character the next target of the Big Media? I wonder, did Larry Niven need to get permission from Marvel Comics (or whoever) when he wrote the short story "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"? And Kleenex is a brand name also....(link:http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.h tml)
Is this type of corporate aggression the tip of the iceberg? These are the things that make me fear the US government and corporations a Hell of a lot more than some terrorist. I know the terrorist wants me dead. I can deal with that. That is straight forward and honest. Governments and corporations want to control every aspect of my life. I don't like comparing these things to movies, but The Matrix just about had it right, with the "humans as batteries" schtick. Only it wasn't aliens who set it up...........
Its the myth of the computer generation. Using AIM and KaZaA isnt computer knowledge... Boy, that's the truth!! I don't work for the schools, just the general public and small businesses, but my favorite quote that I hear at least once a month from (different) customers is: "Virus?!? I can't have a virus, I don't visit porn sites!" Scary that these are the comments I get from people who sell insurance, are police officers, have kids, work on automobiles, etc. etc.. It makes me wonder, if they don't know/aren't willing to learn about the tools they use, do they really know how to do their jobs? Everyone of them uses a computer to do their own job.... Makes me feel safe at night NOT!
I assume you somehow are going to fund training all the students how to use it, along with getting all of the school's faculty and staff to support it, along with providing for Linux patch management efforts.
Why would you say such a thing? Is it because they are already funding a smashingly successful program of training all the students how to use Microsoft's OSes, along with getting all the school's faculty and staff to support Microsoft's OSes, along with providing for Microsoft OS patch management efforts?? Seems to me, if they were doing such a wonderful job of training, managing, and patching their users of Microsoft , they would NOT have the problems they are, now would they?? If they were to require all users to use Linux, why do you think they would have a worse time than they already do? I guarantee Suzie Cheerleader would either learn how to install her goddamn web cam in Linux, or she'd go without. Holy shit, School's are about learning, and if it's too much to teach the students how to click on the "K" in the bottom left hand corner of their screen, as opposed to clicking the "start" button in the bottom left hand corner of their screen, well then, we may as well nuke this whole fucking planet, because there's no intelligent life left down here!
As for the dorms, why don't the universities just setup each room with a linux terminal that connects to some of that big iron they all have just laying around? That would solve 90% of their problems. Before you start drooling about the "rights" of the students to bring their own computer from home and attatch it to the school's network, ponder this: I have not found a Constitutionally protected right to own and/or operate a computer. I have found a Constitutionally protected right to own and CARRY firearms. But I have yet to find a school that allows me my CONSTITUTIONALLY protected right to carry firearms when I am on their property, so fuck anyone who thinks they have the right to use their own computer on a school network.
How much you want to bet it's niether SCO nor Script kiddies attacking, but a good ol' slashdotting?!?
I mean, if they are hiring "pattern recognition" experts to determine if code has been copied or changed, a good and proper slashdotting sure has a lot of similarity to a DDoS attack. I figure, just by reading what those SCO people release to the press, they not only have trouble distinguishing truth from bull shit, but couldn't tell a slashdotting from a real DDoS attack. Soon, we'll get a press release that there must be IBM spies inside SCO, because everytime they have a press release, their website starts being "attacked" within hours of the release (about the time the story hits/.)
Slashdot Mirror
Does this method also work with mormons at the front door?
I remember the days when they would try and try to get you to talk. Now, all you have to do is to tell the Mormons, "No, thanks anyway." and they will thank you for their time, and not bother you again. The Jehova's Witnesses, on the other hand, are a bit more, well, let's say, persistant.
No, I am of neither religion. My personal opinion is like that one old dead feller said a while ago: "Religion is the opiate of the masses." I figure God is pretty disgusted with the whole religion thing anyway. More people are killed, more wars are started, and more greed and avarice are caused by religion than by any other root source.
I wonder if Glock had to pay out huge dollars to become the handgun of choice for action movies.
