This was 1999. My highschool friend got me interested in Linux. Gave me a RH install CD. X didn't play well with my monitor (GUI installer); so that didn't work.
Then he gave me Mandrake; similar problem with RH obviously... Then Debian. That installer was text based and a giant nightmare. Couldn't figure it out.
So he gave me Slackware. Brilliant. It installed and worked and I started learning. Didn't know how to use it. So I would ask my buddy how to do this or that. He'd give me a yellow post-it after class with "man pppd" or "man xorg.conf" and disappear.
Then in college I got masochistic and went Gentoo all out. I had some Debian machines and CentOS too; but Gentoo was my main platform.
Then I left college; got a job and picked up a macbook; run OSX and Arch on my other systems.
Give a teenage boy slackware and a dialup connection. Nothing can stop the teenage quest for dirty pictures.
Eating dirt with slackware for 4 years was probably the best learning curve possible; for me anyways. Everybody is different.
Yes, some of the old-hats are incapable of learning new tricks. The ones who could moved on to better pastures and the ones who couldn't... well, they're the senior tech guys now, old and wise and stuck in the '90/'80/'70s.
Just keep on learning, try not to piss off the connected old dogs and move on to better opportunities when the chance arrives.
I've found that IT teams senior-heavy are very VERY resistant to fancy new tech (windows 7!? It was better when we had to adjust the potentiometers on disk drives with a torque wrench and oscilloscope! Multicore and virtualization are stupid, just another fad like zip disks! Besides, we already moved away from mainframes! What's a blue ray?).
You've got time and money to devote to learning; they have blue pills, kids, retirement savings and cribbage at the legion that demand attention.
Because if you could reason with religious people, there wouldn't be any religious people. They don't care about evidence or science or logic or reason, because the devil invented that silly nonsense to test their faith.
Everybody thinks using HTTPS within corporate walls means your traffic is encrypted. We control (Via AD) who your trusted root signers are. And if you look at who signed Google.com or paypal.com, it was us. EVERYTHING seems to be signed by the corp key. Also, the web filter appliance sees all the internet in plain text, SSL doesn't matter.
Executing a MITM SSL attack is easy when all the PCs trust your signing key.
Exactly - I need a device which can sync to my exchange and IMAP systems. BlackBerry can't do that. I get hundreds of emails a day, most are crap and get auto-sorted into folders other than my inbox. But every damn one hits my BB making it useless for email.
This iPhone however only sees the mail I want it to see. There's the killer feature I wanted from a smartphone. The business is happy because they can remotely integrate it into existing policies, the user is happy because... it just works, AND it can do cool things users expect a smartphone to do.
Too bad my corp bans jailbroken iFads, because a BB really is better for power users out of the box.
Yes, same about brakes in north america. Also, the keys... Reasonably modern cars have a special detent thing so you can turn the engine off without engaging steering wheel lock, because you have to push a button/push the key and twist in order to engage the lockout and remove the key.
The problem is that we allow complete fucking morons behind the wheel. And we breed far FAR more idiots than you Europeans could ever hope to produce.
The rest of you imbeciles please stay home and let somebody else drive.
I wish getting qualified to drive was the same process as learning to fly. You never get into a new vehicle without reading the important sections of the manual.
I've been in the stuck accelerator situation before (Cobalt SS, auto). Turning left in a school zone. Suddenly engine starts revving. Not like pedal to the metal, just a linear increase in RPM.
So I pushed into neutral, turned the key to shut the engine off, restarted the engine and continued on my way without stopping/swerving. There were no deaths, fires, or collisions. Perhaps briefly I was going too fast in a school zone.
Disclaimer: I'm a geek and maybe had "special training" for emergency situations (private pilot).
But seriously, this shit should be on the test. Driving is not a right. If you can't handle yourself in the most mundane of exciting situations, please don't drive.
But can I not daisychain some TB monitors together, perhaps with their own integrated GPUs (or not, consumers choice)? And have the USB ports on the monitor too? Maybe eventually, your "PC" will be your iFad or other mobile device and how you use it will be determined by the current accessories available.
Graphics++ gaming rig? Phone? Plug it in at home to your projector, sound system and HDD array to realize your home theater.
There are many vehicles around that can't take the old 16" rims and big cheap balloon tires. My car comes in 18" rims with 17" being the smallest that will clear the calipers. Those are expensive sets of rubber.
And as anybody with a limited slip differential can tell you, both powered tires must be the same diameter. One worn tire and a new tire are not compatible; so if you blow one tire, you have to replace both.:(
I didn't even pirate the Ubi games this go-around. I simply deprived myself of the glorious Assassin's Creed and Driver sequels. I was also looking forward to From Dust.
