What about the situations where someone who knows your work email address submits you to the p0rn sites and you start receiving messages. I had this happen to me a couple years back where a college buddy of mine decided it would be funny to sign me up for "p0rn picture of the day".
Could be difficult to prove that you weren't the one to do it, plus you'd be a lot more careful in who gets your email address.
I'd put Sun in the high performance category for certain products. The Blade equipment and their high end servers have always performed well for me (database, web development/hosting, Geographic Information System processing). I'll agree that not every product they put out pushes the performance envelope, but I doubt you'll find a single company that doesn't have a bit of variety in that category.
On point to consider is the end use of the products. In some cases, Sun products don't really start to "shine" (OK, bad pun) until you've started to scale them up.
firmware should not be a core component of a hardware company
Firmware can be valuable intellectual property just like any other hardware/software. If a company chooses to keep it closed, that is their decision. If you don't like it, don't buy that piece of hardware. Unfortunately, you'll probably find a small selection, at least today.
If a company finds a drop in sales due to keeping closed source, they'll change their business model to be competitive. If on the other hand most people don't care, they haven't given away their 'secrets' while still supporting customer usage.
In the strictest sense I agree with you but for the most part, the visuals are from the minds of the players. I imagine if the DM were to say that you were in a cave entrance with a couple of passage ways along with a brief description of the cave environment, we'd all draw a different picture based on what "we" see. The imagination also applies to dealing with the situation - they can pretty much do whatever they want (which a DM may find hard to deal with, especially from the minds of a 10 year old).
I may have to add D&D to the present list for him. I'm definitely not ready to part with my stuff yet. Should be interesting to see some of the newer versions of the books.
After I get him hooked on D&D, I'll have to try him at Rifts or Space Frontiers (I'll have to "acquire" that one from my brother next time I go to his place. *checking my thieving abilities now*).
Re:I had a discussion...
on
D&D Is 30
·
· Score: 1
You say nerd like it's a bad thing.
Re:The flagship...
on
D&D Is 30
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Well it's a good thing I have my son and his friends playing (all in the 10 year old range). They'll be able to consider themselves the "real deal" now.
Seriously though, my son and his friends love it. With all the "eye candy" offered in the video game world, it's still amazing to see that kids use their imagination to create a fantasy world instead of viewing someone else's version of one.
IE will freeze up. The amount of time seems to depends on the page your trying to view though. If I'm forced to use IE for a page within my companies Intranet while connected via VPN and specific proxy settings, I find that if I forget to reset my proxy settings, it can hang for a while (few seconds) when I hit my home page. Hitting the Stop button doesn't seem to speed things up either as IE feels it has to load some system page to give me a friendly message by default.
All that said though, a few seconds wait isn't the worst thing to put up with.
I think IE has fallen behind other browser development but imagine the next version will "integrate" these capabilities. For now, I'll use Netscape.
With web based voting, how long till some group/company comes up with a plan to "buy" your vote? Without some physical sort of security I could see a possibility where citizens could be enticed to exchange their vote for 20% off purchases at some website. Imagine a website giving out free memberships if you turn in your voting information?
While illegal, I wouldn't put it past someone to pull something like this (foreign companies?).
Going to a polling location as you indicated should pretty much be required (mail in ballots probably being the only exception).
I guess I should have double checked my posting. I was writing it in between other task at my desk. Started out as sarcasm but obviously ended up the wrong way. It should have read as you pointed out (that custom applications are used rather than the MS mail clients...my bad).
It would be a pain but from Lord Ender's post, the issue is that dorm students are "forced" to use the schools network and pay for it. What he needs to do is either follow the schools policies or pressure to get his own ISP service (which as you point out would be a pain and certainly will be lower bandwidth).
Lord Ender's comments about "you should be able to do whatever you damn well please with your net connection, including entertainment." is the only reason he should push to get his own ISP that allows him to do what he wants. Using the schools service subjects him to their policies and he'll have to live with it or play outside the roles and accept the consequences for it if caught.