.40 Glock is the M1911A .45 that the military used to use (and probably still should, 9mm ain't that great.)
I don't know about Hollywood, but the only pistol I've found that shoots sweeter than my
A balance needs to be found...
Yep, and I feel the balance should be right about 155mm. If a person can handle the weapon responsibly, more power to them. Back home, at the army surplus store, there was a Vulcan chain gun for sale. The computer cards were missing (the 'firing mechanism', if you will), but otherwise fully functional. 20mm rounds, at 6000 rounds a minute full open. I would actually feel safer with a bunch of those around, and operational than I do now, where you can be arrested for not wearing a fucking seat belt.
I guarantee if the citizens given high-powered full-auto weapons like they are given welfare, crime would go down to nothing, Laws would actually be resonable and just, and no one, anywhere, would fuck with Americans.
Last thing we need right now is for terrorists to get hold of WMDs
First off, quit being a chicken-shit. Terrorists are not the ones you should be worrying about at this point. The Federal government is currently detroying the American way of life 10 times faster than every terrorist in the world could even dream of. Besides, depending on how you look at the situation, a terrorist could be considered a freedom fighter. Consider the American Revolution. The Colonists wanted freedom from the world's established Super Power of the time (England), but knew they could not win against them using the conventional war tactics of the time. So, they fought in ways considered by the British to be without honor, and without proper military tactics, terrorist tactics if you will. The Colonists attacked the British food supplies, burned houses containing British families, hid behind things while they shot at the British soldiers, all things that were considered to be terrorist tactics at the time. Good thing for us George Washington used those tactics.
Now, that being said, I don't care for the current "Terror regime", and figure the best way to get rid of "terrorists" in the U.S. is, rather than restrict the freedoms of U.S. citizens, the government should issue every last one of us assault rifles, and invite Osama over here for a little game of cat-and-mouse.
Also, if you consider a mortar that chucks a bowling ball a Weapon of Mass Destruction, you'ld better go running to your mommy, and hide sniveling and crying behind her skirts, because you obviously have no concept of anything. Anyone, anywhere in the world can get weapons with way more destructive power than bowling balls.
I think the article was a "blast", and the links throughout to other projects like it. Get a grip, punk, the terrorists don't give a shit about these projects.
That's the truth. I've found that there are other pistols that make a louder boom, but so far, the .357 Magnum has the sharpest crack and most noticable shock wave I've ever experienced. I shot one with a 4 1/2" barrel while standing, and the resulting shockwave caused dust to jump 12 feet to either side of the barrel!(outside range, of course.)
.454 Casul, and a .460 Weatherby some day.
That being said, I'd like to fire a
Also, where I'm from, there are a bunch of good ol' boys who have full-auto machine guns. Those are real fun. And yes, it IS legal to own them, it's just tons of paperwork to get them, and the cost is tremendous. I.e., an AR-15(semi-auto) at the time was running for about $700.00, and an M-16(full-auto) was running around $15,000.00!!
I've lost members of my family to cancer
I too, have lost family members to cancer. I've also lost family members to gunfire(seriously), old age, heart attacks, etc.
It sucks, but face it:
No one gets out of this life alive.
So, maybe what the point of my post is, anything that works to improve the quality of life is way more important than working to improve the quantity of life. That said, both researching a cure for cancer and researching how/why/whatever a cookie crumbles are both noble causes.
So, think of me what you will, in 75 to 100 years, we will both be dead and who cares then?
My XP - a gaming rig, at that - (sic)botts in about 30 seconds.
That is the thing right there. Your system is a "gaming" rig, and that's probably all you do with it, so you've got it all tweaked and rarely change anything with it. Nothing wrong with that, but, on a "general purpose" machine, or the average XP users machine, I guarantee it slows down to an aching crawl for boot after a few weeks/months of use. This is caused by everything from Quick Books "TSR" bot to default settings in IE that allow every damned search bar/spyware piece of junk to automatically install in the background.