It's just cheap entertainment, and there are SO many awesome things $60 can go to. It's not sex; you *can* abstain from Ubisoft.
Certainly. Guy alone in room weeping softly at computer desk. Girl comes in...
Girl: What's wrong Mr. Awesome?
Guy: My porn cloud got deleted by the Feds!
Girl: That sucks! Damn feds, we better make our own faster than they can delete it!!
It seems that the game industry wants their product to be like the OS industry - or many other BIG software people. Think Cisco (the guys I deal with). You can buy a switch or router and resell the hardware, but the software it runs is licensed and non-transferable.
I bet the software that runs all kinds of important hardware is on a non-transferable license.
Does the same not apply (From what I hear, not a MS user - hope I'm TROLL levels of wrong) to Microsoft licensing? Agreed, that is the messiest licensing in the world... But I don't think you can transfer your licenses, for at least some flavors of Windows (enterprise or volume licensing, server vs user, chocolate ultimate vs basic with sprinkles?).
Sometimes data just falls into your hands too. Are you trespassing when a back-end process causes a database to barf itself all over some user's browser? It is not hard for a small/inexperienced team to create an interface that does not handle all the legitimate crap the world will throw at it.
I wonder why my employer's WebSense filter blocked it as being "tasteless." Any ideas?
I'm a WebSense admin. Classification of content seems to be random at best. I'm constantly unblocking and reclassifying content. You have no idea how often sites like Google get classed as porn, malicious, social networking, tasteless and so on.
WS just rolls a D100 every time it crawls a site. Frustrating as hell. I have so many stories:(
It's nice that we don't face the same persecution the Yanks face from the MAFIAA, I like my shared music... And healthcare;)
But this system will alienate the one or two people who do still pay for music and cause them to re-evaluate their position on piracy. If it's justified through yet another tax, then why pay for music at all? And... what's the difference between music, movies and games? A bitstream by any other name is still just a bitstream.
Absolutely it is a license to do whatever you want, simply because they don't offer refunds.
My particular gripe: Fallout 3 for Playstation 3. I purchased the game, had great fun. Purchased all the expansion packs and 1 of them just doesn't work (system locks up within 20 minutes max) and the other I can't get into at all (system locks up trying to enter it).
Search the forums for these issues and they are well known bugs. That is unacceptable. I bought two products and can't use them at all. It's almost as if nobody even play-tested the DLC for PS3.
Can I return the defective product? Absolutely not. So I pirated the game for PC because it works better. Will I purchase DLC again? Probably not until I've play-tested it.
There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me..... You can't get fooled again.
If it's anything like where I work then these statements are true:
1. The IT department didn't have a say
2. [Vendor] felated [purchaser|executives] (either with marketing, golfing, widgets, etc)
3. It won't work as intended and users will complain and IT will have to do something about it
3a. Without any budget because it's been blown on the crappy tech already.
The linux suggestion was probably made by many competent IT staff but since it didn't cost enough it wasn't considered. Also, the microsoft techs would have screamed bloody murder that Linux wouldn't work and other FUD.
After working in this industry for a few years I've come to realize that the best decision is always suggested but quickly flamed upon in favor of the worst decision.
Many comments here are focusing on the point that the providers can't provide what they are selling and comparing it to a product. If you pay for a product, then yes it is your property (unless it's the MAFIAA you're buying from) to do as you please. However, the internet isn't a product.
There are roads and plumbing and electricity and the Internet. These are services.
You pay for road access (tolls and taxes) but if the road is too busy, that sucks and deal with it. There is not enough room on any roadway to handle all potential customers.
You pay for water but if everybody flushes their toilet and waters the grass and takes a shower at the same time, water becomes scarce and that sucks but you deal with it. There is not enough water throughput to deal with all potential customers claiming their purchased usage.
You pay for electricity. Too many users = brownout. That sucks, deal with it.
The internet isn't a product, but a service. Like all services, it is oversubscribed. If there is a sudden surge of demand it becomes unavailable and that sucks but just deal with it. Go outside; it's hi-def too.
If there is a continuous over-demand for the service, the providers will build more infrastructure. And that will probably mean temporary limitations.
Just like road construction, or plumbing and electrical upgrades.
Don't get me wrong, I like to "download Linux" over bittorrent like everybody else. But I don't have a Service Level Agreement with my ISP, or my city road crew, or my utilities providers. I just deal with downtime.
Slashdot Mirror
This was 1999. My highschool friend got me interested in Linux. Gave me a RH install CD. X didn't play well with my monitor (GUI installer); so that didn't work.
