... on how far they take it. The college I live next to, which shall remain nameless, went through a similiar situation. When Blaster, Welchia, et al. hit last year, they sent around the RA's with copies of "utility" cd's containing the patches & virus fixes. Needless to say, they were (and still are) a small college. That was fine right up until they hit a Mac... because the RA and the student who owned the Mac refused to sign the form stating that the patches and fixes had been run (obviously, they couldn't), the "IT dep't" required that the unit be brought physically to their office for inspection.
I'd hate to have someone pawing over my Linux machine every time the latest virus hits the Windows boxes. I'd throw a fit if they forced me to install software on it. I'd really create a fuss if they kicked me off the 'net simply because I'm not running Windows.
And none of this "Let's 'scan' my system and see what's on it, in case I'm breaking copyrights, or doing something else I shouldn't be." What's on my system is none of anybody's business, unless it's impinging upon the network (spam, anybody?). If it's transmitted across the network, it's fair game... if it's already on my hard drive, hands off.
Guess it's just like everything else... as long as it's held to a moderate level, and some common sense is applied, it ought to be fine.
Try looking at the Body Shop. Not the best example, I know, but at least it's something.
Disclaimer: All I've heard about this company has sunk into my head as I absently listened to my wife discuss it. Hence, it may not really be an example, or it may be a great example. Have fun;o)
I'll second that bit about Nextel & computer equipment. The display on CRT monitors vibrates... speakers click, hum, crackle. Even the speakers in my car pick them up.
Their customer service sucks, too. I won't go into details, but they're inflexible as a bar of hardened steel.
The only customer service experience I've had that's worse involves setting up MSN dial-up access on a Linux system.... seven total hours on the phone, with someone endlessly stating that their system did not use computer generated usernames and passwords, while I had direct evidence in front of me contradicting him. Moderate it with the realization that I should've known better, and it's on par with Nextel.
Any time anybody wants to back up a sizeable portion of their system. Which people ought to be doing fairly regularly, right?;o)
If you burn so many that speed matters you probably shouldn't be using a consumer solution anyway.
You might have a point here... though it's not that "lost time" that matters. It's the perception of that lost time that matters. Nobody I know says "Oh, it's 'bout time I backed up my system. Let's go eat lunch while the DVD burns." Instead, they stare down that little progress bar. Then that additional burning time makes a difference.
"On the other hand, if attention really means that much to a person, then that person's gaming-significant other ought to understand that."
How's that? Got it yet?
Hold on there... you've taken my case to extremes, and by your wording, I'm tempted to take your case to extremes also.
I'm not saying that if someone spends an excessive amount of time with their attention focused on gaming rather than their SO that it ought to be forgiven by the "If gaming means..." line.
I'm saying that it needs to be taken in moderation, hence the "for the most part" section. See above for clarification.
It'd be unreasonable for someone to spend all of their time on gaming, and none on their SO. It'd also be unreasonable for that same person to spend all their time and attention on that SO, and none on their SO.
Either way, it's an obsession... and I still haven't found an obsession that's healthy, besides breathing;o).
Everything in moderation. It'd be excessive if I spent four hours after work every day playing a game... it'd also be excessive if my wife required my undivided attention for those four hours every day.
Now if I am spending four hours a day on a game (*cough* Final Fantasy XI *cough*), she's got every right to complain. Hence the "for the most part." And if she's spending four hours each night with her head buried into movies, I ought to complain.
On the other hand, if gaming really means that much to a person, then that person's significant other ought to understand that.
Me, I'm crazy about computers, aviation, and Subaru's from the eighties (don't ask). My wife understands this, for the most part, and allows it, for the most part.
In return, I do the same for her passions, and do my best to encourage her interest. I also try to get her involved in my hobbies. In return, she does the same.
...to assume that this quantum weirdness can cause other realities where GWBush is in Mensa seems to be a far step of logic...
Well... assume parallel universes do exist, and they're diverging "on a subatomic level."
Now take chaos theory... "that a butterfly's flight and subsequent disturbance of air caused a hurricane in the Atlantic." Miniscule & nearly impossible to measure changes can affect the long term outcomes of events.
Bingo... now we've got GW Bush in Mensa;o). If we assume that the changes brought about by these subatomic particles can bring about huge long-term changes. Throw in a theory with parallel universes, where each subatomic particle causes all possible effects, one in each separate universe, then there must be a universe in which Bush is in Mensa. If it's possible to begin with.
