So, with the service pack you're finally getting a stable product? Where's the value for all the money you're laying out? Pay hundreds of dollars, put up with anal probe product activation and wait almost a year for what you should have gotten in the first place.
I'm sure that makes sense on some planet...just not this one.
You have to trust someone...at least to a point. Google is not trying to steal your content. If you attach a document to email because you're afraid Google will steal it, how many relays does it go through? That's how many other organizations would have the opportunity to steal the content. Trojans, spyware and key loggers can make your own computer vulnerable to snooping. If you keep it on your network storage, you're trusting your sysads and anyone else with access to the file.
And if you're still that worried then encrypt it. For simple text try http://www.fourmilab.ch/javascrypt/ and either use the site or download the javascript and make your own page, put it on SSL and even add a random virtual keyboard if you really want to go all out. Pick a pass phrase you can remember. Simple encryption will prevent casual reading, unless you think Google and the NSA are working together to spy on you...in which case you have bigger problems than/. can help with.
If anyone could ever prove Google snooped or stole content their business would evaporate overnight. They're likely very aware of that concern and probably more sensitive to it than you might imagine. Besides, with the volume of material they store, who has time to sit around and read your stuff?
If it wasn't solitaire or the internet, it would be their iPhones, cell phones, Blackberry, portable video players, mp3 player or host of other electronic gadgets they have at their disposal. If you invest in monitoring their internet use, they'll find a way to proxy around it...those who don't have iPhones. Trying to regulate people's behavior turns into an endless goat rope.
If they're getting their work done and they're profitable, leave them alone. If not, let them go. It's that simple. Inappropriate material is an issue everyone should be aware of by now. If they're not smart enough to leave their p0rn on their iPhone, then they deserve to get fired. If they're not smart enough to keep their steamy email affair off the company mail system, b-bye. This isn't rocket science. So many companies over-think the problem.
I think it's safe to say most everyone knows about it now. As long as a warrant is required to set up the bugging, I don't have a big problem with it.
I just can't shake the nagging suspicion they've gotten a little slack on the warrant thing lately. Bugging someone's phone without a warrant is spying. Spying on Americans, regardless of the perceived justification, is not protecting the public, it's undermining everything this country stands for.
Seems like this is a great argument in favor of municipalities building their own fiber infrastructure like they do with roads, sewers and the like.
It is a great argument. And all we have to do is get the laws changed to recognize that telecommunications are now utilities like water, sewer and electric. Sadly most municipalities are prevented by state law from offering internet access. Thanks in large part to your friendly local telecommunications lobbyists.
There was a day when electricity was not a utility supplied by government or quasi-government organizations. There was a time it was either a neighborhood venture or supplied by one or two competing companies, much like phone service today.
Productivity in terms of IT and related fields has become a dirty little word
It's an inappropriate word. IT both produces enables production. The only metric I've found that ever works is up time. Up time for web systems, per unit average up time for PC's. Even that is imperfect, you spend all your time gathering the statistics.
Funny that the best sysads are the ones doing the least.
I don't think that much military-specific work is let out of the country
I actually hope you're right and that's certainly the way it used to be. But we are talking about for profit companies building the systems, many of whom have a sub-contractor supply chain of their own. You sure no supporting system boards are slipping in from foreign suppliers? Maybe being relabeled somewhere along the line? All carefully tested of course. Or maybe some of those boards come from a Japanese or Taiwanese supplier...who may also be rebranding components they're buying elsewhere. What about components from Israel or European suppliers?
I do hope you're right that none of our military circuitry is coming from overseas suppliers. But having worked for a couple government contractors, I wouldn't bet the farm on it. I've also seen lately the military outsourcing....everything...ass over tea kettle. I've seen some of the RFP's, they're not spec'ing component source. My impression is they're more concerned with moving the service off the books than maintaining the integrity of the supply chain.
I hope you're right but I'm also a little concerned about what I see with my own eyes.