I work on Windows boxes all day long, and I know this happens. Machines I've built for customers, with nothing but XP loaded will boot in under 20 seconds. Two months later, when they've just purchased a new scanner or what have you, and want me to install it, the boot time of the exact same machine is now over 2 1/2 minutes. They had installed Anti-Virus software, Office XP, a few games, Quick Books, etc., nothing exotic. I checked for viruses, there were none. I ran Spy Bot, and there was 350 (non-cookie) issues found. Even after cleaning, clearing temp files, and defragging, the boot time was still just under two minutes. My Mandrake machines' boot times haven't changed by even 2 seconds in three years. My Mandrake boots from power button on to fully loaded KDE desktop in 40 seconds, and I've only got 256MB RAM in it. The XP box I've been talking about has 1GB.
No matter what people say, nor what the benchmarks show, Windows XP appears slow, and feels sluggish. Go to the Add/Remove Programs in the control panel. Even with a 2.6Ghz processor with 1GB of RAM, you have to "Please wait while list is being populated." Sure, you can "prove" with benchmarking that XP is faster than 98SE, but my K6-III Win98 machine feels one Hell of alot faster than any XP machine I've worked with.
So, I guess my point would be, yeah, you are probably right, there's something broken with the parent poster's XP box, but it's probably broken in every other XP box on the planet as well (except for yours.)
:)
Now that was funny! Thanks for the laugh after a rough day dealing with clients "smart" enough to install those "Internet Patches" that "Microsoft" so kindly sends out!
Swen, SoBig, Klez, Mimail, Yaha, Dumaru, SirCam.
Just a few of Message Labs "Top Ten" Viruses they've determined as the most active for the last 28 days. Klez and SirCam?!?! Man, those are old! WTF are they still doing on the "Top Ten"? Should I be concerned, and patch my Linux box against the Morris Worm?!?
1. No, I do remember the Morris worm, and the Lion. So, to be fair, I'm mentioning them now.
2. Actually, with Windows 2000, it is not normal to run as 'admin'. I work on customers PCs all day long, and, with the advent of Windows XP it is. Even if they have setup individual accounts, they have given 'admin' privledges to each user, as Windows XP is a bitch to install, modify, or network, etc. as a normal user. The workarounds for this (right-click and run as, or logout/in as admin) are not intuitive at all. Mandrake will pop a window asking for the root password as needed, no need to even run chown anymore. And yes, it is default to run the user accounts with admin privledges on Windows XP.
3. I realize your point, and yes, I do blame the programmers, for that is a very poor implementation to use to get a program to run.
4. Yes, the main way to crack any system is by attacking Internet accessible services/daemons, and Microsoft claims Internet Explorer, Media Player, MS Messenger and Outlook Express (all Internet accessable 'services') are an integral part of the underlying OS, and cannot be removed without destroying the enitre OS. Google for "Microsoft Anti-Trust" if you don't believe me.
Now, search for "top ten viruses", and peruse the lists you find. The Klez worm, well over a year old, is still up around 5 on most lists. Most of the others are old viruses/worms, or just new revisions of prior ones. The thing about this is, these viruses (some of which were in the wild before Windows XP was even released) are still alive and well. There is a patch or a fix for all of them, but still they persist. How the FUCK does a virus written for Windows 98 infect Windows XP? The number one reason you said yourself, "Internet accessible services...". Now tell me, why, why, why is Media player, IE, OE, and a god forsaken chat program imbedded into an OS?? Why, why, why does a mail program execute code, blindly, and by default? Why, why, why does a server OS (2000 Server) have a Media Player embedded into it, with full access to the Internet?
Okay, before I start frothing at the mouth, suffice it to say, yes, Linux does get hit by worms occasionally, and cracked often, but rarely due to MONUMENTALLY STUPID designs of an OS that is developed by the marketing department, instead of the programmers.