Oh, btw... no degree in quantum physics here. I just read a lot of hard Sci-Fi;o)
Yeah... Gentoo may have not been the first one to come up with it, and we seem way too proud of it, but...
I love emerge. 'emerge Whatever' and whatever is installed. 'emerge sync' and I've got my list of available packages is updated. 'emerge -u world' and my system is updated.
If we're arresting people for making a poor quality copy of a movie that hasn't been released yet... I wonder how long it'll be before we are arrested for sneaking in food & candy.
It's so nice to know that with all the problems that the city of Los Angelos has, they're arresting people bringing camcorders into movie theaters.
*/sarcasm*
Nice to know we've got our priorities straight. Oh, yeah... they're not our priorities. They belong to the movie industry. Nice to know the gov't (and taxpayers' money) is watching out for them.
HP, Compaq, & Sony are doing it... that's as far as I know. They slap the restore cd's on a partition, create another option on post to restore the unit from that partition, and allow the user to create their restore cd's (usually only once, too).
I'm just about a mile away from RPI... it's really nice that something is happening in Troy, NY (otherwise known as the "armpit of the country"). Something other than your usual crime, fires, vehicular accidents, etc.
Sorta wish that jar RPI claims they put a sun in was clear, though... anything to combat the perpetual cloud cover that seems to plague Central NY this time of year;O)
It's still possible... Dot Matrix Printers At Staples.com. They've got the ribbon, too. Not that I'm preferential towards Staples, but they do supply a lot of businesses. There are businesses out there that still use carbon copy paper (for receipts, invoices, and the like). Inkjets don't do carbon copy;o).
Whenever I get around to setting up my home network, I'd like to have any "critical" machines have a "logger" machine hooked up to the critical machine via a serial cable only. Send the logs through the serial cable, and there's nothing that I know of that the cracker can do to erase that log.
Yeah, like most Best Buy employees follow any news regarding Fat Wallet. The computer services department might scorn you, but the rest of the store will just overwhelm you with accessories and service plans.
I work in corporate IT, and I really prefer dealing with MS. Their people are knowledgable, very helpful, and just want to see things work. Im sure you can pick anecdotes which are bad, but in almost ten years, I have had nothing but positive encounters. Im sure that is going to make people angry to hear (because it isnt anti-MS), but its true. MS is #1 for a reason, and it isnt because they are 'forcing' corporations to use their stuff.
I don't work in corporate IT. Most of my computing experience has been from the residential end of things... home users for the most part, and my own experience at home. I've only had to contact Microsoft twice regarding computing issues, once for myself and once for a customer. Both were bad experiences. The technicians were not knowledgeable, helpful, and while they may have certainly wanted things to work (probably so I'd stop asking these hard questions), they didn't aid me.
A customer had a Compaq desktop system. The hard drive had a restore partition, and the restore CD queried the partition for the restore data. The hard drive died, and Compaq wants to charge for a set of restore cd's (understandably so), and the customer was unwilling to pay for them. I installed a new hard drive, and installed WinXP, using a retail CD. His key (the one pasted on the front of the case) is a OEM key. Hence, I can't install XP using his key, and he can't authenticate XP using my retail key. Nor can I can change to his OEM key when the time to authenticate comes around. A little research yields that there's a simple text file ($ROOT_CDROM$\I386\SETUPP.INI) on the XP cd that determines how the CD acts, and what keys it'll accept. Change that file, and you've got a retail copy of XP that'll accept an OEM key. Simple, right? I contacted Microsoft regarding the problem, twice. The first time, I was told it was a problem that Microsoft could not resolve, and because it was a Compaq OEM key, I would need to contact Compaq. Compaq, obviously, turned me right back to Microsoft. The next tech at Microsoft explained the retail/OEM key problem to me, and told me that I would need to find an OEM cd. Nothing about altering the text file.