Then he gave me Mandrake; similar problem with RH obviously...
Then Debian. That installer was text based and a giant nightmare. Couldn't figure it out.
So he gave me Slackware. Brilliant. It installed and worked and I started learning. Didn't know how to use it. So I would ask my buddy how to do this or that. He'd give me a yellow post-it after class with "man pppd" or "man xorg.conf" and disappear.
Then in college I got masochistic and went Gentoo all out. I had some Debian machines and CentOS too; but Gentoo was my main platform.
Then I left college; got a job and picked up a macbook; run OSX and Arch on my other systems.
Give a teenage boy slackware and a dialup connection. Nothing can stop the teenage quest for dirty pictures.
Eating dirt with slackware for 4 years was probably the best learning curve possible; for me anyways. Everybody is different.
Yes, some of the old-hats are incapable of learning new tricks. The ones who could moved on to better pastures and the ones who couldn't... well, they're the senior tech guys now, old and wise and stuck in the '90/'80/'70s.
Just keep on learning, try not to piss off the connected old dogs and move on to better opportunities when the chance arrives.
I've found that IT teams senior-heavy are very VERY resistant to fancy new tech (windows 7!? It was better when we had to adjust the potentiometers on disk drives with a torque wrench and oscilloscope! Multicore and virtualization are stupid, just another fad like zip disks! Besides, we already moved away from mainframes! What's a blue ray?).
You've got time and money to devote to learning; they have blue pills, kids, retirement savings and cribbage at the legion that demand attention.
You and I will be there one day too.
Pretty simple. How many seeds did you purchase, how big is your field. If you have more fields of Soy than you purchased, go to prison.
SQUEAL~1.DLL and HORIZO~1.DLL
Because if you could reason with religious people, there wouldn't be any religious people. They don't care about evidence or science or logic or reason, because the devil invented that silly nonsense to test their faith.
Is it a crime to eat or serve dolphin? It's just meat...
Everybody thinks using HTTPS within corporate walls means your traffic is encrypted. We control (Via AD) who your trusted root signers are. And if you look at who signed Google.com or paypal.com, it was us. EVERYTHING seems to be signed by the corp key. Also, the web filter appliance sees all the internet in plain text, SSL doesn't matter.
Executing a MITM SSL attack is easy when all the PCs trust your signing key.
Exactly - I need a device which can sync to my exchange and IMAP systems. BlackBerry can't do that. I get hundreds of emails a day, most are crap and get auto-sorted into folders other than my inbox. But every damn one hits my BB making it useless for email.
This iPhone however only sees the mail I want it to see. There's the killer feature I wanted from a smartphone. The business is happy because they can remotely integrate it into existing policies, the user is happy because... it just works, AND it can do cool things users expect a smartphone to do.
Too bad my corp bans jailbroken iFads, because a BB really is better for power users out of the box.
Yes, same about brakes in north america. Also, the keys... Reasonably modern cars have a special detent thing so you can turn the engine off without engaging steering wheel lock, because you have to push a button/push the key and twist in order to engage the lockout and remove the key.
The problem is that we allow complete fucking morons behind the wheel. And we breed far FAR more idiots than you Europeans could ever hope to produce.
You sir are my favorite kind of driver; Carry on.
The rest of you imbeciles please stay home and let somebody else drive.
I wish getting qualified to drive was the same process as learning to fly. You never get into a new vehicle without reading the important sections of the manual.
I've been in the stuck accelerator situation before (Cobalt SS, auto). Turning left in a school zone. Suddenly engine starts revving. Not like pedal to the metal, just a linear increase in RPM.
So I pushed into neutral, turned the key to shut the engine off, restarted the engine and continued on my way without stopping/swerving. There were no deaths, fires, or collisions. Perhaps briefly I was going too fast in a school zone.
Disclaimer: I'm a geek and maybe had "special training" for emergency situations (private pilot).
But seriously, this shit should be on the test. Driving is not a right. If you can't handle yourself in the most mundane of exciting situations, please don't drive.
But can I not daisychain some TB monitors together, perhaps with their own integrated GPUs (or not, consumers choice)? And have the USB ports on the monitor too? Maybe eventually, your "PC" will be your iFad or other mobile device and how you use it will be determined by the current accessories available.
Graphics++ gaming rig? Phone? Plug it in at home to your projector, sound system and HDD array to realize your home theater.
There are many vehicles around that can't take the old 16" rims and big cheap balloon tires. My car comes in 18" rims with 17" being the smallest that will clear the calipers. Those are expensive sets of rubber.
