However, the fact that the workaround is so klugey illustrates my major point that even mainstream apps like the latest palm hotsync version are not setup to work properly without administrator privileges or less than obvious workarounds.
Additionally, your workaround doesn't work well when you intend to add additional users down the road unless you want to uninstall, install, and reconfigure the app each time while also remembering to grant and then takeaway admin privileges from each user. Would you mind asking your boyfriend what "back-assed":) kluge I need to do to export/import the relevant registry keys?
On the other hand, under Linux, as long as you have permission to run the relevant sync application (typically the default)and as long as you have permission to read/write to the relevant port (which usually occurs automatically under PAM when you login from the console), then the hotsync operation works just fine in user space.
All of the above illustrates the inherent problems caused by trying to evolve an insecure and flakey toy "operating system" into something approaching a more mature, stable, and secure OS while at the same time trying to preserve backwards compatibility and appeal to all levels of users. The result is that the OS -- e.g., Win2k/XP -- remains inherently flakey, unstable, not fully backwards compatible, and increasingly complicated to adminstrator.
Wrong. I only use 'sudo' when I absolutely need superuser privileges and I only do a full 'su' on the very rare times that I am running more than single commands as root.
I run as administrator (i.e. root) under Windoze for 2 reasons:
1. Standard apps (such as palm hotsynch) and many games don't work properly as non-root
2. I don't want to have switch user each time I need to do an administrator-level activity -- particlulary since brain-dead windoze takes a minute or more to do this even on a fast machine.
If only there were the Unix equivalent of 'sudo' or even 'su' then it would be much easier to run with user level privileges and only use administrator when you really need it.
Windoze is still a buggy, toy operating system relative to Linux or any other half-decent flavor of Unix...
Actually, according to http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm , the Sun's mass is equal to 332,830 the mass of the Earth.
Still per the parent poster, the earth itself contains more than 2^128 atoms (even after correcting for the fact that the average atomic weight of an atom on earth is larger than 2)
But if something in XP breaks, you basically have to reinstall from scratch unless you have a full system backup (and even that is hard to do without something like Norton Ghost which requires a reboot). The registry is one big piece of twisted mess waiting to be corrupted.
If something breaks in Linux, I just reinstall the RPM. No wacko registry to worry about. Config files are mostly plain text and easy to copy, understand, and edit/modify to your benefit.
Ahhh... but that is exactly the point!!!
In Windoze it seems like nearly everything (even most games) need to run with admin privileges.
A mail reader should *not* be running as root -- that is ludicrous! In Linux, mail is read with user privileges so the worst you can do is to corrupt your user space. But even this is unlikely since the applications and widgets are just so much better written than Outlook and the dangerous active-X stuff.
In Linux, I just about never log in as root. At most, I use sudo when I need to admin-type stuff.
In windoze, OTOH, my user account has admin privileges because otherwise half my programs won't work properly. Plus, if I want to do admin-type stuff, I have to log out (or switch user) which takes forever. In Linux, I just run sudo or at worst run root for a few minutes in another desktop window.
How ironic, just as I was reading this slashdot posting, I got an error on my work XP machine about the RPC service exiting. At about the same time, my network service crashed. Needless to say, I was unable to even open the network connection dialog (it just flickered up for a fraction of a second) and when I opened the services app, the RPC app was grayed out, neither letting me stop nor start the service.
Only solution was to reboot... However, the reboot took so long that I just ended up going up to my Linux machine and launched Mozilla from there to read Slashdot and pen this post. What sweet timing and irony!
Despite the reader's experience, I find that on my vanilla XP machine (XP + MS Office + just a few other utlities), I need to reboot every few days or else it goes unstable. True, I don't get a BSOD, I just get plain vanilla instability and crashing that requires reboots. Also, even if the machine were more stable, I would still need to reboot it every few days as required by the endless stream of M$ security patches and by many application installs or upgrades.
Also, the machine leaks memory like a sieve and despite having 768M of RAM and oodles of free disk space still seems to constantly run low on VM (unlike my solid FC1 Linux machine). Of course, you have minimal control over processes and almost none over drivers.
My Linux machine, OTOH, is rock stable. I only shut it down every few months to clean out the dust, to update firmware (when no Linux installer is available), to update the kernel, or to run some silly Windoze app that I only have on this machine.
Not sure what planet the parent poster is from, but Windoze still has a long, long way to go in stability and an even longer way to go in flexibility and user control, and almost infinitely far to go in security. It is still very much a toy, crippled OS (don't even get me started on the even more intentionally crippled nature of XP Home)
OTOH, Linux IMHO suffers from only 2 flaws. One is
that it is has less hand-holding, making it more difficult for beginners, though this is getting better and doesn't personally affect me since I prefer command-line control and scripts to endless point and click. The second flaw is the relative lack of applications and drivers but this is not the fault of Linux but rather the direct consequence of the monopoly power and position of Microsloth.