One would think someone infiltrating a group to aid a hostile government would be able to cover their tracks a little better. Maybe use a cutout in Germany, South America or Canada. It would be pretty foolish for the Iranian Air Force to use an IP that traces back to Tehran. Just because they talk with an accent doesn't mean they think with one.
Besides, if the Iranians want advanced UAV's, the Russians will sell them whatever is in their inventory. The Chinese, who probably make a lot of the circuit boards and sub systems for our military, would happily sell them their 100% original design...that just happens to look amazingly like ours. Heeeey.
If they struck out there then they're down to the French, Taiwanese, North Koreans and a half-dozen other countries happy to sell them weapons systems under the table.
Of course, this is the Bush administration we're talking about here. Logic and common sense hold no sway in American government and people get appointed to high office because they're skilled fund raisers. So, yeah, I could see them shaking down you guys just because it makes them feel like they're doing something and they can understand you when you talk...if you limit yourself to simple words. Plus you're convenient driving distance from their offices.
The final transmission from the facility indicated some kind of alien bacterial infection had gotten to the crew. Later entries were limited to screaming and gun shots.
Okay, it's a lot of little things but those add up for many users and businesses. I'm sure MSFT will get all the little niggling things fixed...eventually. The main issue I see is that MSFT really needed a home run with Vista and what they fielded wasn't much of an improvement even when it's working properly. And certainly not worth the cost differential.
If we ever run into wide-spread power availability issues. In the event of a natural or economic disaster, perhaps a series of them or we just degenerate into a civil war between political factions. No one ever imagines we could go through a near-collapse and fragmentation similar to the old Soviet Union.
We'd likely have bigger worries than whether we could keep our data centers running but it's an interesting scenario to contemplate. I honestly had no idea data centers in the US consumed that much power.
We have fewer rights now than ever before in the USA and I fear for where we are going.
You're right. Oddly coincidental that there's been a sudden spike in violent crime. Not active resistance, just a natural response to people feeling hemmed in. They strike out reflexively. That's my theory anyway.
The harder you try to control a population, the more random their behavior becomes.
God dam it so annoys me when the ISP's bitch and moan about the customers actually using the bandwidth they have signed a contract, and paid for to use.
We're the people who build and run these systems. Comcast...or anyone for that matter...can't win that fight. I've worked with you wankers for 15 years, you're clever, relentless, and infinitely creative in a mischievous kind of way. If Comcast closes off BitTorrent, you'll find another way to disguise the traffic. They'll figure it out after a while and you'll figure out something else or go somewhere else. It may be difficult some days to motivate you at work, but you'll drive yourself until the early hours of the morning figuring out how to get around whatever filters they put in place. I've seen this arms race take place in every type of communication technology out there and you've won every time. Telephones, mainframes, PC networks, the internet. The road of technology is littered with the bodies of people who underestimate the technical genius of people who don't like being regulated.
We run your switches, your networks, firewalls, databases and your web sites. We are root and domain admins, we have the back door passwords to your routers. We run packet sniffers and Snort, know what a clever fella can do with xp_ extended stored procedures and javascript, we grew up on ping and tracert....we don't need no steeking GUI.
You can work with us or spend your life on an endless treadmill fighting a losing battle. But one thing history should have taught you...
A little off-topic...but we could develop ads for the NSA and Secret Service. BOMB BOMB BOMB COUNTRYWIDE 250,000 FOR JUST $750 A MONTH PRESIDENT PRESIDENT PRESIDENT SHOW YOUR NSA BADGE AND GET 20% OFF BARNES AND NOBLE THIS WEEKEND!
If something doesn't work right...change the name. It sounds bad to say we kidnapped people and kept them in secret prisons. "Extraordinary rendition" sounds so much more pleasant.
Especially trade groups that specialize in enforcement. If it's bad enough for the copyright holder to bring a claim, then let them do it. But these Gambini-esque trade groups are making a living off the money they're extorting from companies and individuals.
It's like letting the mafia enforce the speed limit.