I use Mandrake 9.1, and I just choose 'PDF' as my printer, hit print, and wa-la, instant PDF file of anything I can print. Pretty cool, but I couldn't tell you the underlying tech. I would assume (I know, I know, ass=u+me) it is just dumping to a Postscript file, then running it through one of the several converters out there that convert from PS to PDF.
Yeah, I read the stories about that also. And, since most web and e-mail servers and most small ISPs are running Linux, it could stand to reason.
However, even though Linux servers are the most attacked/breached or whatever, when mom and pop ISP #1231 gets '0WNZORD', it doesn't cause the gigantic ripple effect of every server on the 'net falling over, unlike a Windows box. When a Windows box gets '0WNZORD', entire countries get swamped off the 'net. You know, ala the Slammer worm, which knocked South Korea off the 'net, and swamped damn near everyone, no matter what their box was running.
This is what true computer security personnel take into consideration. Not just how many systems are attacked, but what the effects of those attacks are. You know, if one Linux box gets taken over, does it automatically take over more? Very unlikely. Each box usually needs the individual attention of the cracker, and then, when successful, it is usually only with the permissions of the logged in user, i.e. not root. Compare this with most Windows boxes, which, when one is cracked, it automatically turns and attacks more, and way more Windows boxes run as Administrator, either by default, or because some shit-ass program requires it.
So, yes, more Linux boxes are attacked, but the overall effect of these attacks are orders of magnitude less than the overall effects of the attacks on Windows boxes.
First of all starting OpenOffice.org ('.org' at the end of an application name? What's with that?)
.net Server, and the rest of the Microsoft .net family!
The parent post has to be a joke! The above comment is obivously NOT from a Microsoft lover, or they would have commented on how great it was to have the 'dot org', as it would be following in the fine tradition of Microsoft, what with the Visual Studio.net,
My attitudes, opinions, and feelings are a part of me. They can be changed, but only under direction of my morals. Nothing can ever change my attitude, opinion, or feeling otherwise.
I feel SCO, Microsoft, government, etc. are representative of institution gone wrong. It is my opinion that such entities are a drain on humanity, and have no good will toward humankind, and exist only to increase their own power over others.
My attitude is they can all go die, and the world may be a better place.
If they want me to change my opinions, attitudes or feelings, they would have to completely change. No more hoarding of billions of dollars for a select few, but truly give back to humanity, stop invasions of not only other countries, but the rights of all humans, and put people, all people, as priority over profit, power, and promotion.
This is the greatest thing about the Open source/Free Software movement. I hear people rant about how, instead of 115 text editors available to open source, they'd rather see one good groupware suite. Well, the beauty of Open Source is, there were at least 115 people/groups who thought, gee, I see where the things I want from a text editor are lacking, so I think I'll build my own. Accordingly, people who say, gee I really need a groupware suite, have the choice of sitting down and either writing one of their own, or paying someone else to build it.
I can see, just by looking at this, that people involved with open source don't, at this time, see the need for a good groupware suite, as no one has built one yet. When the need gets big enough, someone or some group will build it. Look at Sun and IBM. They must see a need for it, as they are currently working on one (separately.)
I guarantee an Open Source groupware suite will become better much quicker than a proprietary one, as anyone, anywhere can contribute to it.
If SCO turns out to have a valid claim, fine. Linux will remove the code and I will still feel complete naked hatred toward SCO, and ALL institutions such as they who see humanity as a pool of consumers to be culled for money or power, as opposed to a customer base who likes their products.
Microsoft, Inktomi, God himself, I don't care who owns or operates the MSN portal, it doesn't fit with what I use a search engine for. I use Google to search for information, which it does very well. If I wanted to know about the latest capers of Justin and Brittany, or read the latest headlines from MSNBC, well, I guess I could use MSN, since that shit is plastered all over MSNs main page. But I tell ya, most of the time, using Google to search the entire internet for MSNBC headlines or tabloid drivel about pop stars, will return the results faster and with more relevance than clicking the direct link to such crap that is prominently sprayed across MSNs own page. If MSN truly wants to give its users a better internet experience, my suggestion to them would be a mass suicide party, and put them out of all of our misery.