You only go back to calculating in 1979?:) I remember back to ~1975. There was a series of calculators called Novus from National Semicondutor. Popular Electronics talked about a hack in the ~$30 calculator which added some of the "features" of the more expensive ~$90 version. (If I remember correctly, the cheaper version had only basic arithmetic while the more "advanced" one maybe added a memory registry and the ability to press the "+" sign and continue to add the same amount as in the last operation. Maybe also the ability to do percentages).
I was then about 12 years old and remember trying to get my parents to get me the cheaper one so I could "upgrade" to the cool more expensive one. The hack involved only a simple jumper.
Now 1979.... we were no longer kids then... in those days, I was hacking my Ohio Scientific Superboard II computer to add more RAM, sound, a light pen, etc... -- that was real hacking!!!
I went to college and med school with a Vietnamese guy whose name was (no kidding):
*** Long Dang
and to college with a guy whose name was:
*** Abajhit Deschmukh
(which sounded like "Have a Shit the Shmuck")
If you have names like that you should consider immigrating to a non-English speaking country for Gods sake!
You may joke, but I actually do this with the brick for my Toshiba PC.
Actually, I am using an underpowered old Compaq brick as the power source for my Toshiba laptop. Since the brick is underpowered it tends to heat up and then thermally shut-off when the laptop is stressed by a combination of running intensive processes and recharging the battery (a double drain so-to-speak)
I am currently using two different solutions:
1. When in the office, I simply tape a frozen water bottle to the brick
2. In hotel rooms, I usually ask for a fridge and place just the brick inside the freezer compartment
Both methods work like a charm.
Note for Darwin Award Candidates: I do not necessarily recommend this and one needs to be careful of condensation (i.e. water) around any electric device.
The ancient DOS adventure game "Rogue" (one of my all-time favorites) used Scroll Lock to scroll your character's movement through the ASCII dungeons.
----------- I just love reading answers by "experts" who attribute anything "old" to DOS. I could have sworn that I played Rogue on old Unix Vaxen long before DOS was a twinkle in Bill Gates's eyes...
> We block all Windows executable attachments in the companies mail gateway. When you want to transfer an executable, tough luck. Send a floppy or a CD...or you could just zip the executable, presumably, or even simpler just change the M$ 3 character extension
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks... I appreciate your detailed help here.
:) kluge I need to do to export/import the relevant registry keys?
However, the fact that the workaround is so klugey illustrates my major point that even mainstream apps like the latest palm hotsync version are not setup to work properly without administrator privileges or less than obvious workarounds.
Additionally, your workaround doesn't work well when you intend to add additional users down the road unless you want to uninstall, install, and reconfigure the app each time while also remembering to grant and then takeaway admin privileges from each user. Would you mind asking your boyfriend what "back-assed"
On the other hand, under Linux, as long as you have permission to run the relevant sync application (typically the default)and as long as you have permission to read/write to the relevant port (which usually occurs automatically under PAM when you login from the console), then the hotsync operation works just fine in user space.
All of the above illustrates the inherent problems caused by trying to evolve an insecure and flakey toy "operating system" into something approaching a more mature, stable, and secure OS while at the same time trying to preserve backwards compatibility and appeal to all levels of users. The result is that the OS -- e.g., Win2k/XP -- remains inherently flakey, unstable, not fully backwards compatible, and increasingly complicated to adminstrator.
I was not aware of this function... clearly it is not well-publicized... which is another reason that so many people run as administrator.
Wrong. I only use 'sudo' when I absolutely need superuser privileges and I only do a full 'su' on the very rare times that I am running more than single commands as root.
I run as administrator (i.e. root) under Windoze for 2 reasons:
1. Standard apps (such as palm hotsynch) and many games don't work properly as non-root
2. I don't want to have switch user each time I need to do an administrator-level activity -- particlulary since brain-dead windoze takes a minute or more to do this even on a fast machine.
If only there were the Unix equivalent of 'sudo' or even 'su' then it would be much easier to run with user level privileges and only use administrator when you really need it.
Windoze is still a buggy, toy operating system relative to Linux or any other half-decent flavor of Unix...
Actually, according to http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm , the Sun's mass is equal to 332,830 the mass of the Earth.
Still per the parent poster, the earth itself contains more than 2^128 atoms (even after correcting for the fact that the average atomic weight of an atom on earth is larger than 2)
Rogue is purer and more authentic. None of this new-fangled Hack/Nethack stuff.
But if something in XP breaks, you basically have to reinstall from scratch unless you have a full system backup (and even that is hard to do without something like Norton Ghost which requires a reboot). The registry is one big piece of twisted mess waiting to be corrupted.
If something breaks in Linux, I just reinstall the RPM. No wacko registry to worry about. Config files are mostly plain text and easy to copy, understand, and edit/modify to your benefit.