There is no doubt when something is on fire. We deal with all kinds of incidents. We're a dirt poor volunteer department and even we have thermal cameras that will distinguish the merely hot from something on fire, even through walls. We also have infrared surface thermometers so we know where to cut the hole in the wall.
I've also seen it happen that something was smoking hot until the access hole is cut and when the air gets in it bursts into flame. Particularly in walls and behind panels. I doubt the Verizon techs were close enough to see when the fire department got there.
The witnesses said they saw white, puffy smoke. That usually means the fire is out. It also indicates there was a fire to put out.
Just amazes me that the truth is so hard for so many organizations these days.
I don't remember the transition from 2000 to XP being this difficult. There were a few bumps, the usual driver follies but nothing like the problems plaguing Vista. I don't remember companies going with 2000 because XP caused so many problems.
If memory serves the transition from 2K to XP was actually pleasant...at least by comparison.
Having said that I don't doubt MSFT will get Vista straightened out. My beef with MSFT products is not with the quality (although some of you could argue that quite compellingly). To me it's always been about value. Not whether it works but if it's worth the money you're paying. Right now, for Vista, that answer is "no" for a lot of people.
We'd all be crapping highly volatile hydrocarbon compounds. That would certainly raise the stakes for tossing a cigarette down the toilet, now wouldn't it? Perhaps spawning a new type of domestic terrorism.
I've got diarrhea and a lighter! I'll take all of you with me!
It would give TSA something new to look for. "AH-HA! This man is carrying X-Lax! Take him away!" Definitely make you long for the old days when all you had to do was take your shoes off, eh?
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So, with the service pack you're finally getting a stable product? Where's the value for all the money you're laying out? Pay hundreds of dollars, put up with anal probe product activation and wait almost a year for what you should have gotten in the first place.
I'm sure that makes sense on some planet...just not this one.
Thank goodness 50% of your customers will be out of commision too!
Yeah, but it will be the nice 50%. You'll have super concentrated a-hole customers left over. ;)
You have to trust someone...at least to a point. Google is not trying to steal your content. If you attach a document to email because you're afraid Google will steal it, how many relays does it go through? That's how many other organizations would have the opportunity to steal the content. Trojans, spyware and key loggers can make your own computer vulnerable to snooping. If you keep it on your network storage, you're trusting your sysads and anyone else with access to the file.
And if you're still that worried then encrypt it. For simple text try http://www.fourmilab.ch/javascrypt/ and either use the site or download the javascript and make your own page, put it on SSL and even add a random virtual keyboard if you really want to go all out. Pick a pass phrase you can remember. Simple encryption will prevent casual reading, unless you think Google and the NSA are working together to spy on you...in which case you have bigger problems than /. can help with.
If anyone could ever prove Google snooped or stole content their business would evaporate overnight. They're likely very aware of that concern and probably more sensitive to it than you might imagine. Besides, with the volume of material they store, who has time to sit around and read your stuff?
If it wasn't solitaire or the internet, it would be their iPhones, cell phones, Blackberry, portable video players, mp3 player or host of other electronic gadgets they have at their disposal. If you invest in monitoring their internet use, they'll find a way to proxy around it...those who don't have iPhones. Trying to regulate people's behavior turns into an endless goat rope.
If they're getting their work done and they're profitable, leave them alone. If not, let them go. It's that simple. Inappropriate material is an issue everyone should be aware of by now. If they're not smart enough to leave their p0rn on their iPhone, then they deserve to get fired. If they're not smart enough to keep their steamy email affair off the company mail system, b-bye. This isn't rocket science. So many companies over-think the problem.
I think it's safe to say most everyone knows about it now. As long as a warrant is required to set up the bugging, I don't have a big problem with it.
I just can't shake the nagging suspicion they've gotten a little slack on the warrant thing lately. Bugging someone's phone without a warrant is spying. Spying on Americans, regardless of the perceived justification, is not protecting the public, it's undermining everything this country stands for.
Seems like this is a great argument in favor of municipalities building their own fiber infrastructure like they do with roads, sewers and the like.
