Does anybody else feel a whole new batch of windows security alerts?
Microsoft would only fix it if they saw it as a problem. If they saw it as a problem, they wouldn't be using it as a back door for updates. From their standpoint, there's no problem. Microsoft either knew all along user update preferences could be ignored or they built it that way deliberately. No way to put a smiley face sticker on that.
There's no reasonable way Microsoft could use stealth update and not expect to get caught some day. Someone thought this PR nightmare was an acceptable risk. I want to know what was so valuable to Microsoft they'd risk public humiliation and undoubtedly some associative loss of revenue. And I'm really interested to hear their lame explanation. Cue the PR machine!
For some reason Microsoft PR always reminded me of the Muppet Show.
And what makes you think it's just Microsoft using it? I could the NSA, FBI, CIA using a handy back door to install "updates" that make all kinds of interesting things possible. Once you undermine trust any bad thing users can imagine is possible, forever. Oh, yeah, this is going to be good.
And people wonder why I don't use Microsoft products at home. ROFL!
Those are exactly the kinds of things you agree to with EULA's, and it's not just Microsoft. Software licenses get more bizarre and dickish by the day.
The frustrating thing is that none of the things we have been led to do (warrantless wiretapping, waterboarding and Guantanamo) have been the least bit effective at actually solving crimes
This is the Bush administration we're talking about here, results are not relevant. The people implementing the things that didn't work got promoted! ROFL! I'm surprised 'ol Brownie didn't get promoted to replace Chertoff.
The right wing in this country is sick. Conservatives have abandoned their values.
According to them, you have to be a genius programmer if you expect to compete successfully for the slim pickings that are left, there is no job security at all, and the best most can realistically hope for these days is a job at Home Depot.
There have been a couple times that may have been true, most recently when the.com implosion and outsourcing tag-teamed the IT industry in the late 90's and early part of the 2000's. That was a dismal time for projects but not now. Business seems pretty healthy right now, especially if you're good at managing large databases and can migrate applications between platforms.
Also might be like the real estate market. Overall, real estate sucks right now. But even in this down market there are bright spots here and there. Even when tech was in the cellar there were still bright spots out there, if you were willing to travel.
I just don't see the market as that bad right now. Companies that pay crap and ride their employees like a carnival pony might find the labor market tight. While a company with a progressive atmosphere and healthy pay scale may find their in box jammed with resumes all the time. All I know is I don't have any problems staying billed.
Thats the same argument people have been making about linux for a decade now.. Its different, I'm not used to it...
And then made it sound like a negative. Before it was "this isn't like Word" and that was a negative. Now it's "it's more like what most people are used to in Word" and they get criticized for it. Talk about the no-win scenario.
I'm all for a little gratitude to the OpenOffice developers. Those guys are heroes. It's a fantastic piece of software and it's free. And, yes, I've donated. Probably should again one of these days. Who would've guessed that a bunch of hobbyist programmers could give a billion dollar corporation a shiver. That's quite an accomplishment.
When people in IT complain to me that there isn't a lot of work, I just have to shrug.
ROFL! I have to blink in amazement. There's a ton of work out there, I don't even have to work my referrals anymore.
Too bad I'm too A.D.D. to focus on a national roll-out:)
That is too bad because you definitely have the right energy level. Lot of headaches, though. If I get anything in that part of the country I'll steer them your way. I've got some doc management and process people in Milwaukee who are first class.
Anyone who runs Vista now that we consult with gets a FREE downgrade to a legitimate XP license.
Clever marketing. Microsoft dorks them and you get to be the hero. The PR value is priceless. We can't count on Microsoft but we can always count on good 'ol Adam. It's a good investment in time because I've got money someone says, "Hey, since you're here, can you look at..." which are the magic words that mean you get the bill the call anyway. Keeps your face fresh around the office, you can schmooze while you're working, talk to them about alternative operating systems...it's a great idea. One that I fully intend to shamelessly copy.:) Bothers me I didn't think of it on my own...but I'll get over it.
But is it cheaper than replacing your Win32 GUI point-n-click admins with their Unix replacements?
In terms of personnel it's not always fair to compare admins dollar for dollar. If I've got an admin who can run a Linux environment that performs reliably with a minimum of downtime, that person is worth more to me. They are saving me thousands in licensing costs and thousands more in potential headaches. They're saving me from vendor lock-in, which might be worth a lot somewhere down the road. With Linux I can scale at will instead of the headache of trying navigate Microsoft's byzantine license fees and restrictions. How much is that worth?
It's worth a lot of money to me to keep Microsoft out the mix, not all companies see it that way. Like with any commodity, value is a perception based on a point of view.