As for fact on which is better, check your load times, and if you don't have them stashed in your cache, even on a cable modem MSN takes several seconds to come up. They have gotten a little quicker lately, but if they are turly spending millions and millions of money R&Ding, then I'd expect them to come up with something besides smaller animated gifs.
It is not how the desktop looks, nor is it about user familiarity to the layout of the desktop. It is about what the company is attempting to accomplish with their IT. By using something such as the Mad Hatter and thin-clients, the productivity of the environment is impacted in a non-negative fashion. If, on the other hand, the evironment consists of full Windows installations, then, while you may not use it in ways other than intended, what of the receptionist who installs WebShots, Comet Cursor, and uses Messenger for personal use? Or the guy down the hall running KaZaa?
Sure, there are ways to get around this, port monitoring, policies about what can and cannot be installed, nightly imaging of workstations, but that is not nearly as cost effective as running all apps from a locked down server, with the client system completely unable to do anything locally. That right there would eliminate at least 40% of support issues (ridding the system of KaZaa, Messenger, Comet Cursor, and Webshots specifically.)
When you make a card that doesn't meet industry standards and then lie about it to your customer base and then cover it up with cheats and hacks in your drivers, I don't think that makes for quality drivers, nor quality hardware
You should do a little research on your statement here. This is, and has always been a realm dominated by ATi. And, not too long ago, when Nvidia got caught "cheating" their drivers so MadOnion scores wouldn't suck, ATi got caught either right before or right after that "cheating" their drivers. I don't recall if it was for the MadOnion benchmarks. Suffice it to say, ATi always has done things like this. Nvidia, I don't know. Also, there for a while, the MadOnion benchmark software actually stated in the recommended section of it's requirements that the software worked best on a certain video card. So, if that is true, how good of "general" benchmark is MadOnion?
So, in conclusion, ALL manufacturers are likely to find ways of "optimizing" for a certain test, no different than the car manufacturers testing the crashability of their sub-compact cars in precisely controlled laboratories, usually running the cars into concrete blocks that are precisely aligned with the bumpers, and going at exactly 40.012mph instead of taking them out on the highway, and turning left in front of a cement truck doing 65mph. Also, the benchmark software itself is rarely a completely independant test, with tests like the old WinBench suite, that was supposed to measure the performance of a CPU, but, when it detected a non-intel CPU, it would not use the L1 Cache!! It would use the L1 on an intel processor though.
I know MadOnion tries pretty hard to keep anything like this from happening with their stuff, but still, can a benchmark suite give you 100% accuracy and 100% even testing, not just among different GPU manufacturers, but how about using the exact same build of benchmark to test the exact same Radeon GPU on an intel system, an AMD system, and on a Macintosh system?
Another post earlier was talking about Radeon 9500s and how, if you got yours at a certain time, it had a completely different core, even though it had the same model number.
So, benchmarking is, to me, as useful a guide to buying a video card as crash tests are useful to me when buying a car. I'll be comforted to know that I can get bigger numbers in some benchmark program with different cards, just the same way I'm comforted knowing that if I ever run into a cement barrier that is perfectly aligned with my bumper, and I am traveling at 40.012MPH, one car will get more stars from the government than another.
Just watch out for cement trucks.
Look, the IT market is going to shit so fast it seems like diareah (sp?) and you're pissed at folks not wanting to abandon their already shrinking job market because of some stupid political stand?
:)
[spooky voice]Bow before the almighty dollar. If you quit a job, you'll never get another. Your wife will never respect you for having principles, she'll only respect the size of your wallet.[/spooky voice]
Try explaining to your kids why you can't buy them food or pay for their school or why the lights just got shut off. An answer of "Oh well I had to make sure my stance on ensuring the freedom of Linux and GPL software everywhere was loud and clear. Sorry you feel faint from hunger but hey at least my startling irrelevant opinions on the computer industry's morality remain untarnished!"