It is a great argument. And all we have to do is get the laws changed to recognize that telecommunications are now utilities like water, sewer and electric. Sadly most municipalities are prevented by state law from offering internet access. Thanks in large part to your friendly local telecommunications lobbyists.
There was a day when electricity was not a utility supplied by government or quasi-government organizations. There was a time it was either a neighborhood venture or supplied by one or two competing companies, much like phone service today.
Productivity in terms of IT and related fields has become a dirty little word
It's an inappropriate word. IT both produces enables production. The only metric I've found that ever works is up time. Up time for web systems, per unit average up time for PC's. Even that is imperfect, you spend all your time gathering the statistics.
Funny that the best sysads are the ones doing the least.
It's a criminal offense to harm them.
When it's a crime to hunt monkeys, then only criminals will have fried monkey for dinner.
Eat the evidence.
I don't think that much military-specific work is let out of the country
I actually hope you're right and that's certainly the way it used to be. But we are talking about for profit companies building the systems, many of whom have a sub-contractor supply chain of their own. You sure no supporting system boards are slipping in from foreign suppliers? Maybe being relabeled somewhere along the line? All carefully tested of course. Or maybe some of those boards come from a Japanese or Taiwanese supplier...who may also be rebranding components they're buying elsewhere. What about components from Israel or European suppliers?
I do hope you're right that none of our military circuitry is coming from overseas suppliers. But having worked for a couple government contractors, I wouldn't bet the farm on it. I've also seen lately the military outsourcing....everything...ass over tea kettle. I've seen some of the RFP's, they're not spec'ing component source. My impression is they're more concerned with moving the service off the books than maintaining the integrity of the supply chain.
I hope you're right but I'm also a little concerned about what I see with my own eyes.
One would think someone infiltrating a group to aid a hostile government would be able to cover their tracks a little better. Maybe use a cutout in Germany, South America or Canada. It would be pretty foolish for the Iranian Air Force to use an IP that traces back to Tehran. Just because they talk with an accent doesn't mean they think with one.
Besides, if the Iranians want advanced UAV's, the Russians will sell them whatever is in their inventory. The Chinese, who probably make a lot of the circuit boards and sub systems for our military, would happily sell them their 100% original design...that just happens to look amazingly like ours. Heeeey.
If they struck out there then they're down to the French, Taiwanese, North Koreans and a half-dozen other countries happy to sell them weapons systems under the table.
Of course, this is the Bush administration we're talking about here. Logic and common sense hold no sway in American government and people get appointed to high office because they're skilled fund raisers. So, yeah, I could see them shaking down you guys just because it makes them feel like they're doing something and they can understand you when you talk...if you limit yourself to simple words. Plus you're convenient driving distance from their offices.
Hey, is that the new Antigua Windows? Ten bucks a copy plus unlimited reinstalls.
The funny thing is, they would probably do a better job with distribution than Microsoft.
The final transmission from the facility indicated some kind of alien bacterial infection had gotten to the crew. Later entries were limited to screaming and gun shots.
NASA declared the test a spectacular success.
It's like the Top 40 of suck.
Okay, it's a lot of little things but those add up for many users and businesses. I'm sure MSFT will get all the little niggling things fixed...eventually. The main issue I see is that MSFT really needed a home run with Vista and what they fielded wasn't much of an improvement even when it's working properly. And certainly not worth the cost differential.
If we ever run into wide-spread power availability issues. In the event of a natural or economic disaster, perhaps a series of them or we just degenerate into a civil war between political factions. No one ever imagines we could go through a near-collapse and fragmentation similar to the old Soviet Union.
We'd likely have bigger worries than whether we could keep our data centers running but it's an interesting scenario to contemplate. I honestly had no idea data centers in the US consumed that much power.
We have fewer rights now than ever before in the USA and I fear for where we are going.
You're right. Oddly coincidental that there's been a sudden spike in violent crime. Not active resistance, just a natural response to people feeling hemmed in. They strike out reflexively. That's my theory anyway.