And as anybody with a limited slip differential can tell you, both powered tires must be the same diameter. One worn tire and a new tire are not compatible; so if you blow one tire, you have to replace both. :(
That's AWESOME!
Now I can buy a singleplayer game once for my own enjoyment, and once again for my wife!
Nope; somebody will claim copyright, or it'll be DRMed..
I didn't even pirate the Ubi games this go-around. I simply deprived myself of the glorious Assassin's Creed and Driver sequels. I was also looking forward to From Dust.
It's just cheap entertainment, and there are SO many awesome things $60 can go to. It's not sex; you *can* abstain from Ubisoft.
Certainly. Guy alone in room weeping softly at computer desk. Girl comes in...
Girl: What's wrong Mr. Awesome?
Guy: My porn cloud got deleted by the Feds!
Girl: That sucks! Damn feds, we better make our own faster than they can delete it!!
And I'm spent.
It seems that the game industry wants their product to be like the OS industry - or many other BIG software people. Think Cisco (the guys I deal with). You can buy a switch or router and resell the hardware, but the software it runs is licensed and non-transferable.
I bet the software that runs all kinds of important hardware is on a non-transferable license.
Does the same not apply (From what I hear, not a MS user - hope I'm TROLL levels of wrong) to Microsoft licensing? Agreed, that is the messiest licensing in the world... But I don't think you can transfer your licenses, for at least some flavors of Windows (enterprise or volume licensing, server vs user, chocolate ultimate vs basic with sprinkles?).
Sometimes data just falls into your hands too. Are you trespassing when a back-end process causes a database to barf itself all over some user's browser? It is not hard for a small/inexperienced team to create an interface that does not handle all the legitimate crap the world will throw at it.
I wonder why my employer's WebSense filter blocked it as being "tasteless." Any ideas?
I'm a WebSense admin. Classification of content seems to be random at best. I'm constantly unblocking and reclassifying content. You have no idea how often sites like Google get classed as porn, malicious, social networking, tasteless and so on. WS just rolls a D100 every time it crawls a site. Frustrating as hell. I have so many stories :(
I blogged this post. Brilliant! I wish we could pay the pirates for enhancing the original product.
It's nice that we don't face the same persecution the Yanks face from the MAFIAA, I like my shared music... And healthcare ;)
But this system will alienate the one or two people who do still pay for music and cause them to re-evaluate their position on piracy. If it's justified through yet another tax, then why pay for music at all? And... what's the difference between music, movies and games? A bitstream by any other name is still just a bitstream.
My particular gripe: Fallout 3 for Playstation 3. I purchased the game, had great fun. Purchased all the expansion packs and 1 of them just doesn't work (system locks up within 20 minutes max) and the other I can't get into at all (system locks up trying to enter it).
Search the forums for these issues and they are well known bugs. That is unacceptable. I bought two products and can't use them at all. It's almost as if nobody even play-tested the DLC for PS3.
Can I return the defective product? Absolutely not. So I pirated the game for PC because it works better. Will I purchase DLC again? Probably not until I've play-tested it.
There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me..... You can't get fooled again.
If it's anything like where I work then these statements are true:
1. The IT department didn't have a say
2. [Vendor] felated [purchaser|executives] (either with marketing, golfing, widgets, etc)
3. It won't work as intended and users will complain and IT will have to do something about it
3a. Without any budget because it's been blown on the crappy tech already.
The linux suggestion was probably made by many competent IT staff but since it didn't cost enough it wasn't considered. Also, the microsoft techs would have screamed bloody murder that Linux wouldn't work and other FUD.
After working in this industry for a few years I've come to realize that the best decision is always suggested but quickly flamed upon in favor of the worst decision.
There are roads and plumbing and electricity and the Internet. These are services.
You pay for road access (tolls and taxes) but if the road is too busy, that sucks and deal with it. There is not enough room on any roadway to handle all potential customers.
You pay for water but if everybody flushes their toilet and waters the grass and takes a shower at the same time, water becomes scarce and that sucks but you deal with it. There is not enough water throughput to deal with all potential customers claiming their purchased usage.
You pay for electricity. Too many users = brownout. That sucks, deal with it.
The internet isn't a product, but a service. Like all services, it is oversubscribed. If there is a sudden surge of demand it becomes unavailable and that sucks but just deal with it. Go outside; it's hi-def too.
If there is a continuous over-demand for the service, the providers will build more infrastructure. And that will probably mean temporary limitations.
Just like road construction, or plumbing and electrical upgrades.
Don't get me wrong, I like to "download Linux" over bittorrent like everybody else. But I don't have a Service Level Agreement with my ISP, or my city road crew, or my utilities providers. I just deal with downtime.
-Alex