So, stay with your current IT job, give up your principles, and two months later, tell your kids "I can't buy you food, I can't pay the light bill, nor school for you. I never made a stance for anything, I just worked my job as best I could, but, you know, those CEOs found some guy across the ocean that would do what I do for less money. They figured it would be a real good way to save the company some money on payroll. I heard they are celebrating their newfound savings by flying in the company's new Leer jet down to the Bahamas. Sorry you feel faint from hunger but hey at least I never stood up for anything in my life, so now we can all feel better that I played the company tune, so go to bed hungry knowing that I never gave in to the temptation of having a thought of my own, and being richly rewarded for it.
Give me a break. If you have a wife that is only in the relationship for money, WTF are you still doing there? You won't be able to afford her long. And, if you don't teach your kids about morality, thinking for oneself, and the values of pride, don't come crying to Slashdot when they grow up with the moral compass of the next school yard killer.
So, yeah, stay with a morally bankrupt company, for sooner or later, it is sure to either go financially bankrupt as well, and you're out of a job, or, more likely, they'll sell your job to the lowest bidder anyway. But, by God, you can then sit there and say, well, it isn't my fault, that was a bad company, where's my welfare check?
I know the job market, especially high-tech, is not strong at all, but jumpin' jesus, there's never been a time that I couldn't get a job or even two that would pay the bills and feed my family. There were times I couldn't get my "dream" job, or times I had to take pay cuts, but never times I could not find any work at all.
So, instead of telling your kids you have morals, or that you will do any job to insure they have food on the table, tell them the truth, that you think you are so highly skilled in IT, that you must put your career in front of everything else, as you could never do anything else. Either way, if you quit for a principle, or if you just toe the line, your job is in peril.
This isn't the civil rights movement were talking about here. A LITTLE bit of perspective would do you a world of good.
You are right, this isn't the Civil rights movement, but it is part of the core of that which makes a human a human. If your main purose in life is the almighty dollar, have at it. If your main purpose in life is individual freedom and family values, I doubt you could stay with a company like that. I have, in the past quit jobs for similar reasons, even turning down large raises to stay on. You see, if I have to go against my beliefs and values just to make a living, then I am no longer living, merely existing. That is unacceptable to me, maybe not you. So, no, it's not the Civil rights movement, it's the Personal rights movement.
And no, I don't know what SCO runs for their receptionists systems, but Redhat does run windows systems.....X-windows that is!!
Man, if you are for real, it's no wonder you're losing business.
:
First off, the conversation you "overheard"...WTF??? No one, anywhere in the entire history of computing has ever said, "Yeah, dude, that's really lete, you'll get lots of respect." in regards to adding files to a P2P network. To get lots of respect means you have to get people to know something is the result of your actions. There is no IRC channel, or newsgroup where you can go and brag, "hey, respect me! I just uploaded Christian rock songs on the P2P!!" And, I guarantee no one who uses words like "lete" respects some one who uploads Christian rock!
This evening, my daughters asked me. "Why do the other kids laugh at us?" I wanted to tell them the truth - it's because they wear old clothes and have cheap haircuts. I can't afford anything better for them right now. "It's because they are idiots, kids", I told them. "Don't listen to them." When the kids went to bed, my wife asked me, "Will we be able to keep the house, David?" I just shook my head, and tried to hold back the tears. "I don't know, Jenny. I don't know." When my girls ask me questions like that, I feel like my heart is being wrenched out of my chest. But knowing that I'm doing the best I can to save my family and my business is some consolation.
Give me a fucking break! This entire passage sounds almost word for word like some SPAM email that made the rounds a few years ago, trying to get pity donations sent to someone. If this is true, why don't you tell the kids the truth? Maybe they will quit downloading songs off KaZaa while you are at work. Kids CAN handle the truth you know. My dad was a school teacher, and mom didn't work, so I myself had to wear old clothes, and my dad cut my hair. Big deal. No one laughed at me. I even knew why I had to wear old clothes, and to this day, I see no reason to spend $15.00 on a haircut that looks no different than the haircut my wife gives me.