Then there are the intangibles. A vendor calls with some zippy-dippy piece of software that's going to make my life so much easier. It's so funny to ask, "Does it run on Linux? Because that's all we use here." Used to be that was inevitably followed by a long pause, not as much lately. More companies are answering that they do support Linux. Which has kind of taken some of the fun out of sales calls. "You don't have any Windows servers?"
It removes the radioactive isotopes from water, not the radiation itself.
Yeah, and what kind of radioactive material? Strontium and Cesium? Beta emitters? How about I-131? Or is it just heavy nucleotides? What about radioisotopes that happen to be toxic besides being radioactive?
I'll be happy to run the dosimetry for anyone who wants to experiment but you won't catch me drinking any radiation snake oil the Russians cook up...that doesn't start with a vat of potato peelings anyway.
The Dvorak keyboard is more efficient by a factor of 10 and you don't see it taking over the keyboard layout landscape.
Just because something is "better", even in technology, doesn't mean it's going to take over.
I've also lived through the decline of mainframes...still around. The internet was going to replace faxes...I still have a fax machine.
Linux is better than Windows, columns are better than rows but I wouldn't get all a-twitter over either of them just yet. Particularly from someone selling column based data stores.
Could you imagine Kansas getting their hands on nukes? We'd all have three weeks to start implementing intelligent design in science class and ban gay people or they start the rain of fire!
So basically this is NetNanny for TV and it's "censorship?"
If it's voluntary I can't see how it could be classed as censorship. Subscribing to a community with content standards is quite a bit different than some community trying to project their standards on the rest of society. Like that group of religious right freaks who bombard the FCC with content complaints.
If a group or community wants to shield themselves from porn or anything type of content, they should have that right. As long as it's set up as "opt in" it doesn't seem like that big of deal.
Is the community's political bent directly tied to our higher than average economic success?
I don't really think so...this is just my impression. I'd agree the majority of the/. crowd is in the upper range of middle class, with maybe a few in the fabulously wealthy.com entrepreneur class and a few at the other end of the scale living in their mom's basement.
I'd be willing to wager a guess that this group is more comfortable with a libertarian philosophy because, in general, they're more comfortable in a chaotic environment like the internet than an economic explanation. Most of you seem pretty capable of taking care of yourself and solving problems without government intervention. That is somewhat at odds with the wider population, depending where you live.
The goal of innovation is to make or save money, and IT should never lose sight of that central fact.
Even if IT doesn't, the customer can. I have one customer...a government entity...that I've worked pretty much the same way I'd treat a private side customer, with an eye toward efficiency and the bottom line. It's bought me nothing there. They spent a million dollars to take a working application developed by three people and give it to a team of 7 from another company to maintain. No fail over, they won't let it integrate with any other applications and, the final insult, they took over our server to host it. The customer will carve off services and outsource them, even if it costs more and the service isn't as good. Sometimes it's the same people maintaining the system, just working for a different company.
Told them this year that I'm done. Can't do it anymore, it's just so frustrating. You try to do the right thing, work hard finding better ways to automate a process and they crap on all your research and best efforts in favor of something that costs more and will never work. I've seen them waste tens of millions on the same mistakes, over and over. Ironically they're very appreciative and don't want me to leave. Still haven't figured that out.
Dissatisfaction is a two-way street in some IT shops. Before you start tap dancing on the IT folks for a lack of innovation, maybe try talking to them, just to make sure that you've addressed the barriers management might be erecting that hinder a more successful relationship.
SCO knows their appeal has about as much chance as being stuck in a snowstorm on sunny July day in downtown Dallas. This is SCO trying to get the trial date pushed back far enough they can suck as much cash value out of the company as possible before filing for bankruptcy protection.
If they lose now they'll leave behind a chunk of cash.
Hopefully the appeals court opts not to review the case and SCO is dead by Christmas. What a nice present that would be for the holidays.
it was a "privilege to work within the federal system, not a right
A privilege the best and brightest will be passing to some sucker who's willing to put up with the anal probe background check. I've dropped customers because they tried to layer all kinds of process on top of just getting in the door. When I can bill my time without jumping through those hoops, what's my incentive to stick around? Because I get to do cool stuff working for NASA? That might give them an edge all things being equal but running your own company is pretty cool, too. And you get your own parking space.
And just why does someone's sexual orientation make them unfit to compute satellite orbits? Because they might be in the bathroom tapping their foot while the rover goes over a cliff? Grow up already.
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Does anybody else feel a whole new batch of windows security alerts?
Microsoft would only fix it if they saw it as a problem. If they saw it as a problem, they wouldn't be using it as a back door for updates. From their standpoint, there's no problem. Microsoft either knew all along user update preferences could be ignored or they built it that way deliberately. No way to put a smiley face sticker on that.