The harder you try to control a population, the more random their behavior becomes.
God dam it so annoys me when the ISP's bitch and moan about the customers actually using the bandwidth they have signed a contract, and paid for to use.
We're the people who build and run these systems. Comcast...or anyone for that matter...can't win that fight. I've worked with you wankers for 15 years, you're clever, relentless, and infinitely creative in a mischievous kind of way. If Comcast closes off BitTorrent, you'll find another way to disguise the traffic. They'll figure it out after a while and you'll figure out something else or go somewhere else. It may be difficult some days to motivate you at work, but you'll drive yourself until the early hours of the morning figuring out how to get around whatever filters they put in place. I've seen this arms race take place in every type of communication technology out there and you've won every time. Telephones, mainframes, PC networks, the internet. The road of technology is littered with the bodies of people who underestimate the technical genius of people who don't like being regulated.
We run your switches, your networks, firewalls, databases and your web sites. We are root and domain admins, we have the back door passwords to your routers. We run packet sniffers and Snort, know what a clever fella can do with xp_ extended stored procedures and javascript, we grew up on ping and tracert....we don't need no steeking GUI.
You can work with us or spend your life on an endless treadmill fighting a losing battle. But one thing history should have taught you...
....do not fuck with us.
Oh crap, is that in the PATRIOT (sic) Act?
A little off-topic...but we could develop ads for the NSA and Secret Service. BOMB BOMB BOMB COUNTRYWIDE 250,000 FOR JUST $750 A MONTH PRESIDENT PRESIDENT PRESIDENT SHOW YOUR NSA BADGE AND GET 20% OFF BARNES AND NOBLE THIS WEEKEND!
Intelligence spam. What a concept.
If something doesn't work right...change the name. It sounds bad to say we kidnapped people and kept them in secret prisons. "Extraordinary rendition" sounds so much more pleasant.
Especially trade groups that specialize in enforcement. If it's bad enough for the copyright holder to bring a claim, then let them do it. But these Gambini-esque trade groups are making a living off the money they're extorting from companies and individuals.
It's like letting the mafia enforce the speed limit.
You can outsource work but you can't outsource responsibility.
Oh, yeah? Let's ask Karl Rove.
Some administrators in one school even "anointed" kids' desks before the test with holy oil, hoping for higher scores.
Sounds like you have bigger problems than test scores going on there.
Who is damn sick and tired of being spied on by their own government?
There is no doubt when something is on fire. We deal with all kinds of incidents. We're a dirt poor volunteer department and even we have thermal cameras that will distinguish the merely hot from something on fire, even through walls. We also have infrared surface thermometers so we know where to cut the hole in the wall.
I've also seen it happen that something was smoking hot until the access hole is cut and when the air gets in it bursts into flame. Particularly in walls and behind panels. I doubt the Verizon techs were close enough to see when the fire department got there.
The witnesses said they saw white, puffy smoke. That usually means the fire is out. It also indicates there was a fire to put out.
Just amazes me that the truth is so hard for so many organizations these days.
I don't remember the transition from 2000 to XP being this difficult. There were a few bumps, the usual driver follies but nothing like the problems plaguing Vista. I don't remember companies going with 2000 because XP caused so many problems.
If memory serves the transition from 2K to XP was actually pleasant...at least by comparison.
Having said that I don't doubt MSFT will get Vista straightened out. My beef with MSFT products is not with the quality (although some of you could argue that quite compellingly). To me it's always been about value. Not whether it works but if it's worth the money you're paying. Right now, for Vista, that answer is "no" for a lot of people.
We'd all be crapping highly volatile hydrocarbon compounds. That would certainly raise the stakes for tossing a cigarette down the toilet, now wouldn't it? Perhaps spawning a new type of domestic terrorism.
I've got diarrhea and a lighter! I'll take all of you with me!
It would give TSA something new to look for. "AH-HA! This man is carrying X-Lax! Take him away!" Definitely make you long for the old days when all you had to do was take your shoes off, eh?