My store specialised in family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
You say this, and you say
People flocked to my store, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase records without profanity or violent lyrics.
But, you talk this way to your customers:
"That's it. What's your name? You're blacklisted. Now take yourself and your little bitch friend out of my store - and don't come back." I barked.
and you think in terms of:
I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "So...you're going to copy this to your friends over The Internet, punk?" I asked him in my best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry voice.
And, you are:...inspired by artists such as Metallica that have taken a stand against the powerful pirate lobby.
Pirate lobby!?! WTF? I've never heard of a lobby of pirates.
Maybe your business is dropping off because your words and actions do not reflect the wares you are peddling.
And finally,
Once we know the size of the problem, the police and other law enforcement agencies will be forced to take piracy seriously. They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?
They have fought the war on drugs with skill, eh? Do you know what the number one cash crop in America is? Marijuana, to the tune of many billions of dollars. As an aside, marijuana is illegal to use, distribute, grow, possess, or any thing to do with it. Now, if they fight the "War on Piracy" with the skill they've fought the "War on Drugs"; downloading your precious Christian rock and family tunes that contain no profanity will be an illegal act, however, it will also be the most popular thing since marijuana use!
You should buy music, just not RIAA.
How about this? Stop buying any and all music. If everyone were to stop buying all music, then, just maybe then, would all artists understand the bullshit the RIAA is shoveling on the world. If you think the voice of 50,000 geeks around the world won't get their ear, how about 50,000 artists? Whether or not they are members of the RIAA, they are all potential members, of which the RIAA could get a hellacious amount of money from.
As an aside, if the law applies equally to all citizens, then, by God, the RIAA should only charge $2,000 to any person they are suing. Selective pricing for the same crime smacks of a complete snowjob. Fuck the RIAA, and any greedy corporation, and especially the politicians.
A security expert does not mean a paranoid person. A security expert will analyze the risks of a given situation, object, whatever. Then the security expert would determine a number of responses to that risk, and weigh whether the response to a risk would be effective, in terms of both cost and effectiveness. Therefore, as Bruce is a security expert, he has looked at the risk of burglary, determined at least one response (lock the door), and weighed the cost of that response. In his analysis of the risk, he found, that for his door, the "cost" of locking it out weighed the effectiveness of locking it.
This shows the government is not expert in the matter of security. Judging by the way they've handled the new-found concerns of terror, if the government were in charge of Bruce's door, they would have, by now, passed laws that no one would be allowed near the door, welded the door shut, strip searched ALL door manufacturers, and finally, they would have removed the door, placed it in some "secure" military compound located on a Communist island in another country's waterway, and forbid anyone, anywhere from talking about it, as "it is us against them," and if "you aren't with us, you must be against us." Then, just to prove their point, they would bomb the hell out of a couple of window manufacturers, to prove the government would not be bullied by burglars.
And what of the gaping hole they left behind in the side of Bruce's house?
Well, I'd imagine their offical response would be something along the lines of "We have secured the door. No one will ever again be able to use that door. It is your partiotic duty to believe Bruce's house won't be burglarized. Look what we did with the door. That is the safest door in the world."
The paranoid however, would just sit there, never leaving sight of the door, armed to the teeth, ready to kill anything that got too close.
Have you been able to read OpenOffice SXW and SXC files in Microsoft Office? :)
Nope, I haven't been able to, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I can't seem to get the "setup.exe" on the Office cd to run. I mean, I've even tried opening a bash shell to run it manually, but still, my old Yellow Dog distro won't do it. Is it because my Macintosh is too old??