There's no reasonable way Microsoft could use stealth update and not expect to get caught some day. Someone thought this PR nightmare was an acceptable risk. I want to know what was so valuable to Microsoft they'd risk public humiliation and undoubtedly some associative loss of revenue. And I'm really interested to hear their lame explanation. Cue the PR machine! For some reason Microsoft PR always reminded me of the Muppet Show.
And what makes you think it's just Microsoft using it? I could the NSA, FBI, CIA using a handy back door to install "updates" that make all kinds of interesting things possible. Once you undermine trust any bad thing users can imagine is possible, forever. Oh, yeah, this is going to be good.
And people wonder why I don't use Microsoft products at home. ROFL!
Those are exactly the kinds of things you agree to with EULA's, and it's not just Microsoft. Software licenses get more bizarre and dickish by the day.
The frustrating thing is that none of the things we have been led to do (warrantless wiretapping, waterboarding and Guantanamo) have been the least bit effective at actually solving crimes
This is the Bush administration we're talking about here, results are not relevant. The people implementing the things that didn't work got promoted! ROFL! I'm surprised 'ol Brownie didn't get promoted to replace Chertoff.
The right wing in this country is sick. Conservatives have abandoned their values.
For a second I thought Victoria Crater sounded more like the name of a p0rn star.
That changes the nuance of the headline significantly.
According to them, you have to be a genius programmer if you expect to compete successfully for the slim pickings that are left, there is no job security at all, and the best most can realistically hope for these days is a job at Home Depot.
There have been a couple times that may have been true, most recently when the .com implosion and outsourcing tag-teamed the IT industry in the late 90's and early part of the 2000's. That was a dismal time for projects but not now. Business seems pretty healthy right now, especially if you're good at managing large databases and can migrate applications between platforms.
Also might be like the real estate market. Overall, real estate sucks right now. But even in this down market there are bright spots here and there. Even when tech was in the cellar there were still bright spots out there, if you were willing to travel.
I just don't see the market as that bad right now. Companies that pay crap and ride their employees like a carnival pony might find the labor market tight. While a company with a progressive atmosphere and healthy pay scale may find their in box jammed with resumes all the time. All I know is I don't have any problems staying billed.
Thats the same argument people have been making about linux for a decade now.. Its different, I'm not used to it...
And then made it sound like a negative. Before it was "this isn't like Word" and that was a negative. Now it's "it's more like what most people are used to in Word" and they get criticized for it. Talk about the no-win scenario.
I'm all for a little gratitude to the OpenOffice developers. Those guys are heroes. It's a fantastic piece of software and it's free. And, yes, I've donated. Probably should again one of these days. Who would've guessed that a bunch of hobbyist programmers could give a billion dollar corporation a shiver. That's quite an accomplishment.
When people in IT complain to me that there isn't a lot of work, I just have to shrug.
ROFL! I have to blink in amazement. There's a ton of work out there, I don't even have to work my referrals anymore.
Too bad I'm too A.D.D. to focus on a national roll-out :)
That is too bad because you definitely have the right energy level. Lot of headaches, though. If I get anything in that part of the country I'll steer them your way. I've got some doc management and process people in Milwaukee who are first class.
Lose market share because customers don't perceive value.
Remove even more value from the product and raise the margin.
Profit !!!!
Who says this business thing is hard!
Anyone who runs Vista now that we consult with gets a FREE downgrade to a legitimate XP license.
Clever marketing. Microsoft dorks them and you get to be the hero. The PR value is priceless. We can't count on Microsoft but we can always count on good 'ol Adam. It's a good investment in time because I've got money someone says, "Hey, since you're here, can you look at..." which are the magic words that mean you get the bill the call anyway. Keeps your face fresh around the office, you can schmooze while you're working, talk to them about alternative operating systems...it's a great idea. One that I fully intend to shamelessly copy. :) Bothers me I didn't think of it on my own...but I'll get over it.
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password
password1 That formula will crack 90% of Windows passwords out there. The remaining 10% are what the other 14.999999 GB in the table are for.
I ate what? Well, how would I know it was a talking parrot?
But is it cheaper than replacing your Win32 GUI point-n-click admins with their Unix replacements?
In terms of personnel it's not always fair to compare admins dollar for dollar. If I've got an admin who can run a Linux environment that performs reliably with a minimum of downtime, that person is worth more to me. They are saving me thousands in licensing costs and thousands more in potential headaches. They're saving me from vendor lock-in, which might be worth a lot somewhere down the road. With Linux I can scale at will instead of the headache of trying navigate Microsoft's byzantine license fees and restrictions. How much is that worth?
It's worth a lot of money to me to keep Microsoft out the mix, not all companies see it that way. Like with any commodity, value is a perception based on a point of view.