My second experience concerned their dial-up service. It requires that you install MSN Explorer. The first time MSN Explorer runs, it asks for your Passport ID. Upon verification, it creates a computer generated username and password, grabs an access number, and creates a dial-up connection. When you start up MSN explorer, it dials in first using that computer generated login info, then allows you to sign in with your Passport ID. Since I was dual-booting with Linux at the time, I wanted to set up 'net access under Linux. It took me two hours on the phone with MSN Tech Support to find out that they "weren't authorized to give me that information, and I should try using the on-line help chat." I hopped back over to the MSN help chat online, and spent the next six hours being told "MSN does not use a computer generated login to dial-up. It only uses your Passport ID." At the end of the conversation, I let it slip that I was attempting to use MSN under Linux. The tech simply stated "We don't support Linux," and refused to continue, irregardless of the fact that I had an account issue (I needed that computer generated password). After giving up on that route, I used a cracking utility to pull the generated password on the dial-up account, and proceeded to finish setting up 'net access under Linux.
In both cases, Microsoft's support was unwilling and/or unable to provide me with the solution I needed. Under my experience with Linux, most of my problems have been solved within a couple days simply by browsing the web for the information I needed, posting to a web board, or firing off an email or two to a local Linux user's group. Some were solved within a few hours.
Resources come to an end. That's one of the fun consequences of existing.
Sure... unless you're one of the poor SOB's still alive when the resources required to make life cushy runs out, 'cause everybody before you spent their time enjoying them rather than finding alternative solutions.
If they're already violating the law, how will a new law help catch them?
Simple. In "their" (MPAA, RIAA, ??AA) eyes, anybody who has copyrighted media on a public network must have either downloaded it, or made it available for uploading. Otherwise, it wouldn't be on a public network, in their eyes.
Now, instead of actually having to catch somebody in the act of uploading the media, they just have to show that it was available on the public network. Less work involved on the part of the *AA's.
If I go around saying (or I publish a paper stating) that Linux users can play the CD on their systems without any problem, would I be open to being sued for violation under the DMCA, too?
I wouldn't mind seeing this go to court... if it's turned down (I sure hope the student doesn't lose!), it'll be one step closer to showing how ridiculously the DMCA can be taken.
Slashdot Mirror
... on how far they take it. The college I live next to, which shall remain nameless, went through a similiar situation. When Blaster, Welchia, et al. hit last year, they sent around the RA's with copies of "utility" cd's containing the patches & virus fixes. Needless to say, they were (and still are) a small college. That was fine right up until they hit a Mac... because the RA and the student who owned the Mac refused to sign the form stating that the patches and fixes had been run (obviously, they couldn't), the "IT dep't" required that the unit be brought physically to their office for inspection.
I'd hate to have someone pawing over my Linux machine every time the latest virus hits the Windows boxes. I'd throw a fit if they forced me to install software on it. I'd really create a fuss if they kicked me off the 'net simply because I'm not running Windows.
And none of this "Let's 'scan' my system and see what's on it, in case I'm breaking copyrights, or doing something else I shouldn't be." What's on my system is none of anybody's business, unless it's impinging upon the network (spam, anybody?). If it's transmitted across the network, it's fair game... if it's already on my hard drive, hands off.
Guess it's just like everything else... as long as it's held to a moderate level, and some common sense is applied, it ought to be fine.
Try looking at the Body Shop. Not the best example, I know, but at least it's something.
;o)
Disclaimer: All I've heard about this company has sunk into my head as I absently listened to my wife discuss it. Hence, it may not really be an example, or it may be a great example. Have fun
I'll second that bit about Nextel & computer equipment. The display on CRT monitors vibrates... speakers click, hum, crackle. Even the speakers in my car pick them up. Their customer service sucks, too. I won't go into details, but they're inflexible as a bar of hardened steel.
The only customer service experience I've had that's worse involves setting up MSN dial-up access on a Linux system.... seven total hours on the phone, with someone endlessly stating that their system did not use computer generated usernames and passwords, while I had direct evidence in front of me contradicting him. Moderate it with the realization that I should've known better, and it's on par with Nextel.
how often do people burn an entire DVD?
;o)
Any time anybody wants to back up a sizeable portion of their system. Which people ought to be doing fairly regularly, right?
If you burn so many that speed matters you probably shouldn't be using a consumer solution anyway.
You might have a point here... though it's not that "lost time" that matters. It's the perception of that lost time that matters. Nobody I know says "Oh, it's 'bout time I backed up my system. Let's go eat lunch while the DVD burns." Instead, they stare down that little progress bar. Then that additional burning time makes a difference.
"On the other hand, if attention really means that much to a person, then that person's gaming-significant other ought to understand that."
;o).
How's that? Got it yet?
Hold on there... you've taken my case to extremes, and by your wording, I'm tempted to take your case to extremes also.