This is not meant to be an attack, just a random thought crossing my mind on noticing your slashdot "handle" or name or whatever, e.g "LazloToth", while reading this thread. Lazlo Toth is a fictional character created by Don Novello many years ago: http://www.chiprowe.com/bookrev/lazlo.html. Lazlo Toth is therefore copyrighted by Don Novello, who would probably be flattered that you are using his copyrighted work. However, unless you are really named Lazlo Toth, or are, in fact, Don Novello himself or have written permission by him to use that copyrighted work, you could possibly be accused or copyright infringement.h tml)
This leads me to wonder when the big media conglomerates will start sueing over online names, sigs, etc. I know Disney always has some sort of lawsuit going about, trying to "protect" one of their numerous characters, but what about the publisher of Don Novello books, or the local newspaper, or television stations?
Is a fan's adoration of a character the next target of the Big Media? I wonder, did Larry Niven need to get permission from Marvel Comics (or whoever) when he wrote the short story "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"? And Kleenex is a brand name also....(link:http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.
Is this type of corporate aggression the tip of the iceberg? These are the things that make me fear the US government and corporations a Hell of a lot more than some terrorist. I know the terrorist wants me dead. I can deal with that. That is straight forward and honest. Governments and corporations want to control every aspect of my life.
I don't like comparing these things to movies, but The Matrix just about had it right, with the "humans as batteries" schtick. Only it wasn't aliens who set it up...........
Its the myth of the computer generation. Using AIM and KaZaA isnt computer knowledge...
Boy, that's the truth!! I don't work for the schools, just the general public and small businesses, but my favorite quote that I hear at least once a month from (different) customers is: "Virus?!? I can't have a virus, I don't visit porn sites!"
Scary that these are the comments I get from people who sell insurance, are police officers, have kids, work on automobiles, etc. etc.. It makes me wonder, if they don't know/aren't willing to learn about the tools they use, do they really know how to do their jobs? Everyone of them uses a computer to do their own job.... Makes me feel safe at night NOT!
I assume you somehow are going to fund training all the students how to use it, along with getting all of the school's faculty and staff to support it, along with providing for Linux patch management efforts.
Why would you say such a thing? Is it because they are already funding a smashingly successful program of training all the students how to use Microsoft's OSes, along with getting all the school's faculty and staff to support Microsoft's OSes, along with providing for Microsoft OS patch management efforts??
Seems to me, if they were doing such a wonderful job of training, managing, and patching their users of Microsoft , they would NOT have the problems they are, now would they??
If they were to require all users to use Linux, why do you think they would have a worse time than they already do? I guarantee Suzie Cheerleader would either learn how to install her goddamn web cam in Linux, or she'd go without. Holy shit, School's are about learning, and if it's too much to teach the students how to click on the "K" in the bottom left hand corner of their screen, as opposed to clicking the "start" button in the bottom left hand corner of their screen, well then, we may as well nuke this whole fucking planet, because there's no intelligent life left down here!
As for the dorms, why don't the universities just setup each room with a linux terminal that connects to some of that big iron they all have just laying around? That would solve 90% of their problems.
Before you start drooling about the "rights" of the students to bring their own computer from home and attatch it to the school's network, ponder this: I have not found a Constitutionally protected right to own and/or operate a computer. I have found a Constitutionally protected right to own and CARRY firearms. But I have yet to find a school that allows me my CONSTITUTIONALLY protected right to carry firearms when I am on their property, so fuck anyone who thinks they have the right to use their own computer on a school network.
How much you want to bet it's niether SCO nor Script kiddies attacking, but a good ol' slashdotting?!?
/.)
I mean, if they are hiring "pattern recognition" experts to determine if code has been copied or changed, a good and proper slashdotting sure has a lot of similarity to a DDoS attack.
I figure, just by reading what those SCO people release to the press, they not only have trouble distinguishing truth from bull shit, but couldn't tell a slashdotting from a real DDoS attack. Soon, we'll get a press release that there must be IBM spies inside SCO, because everytime they have a press release, their website starts being "attacked" within hours of the release (about the time the story hits