Ahhh... but that is exactly the point!!! In Windoze it seems like nearly everything (even most games) need to run with admin privileges. A mail reader should *not* be running as root -- that is ludicrous! In Linux, mail is read with user privileges so the worst you can do is to corrupt your user space. But even this is unlikely since the applications and widgets are just so much better written than Outlook and the dangerous active-X stuff. In Linux, I just about never log in as root. At most, I use sudo when I need to admin-type stuff. In windoze, OTOH, my user account has admin privileges because otherwise half my programs won't work properly. Plus, if I want to do admin-type stuff, I have to log out (or switch user) which takes forever. In Linux, I just run sudo or at worst run root for a few minutes in another desktop window.
How ironic, just as I was reading this slashdot posting, I got an error on my work XP machine about the RPC service exiting. At about the same time, my network service crashed. Needless to say, I was unable to even open the network connection dialog (it just flickered up for a fraction of a second) and when I opened the services app, the RPC app was grayed out, neither letting me stop nor start the service. Only solution was to reboot... However, the reboot took so long that I just ended up going up to my Linux machine and launched Mozilla from there to read Slashdot and pen this post. What sweet timing and irony! Despite the reader's experience, I find that on my vanilla XP machine (XP + MS Office + just a few other utlities), I need to reboot every few days or else it goes unstable. True, I don't get a BSOD, I just get plain vanilla instability and crashing that requires reboots. Also, even if the machine were more stable, I would still need to reboot it every few days as required by the endless stream of M$ security patches and by many application installs or upgrades. Also, the machine leaks memory like a sieve and despite having 768M of RAM and oodles of free disk space still seems to constantly run low on VM (unlike my solid FC1 Linux machine). Of course, you have minimal control over processes and almost none over drivers. My Linux machine, OTOH, is rock stable. I only shut it down every few months to clean out the dust, to update firmware (when no Linux installer is available), to update the kernel, or to run some silly Windoze app that I only have on this machine. Not sure what planet the parent poster is from, but Windoze still has a long, long way to go in stability and an even longer way to go in flexibility and user control, and almost infinitely far to go in security. It is still very much a toy, crippled OS (don't even get me started on the even more intentionally crippled nature of XP Home) OTOH, Linux IMHO suffers from only 2 flaws. One is that it is has less hand-holding, making it more difficult for beginners, though this is getting better and doesn't personally affect me since I prefer command-line control and scripts to endless point and click. The second flaw is the relative lack of applications and drivers but this is not the fault of Linux but rather the direct consequence of the monopoly power and position of Microsloth.
You only go back to calculating in 1979? :)
I remember back to ~1975. There was a series of calculators called Novus from National Semicondutor. Popular Electronics talked about a hack in the ~$30 calculator which added some of the "features" of the more expensive ~$90 version. (If I remember correctly, the cheaper version had only basic arithmetic while the more "advanced" one maybe added a memory registry and the ability to press the "+" sign and continue to add the same amount as in the last operation. Maybe also the ability to do percentages).
I was then about 12 years old and remember trying to get my parents to get me the cheaper one so I could "upgrade" to the cool more expensive one. The hack involved only a simple jumper.
Now 1979.... we were no longer kids then... in those days, I was hacking my Ohio Scientific Superboard II computer to add more RAM, sound, a light pen, etc... -- that was real hacking!!!
I went to college and med school with a Vietnamese guy whose name was (no kidding): *** Long Dang and to college with a guy whose name was: *** Abajhit Deschmukh (which sounded like "Have a Shit the Shmuck") If you have names like that you should consider immigrating to a non-English speaking country for Gods sake!
You may joke, but I actually do this with the brick for my Toshiba PC. Actually, I am using an underpowered old Compaq brick as the power source for my Toshiba laptop. Since the brick is underpowered it tends to heat up and then thermally shut-off when the laptop is stressed by a combination of running intensive processes and recharging the battery (a double drain so-to-speak) I am currently using two different solutions: 1. When in the office, I simply tape a frozen water bottle to the brick 2. In hotel rooms, I usually ask for a fridge and place just the brick inside the freezer compartment Both methods work like a charm. Note for Darwin Award Candidates: I do not necessarily recommend this and one needs to be careful of condensation (i.e. water) around any electric device.
The ancient DOS adventure game "Rogue" (one of my all-time favorites) used Scroll Lock to scroll your character's movement through the ASCII dungeons.
-----------
I just love reading answers by "experts" who attribute anything "old" to DOS. I could have sworn that I played Rogue on old Unix Vaxen long before DOS was a twinkle in Bill Gates's eyes...
> We block all Windows executable attachments in the companies mail gateway. When you want to transfer an executable, tough luck. Send a floppy or a CD ...or you could just zip the executable, presumably, or even simpler just change the M$ 3 character extension