I'm not saying that if someone spends an excessive amount of time with their attention focused on gaming rather than their SO that it ought to be forgiven by the "If gaming means..." line.
I'm saying that it needs to be taken in moderation, hence the "for the most part" section. See above for clarification.
It'd be unreasonable for someone to spend all of their time on gaming, and none on their SO. It'd also be unreasonable for that same person to spend all their time and attention on that SO, and none on their SO.
Either way, it's an obsession... and I still haven't found an obsession that's healthy, besides breathing
Bingo ;o)
Everything in moderation. It'd be excessive if I spent four hours after work every day playing a game... it'd also be excessive if my wife required my undivided attention for those four hours every day.
Now if I am spending four hours a day on a game (*cough* Final Fantasy XI *cough*), she's got every right to complain. Hence the "for the most part." And if she's spending four hours each night with her head buried into movies, I ought to complain.
On the other hand, if gaming really means that much to a person, then that person's significant other ought to understand that.
Me, I'm crazy about computers, aviation, and Subaru's from the eighties (don't ask). My wife understands this, for the most part, and allows it, for the most part.
In return, I do the same for her passions, and do my best to encourage her interest. I also try to get her involved in my hobbies. In return, she does the same.
Yeah... a bit shorter. Remember, bungee cords stretch :o).
...to assume that this quantum weirdness can cause other realities where GWBush is in Mensa seems to be a far step of logic...
;o). If we assume that the changes brought about by these subatomic particles can bring about huge long-term changes. Throw in a theory with parallel universes, where each subatomic particle causes all possible effects, one in each separate universe, then there must be a universe in which Bush is in Mensa. If it's possible to begin with.
;o)
Well... assume parallel universes do exist, and they're diverging "on a subatomic level."
Now take chaos theory... "that a butterfly's flight and subsequent disturbance of air caused a hurricane in the Atlantic." Miniscule & nearly impossible to measure changes can affect the long term outcomes of events.
Bingo... now we've got GW Bush in Mensa
Oh, btw... no degree in quantum physics here. I just read a lot of hard Sci-Fi
'emerge sync && emerge -u world'
Yeah... Gentoo may have not been the first one to come up with it, and we seem way too proud of it, but...
I love emerge. 'emerge Whatever' and whatever is installed. 'emerge sync' and I've got my list of available packages is updated. 'emerge -u world' and my system is updated.
Works for my wife, too...
If we're arresting people for making a poor quality copy of a movie that hasn't been released yet... I wonder how long it'll be before we are arrested for sneaking in food & candy.
After all, if it's against the law...
*sarcasm*
It's so nice to know that with all the problems that the city of Los Angelos has, they're arresting people bringing camcorders into movie theaters.
*/sarcasm*
Nice to know we've got our priorities straight. Oh, yeah... they're not our priorities. They belong to the movie industry. Nice to know the gov't (and taxpayers' money) is watching out for them.
HP, Compaq, & Sony are doing it... that's as far as I know. They slap the restore cd's on a partition, create another option on post to restore the unit from that partition, and allow the user to create their restore cd's (usually only once, too).
I'm just about a mile away from RPI... it's really nice that something is happening in Troy, NY (otherwise known as the "armpit of the country"). Something other than your usual crime, fires, vehicular accidents, etc.
;O)
Sorta wish that jar RPI claims they put a sun in was clear, though... anything to combat the perpetual cloud cover that seems to plague Central NY this time of year
Aw... c'mon. You've never seen one of these things lifted, with some bigger tires slapped on, have you?
;o)
Camo Brat
Another Brat
Or then again, I'm just a Subaru fanatic
I do believe it's normally referred to as a joke...
(What'll really get you wondering is whether I was referring to the post, Notepad, or regedit.)
Quote:...might spawn a whole array of books showing the average joe how to conduct more powerful searches using "Regular Expressions"...
I have trouble getting my users to RTFM... and now we expect them to read a book on better Google searches?
We already know that what the mainstream music industry (at least, here in the US) is putting is crap.
Do we really need to launch a satellite to figure that out?
It's still possible... Dot Matrix Printers At Staples.com. They've got the ribbon, too. Not that I'm preferential towards Staples, but they do supply a lot of businesses. There are businesses out there that still use carbon copy paper (for receipts, invoices, and the like). Inkjets don't do carbon copy ;o).