Then there are the intangibles. A vendor calls with some zippy-dippy piece of software that's going to make my life so much easier. It's so funny to ask, "Does it run on Linux? Because that's all we use here." Used to be that was inevitably followed by a long pause, not as much lately. More companies are answering that they do support Linux. Which has kind of taken some of the fun out of sales calls. "You don't have any Windows servers?"
Hehe. Priceless.
It removes the radioactive isotopes from water, not the radiation itself.
Yeah, and what kind of radioactive material? Strontium and Cesium? Beta emitters? How about I-131? Or is it just heavy nucleotides? What about radioisotopes that happen to be toxic besides being radioactive?
I'll be happy to run the dosimetry for anyone who wants to experiment but you won't catch me drinking any radiation snake oil the Russians cook up...that doesn't start with a vat of potato peelings anyway.
You're doing a heck of a job, Roberto.
If my rat ever breaks his back I'll know just what to do.
"gee, if I strike this down I can make the Republicans look bad" crossed his mind, even if only for an instant.
He doesn't have to try to make the toilet foot-tapping Republicans look bad, they're doing a fine job without any help.
The Dvorak keyboard is more efficient by a factor of 10 and you don't see it taking over the keyboard layout landscape.
Just because something is "better", even in technology, doesn't mean it's going to take over.
I've also lived through the decline of mainframes...still around. The internet was going to replace faxes...I still have a fax machine.
Linux is better than Windows, columns are better than rows but I wouldn't get all a-twitter over either of them just yet. Particularly from someone selling column based data stores.
Could you imagine Kansas getting their hands on nukes? We'd all have three weeks to start implementing intelligent design in science class and ban gay people or they start the rain of fire!
So basically this is NetNanny for TV and it's "censorship?"
If it's voluntary I can't see how it could be classed as censorship. Subscribing to a community with content standards is quite a bit different than some community trying to project their standards on the rest of society. Like that group of religious right freaks who bombard the FCC with content complaints.
If a group or community wants to shield themselves from porn or anything type of content, they should have that right. As long as it's set up as "opt in" it doesn't seem like that big of deal.
There's an enormous momentum building behind Solaris
And where's that? In the Sun break room? Look out! It's a Solaris Tsunami!
Don't think so.
Is the community's political bent directly tied to our higher than average economic success?
I don't really think so...this is just my impression. I'd agree the majority of the /. crowd is in the upper range of middle class, with maybe a few in the fabulously wealthy .com entrepreneur class and a few at the other end of the scale living in their mom's basement.
I'd be willing to wager a guess that this group is more comfortable with a libertarian philosophy because, in general, they're more comfortable in a chaotic environment like the internet than an economic explanation. Most of you seem pretty capable of taking care of yourself and solving problems without government intervention. That is somewhat at odds with the wider population, depending where you live.
The goal of innovation is to make or save money, and IT should never lose sight of that central fact.
Even if IT doesn't, the customer can. I have one customer...a government entity...that I've worked pretty much the same way I'd treat a private side customer, with an eye toward efficiency and the bottom line. It's bought me nothing there. They spent a million dollars to take a working application developed by three people and give it to a team of 7 from another company to maintain. No fail over, they won't let it integrate with any other applications and, the final insult, they took over our server to host it. The customer will carve off services and outsource them, even if it costs more and the service isn't as good. Sometimes it's the same people maintaining the system, just working for a different company.
Told them this year that I'm done. Can't do it anymore, it's just so frustrating. You try to do the right thing, work hard finding better ways to automate a process and they crap on all your research and best efforts in favor of something that costs more and will never work. I've seen them waste tens of millions on the same mistakes, over and over. Ironically they're very appreciative and don't want me to leave. Still haven't figured that out.
Dissatisfaction is a two-way street in some IT shops. Before you start tap dancing on the IT folks for a lack of innovation, maybe try talking to them, just to make sure that you've addressed the barriers management might be erecting that hinder a more successful relationship.
You're doing a heck of a job, Roberto.
SCO knows their appeal has about as much chance as being stuck in a snowstorm on sunny July day in downtown Dallas. This is SCO trying to get the trial date pushed back far enough they can suck as much cash value out of the company as possible before filing for bankruptcy protection.
If they lose now they'll leave behind a chunk of cash.
Hopefully the appeals court opts not to review the case and SCO is dead by Christmas. What a nice present that would be for the holidays.
it was a "privilege to work within the federal system, not a right
A privilege the best and brightest will be passing to some sucker who's willing to put up with the anal probe background check. I've dropped customers because they tried to layer all kinds of process on top of just getting in the door. When I can bill my time without jumping through those hoops, what's my incentive to stick around? Because I get to do cool stuff working for NASA? That might give them an edge all things being equal but running your own company is pretty cool, too. And you get your own parking space.
And just why does someone's sexual orientation make them unfit to compute satellite orbits? Because they might be in the bathroom tapping their foot while the rover goes over a cliff? Grow up already.