Whenever I get around to setting up my home network, I'd like to have any "critical" machines have a "logger" machine hooked up to the critical machine via a serial cable only. Send the logs through the serial cable, and there's nothing that I know of that the cracker can do to erase that log.
Yeah, like most Best Buy employees follow any news regarding Fat Wallet. The computer services department might scorn you, but the rest of the store will just overwhelm you with accessories and service plans.
I work in corporate IT, and I really prefer dealing with MS. Their people are knowledgable, very helpful, and just want to see things work. Im sure you can pick anecdotes which are bad, but in almost ten years, I have had nothing but positive encounters. Im sure that is going to make people angry to hear (because it isnt anti-MS), but its true. MS is #1 for a reason, and it isnt because they are 'forcing' corporations to use their stuff.
I don't work in corporate IT. Most of my computing experience has been from the residential end of things... home users for the most part, and my own experience at home. I've only had to contact Microsoft twice regarding computing issues, once for myself and once for a customer. Both were bad experiences. The technicians were not knowledgeable, helpful, and while they may have certainly wanted things to work (probably so I'd stop asking these hard questions), they didn't aid me.
A customer had a Compaq desktop system. The hard drive had a restore partition, and the restore CD queried the partition for the restore data. The hard drive died, and Compaq wants to charge for a set of restore cd's (understandably so), and the customer was unwilling to pay for them. I installed a new hard drive, and installed WinXP, using a retail CD. His key (the one pasted on the front of the case) is a OEM key. Hence, I can't install XP using his key, and he can't authenticate XP using my retail key. Nor can I can change to his OEM key when the time to authenticate comes around. A little research yields that there's a simple text file ($ROOT_CDROM$\I386\SETUPP.INI) on the XP cd that determines how the CD acts, and what keys it'll accept. Change that file, and you've got a retail copy of XP that'll accept an OEM key. Simple, right? I contacted Microsoft regarding the problem, twice. The first time, I was told it was a problem that Microsoft could not resolve, and because it was a Compaq OEM key, I would need to contact Compaq. Compaq, obviously, turned me right back to Microsoft. The next tech at Microsoft explained the retail/OEM key problem to me, and told me that I would need to find an OEM cd. Nothing about altering the text file.
My second experience concerned their dial-up service. It requires that you install MSN Explorer. The first time MSN Explorer runs, it asks for your Passport ID. Upon verification, it creates a computer generated username and password, grabs an access number, and creates a dial-up connection. When you start up MSN explorer, it dials in first using that computer generated login info, then allows you to sign in with your Passport ID. Since I was dual-booting with Linux at the time, I wanted to set up 'net access under Linux. It took me two hours on the phone with MSN Tech Support to find out that they "weren't authorized to give me that information, and I should try using the on-line help chat." I hopped back over to the MSN help chat online, and spent the next six hours being told "MSN does not use a computer generated login to dial-up. It only uses your Passport ID." At the end of the conversation, I let it slip that I was attempting to use MSN under Linux. The tech simply stated "We don't support Linux," and refused to continue, irregardless of the fact that I had an account issue (I needed that computer generated password). After giving up on that route, I used a cracking utility to pull the generated password on the dial-up account, and proceeded to finish setting up 'net access under Linux.
In both cases, Microsoft's support was unwilling and/or unable to provide me with the solution I needed. Under my experience with Linux, most of my problems have been solved within a couple days simply by browsing the web for the information I needed, posting to a web board, or firing off an email or two to a local Linux user's group. Some were solved within a few hours.
Resources come to an end. That's one of the fun consequences of existing.
Sure... unless you're one of the poor SOB's still alive when the resources required to make life cushy runs out, 'cause everybody before you spent their time enjoying them rather than finding alternative solutions.
If they're already violating the law, how will a new law help catch them?
Simple. In "their" (MPAA, RIAA, ??AA) eyes, anybody who has copyrighted media on a public network must have either downloaded it, or made it available for uploading. Otherwise, it wouldn't be on a public network, in their eyes.
Now, instead of actually having to catch somebody in the act of uploading the media, they just have to show that it was available on the public network. Less work involved on the part of the *AA's.
If I go around saying (or I publish a paper stating) that Linux users can play the CD on their systems without any problem, would I be open to being sued for violation under the DMCA, too? I wouldn't mind seeing this go to court... if it's turned down (I sure hope the student doesn't lose!), it'll be one step closer to showing how ridiculously the DMCA can be taken.