While MS is mucking with stuff, why don't they have Windows automagically generate a cert for someone's identity when a new user is created, and then include email signatures by default in Outlook/OE? Outlook and OE seem to handle S/MIME just about as well as Mozilla/TBird do.
I'm sure that spammers are using these products for their mass emailing instead of custom applications to obscure header information.
The reduction of spam (solution is too optimistic) will likely come from a multiple solution approach as a single approach will be circumvented. Approaches I think will help are:
Go after the person paying the spammer in the first place. Cut off the spam funding to reduce the amount of spam
Filters. While not perfect, they do catch at least the obvious spammers.
List. Again, not a perfect solution, but it can help.
SMTP rework. Certainly refining protocols can help as long as it's accepted by vendors. This may not solve every case, but may deter some spammers.
While I realize that spam is still flooding the Internet, I have noticed less in my inbox so something is working from my ISP and my employer.
I mostly agree with you on this. Certainly you have no other real choices in obtaining Internet access so your pretty well screwed (unless you go for dial-up - or can one get DSL? - I won't have to worry about this for a few more years till my kids are in college.). On the other hand, the university is acting like the ISP to you and they can establish policies similar to those home users choose. The policies for most home users have restrictions but are generally not enforced (depends on the ISP though).
Maybe schools should wire their dorms so that students can obtain their own ISP service. I imagine the new issue will be allowing secure access to the school network from ISP's networks then.
I work at a place where passwords are commonplace. We deal with system security as part of our software development process.
For a particular client, our contract had us setting up the systems in our lab. Being the system admin for the systems (and new to the company), I left the administrator and root passwords blank thinking everyone would try blanks at least once. As people started asking for the password, I found that the group was so used to complex password policies that they hadn't considered ever leaving it blank.
I imagine that some stores could do this, but it probably isn't a corporate policy.
My brother works for OfficeMax (the store he works at is located near Pittsburgh, PA) restocking shelves at night and they lock him in. He can get out in an emergency, but alarms will go off. His understanding of the policy is that it is part of a theft control policy. Stores don't want people slipping things out of the store at night.
So your comment about the policy being "DEAD wrong" may be correct for your wife's store, but may not apply to others.
You've actually gone to the other extreme from what the article's author has written. I think we can safely say that not all hardware will work with the drivers provided by either OS. You've essentially gone to his level of bitching about the other OS.
I think most people in this crowd will realize the author is trying to appear unbiased, but not doing a very good job.
What the author fails to take into account is that the drivers are provided with the MS Windows installation CD. Vendors are going to produce their hardware for more popular Operating Systems in most cases and the drivers they write will first be for MS OS's and if we're lucky, others. In some cases, older drivers will work on newer hardware, but some of the newer functionality may not be available until you upgrade the driver.
Basically until Linux takes a larger market share, look for vendors to provide limited support to the Linux OS's. Until then, if your going Linux, try to purchase hardware from vendors that are writing drivers for it.
I think it all depends on the car you buy. From the cars I've had, Nissan Sentras (2002 and 2004 models) and the Suzuki Esteem (1997), they have a decent amount of engine compartment space, even with the extras (PS & AC). Compared to the 1985 Sentra that I had a while back, I think I actually have more room to work. (Not quite related - Thankfully Nissan went to using a timing chain over the timing belt on the newer Sentras. I actually had the belt go and snap a valve that dinged up the piston and the wall pretty bad.)
I would guess that your RX-8 will probably take just about every inch of space, but that's to be expected with a performance car. BTW, nice car choice. Specs from the Mazda site are pretty nice. The RX product line has produced some sharp cars. Had a friend with one of the RX-7's from the mid 80's that was fun to ride in.
Honda's seem to be pretty tight in the compartment , but they've been that way for a while. My father and I did a road side repair for a water pump on an 1981 Prelude that practically had us thinking about removing body panels to get access. Not everything on the Honda is bad, but the side room (timing belt, water pump, AC, various belts) is definitely limited.
My son has Ambliopia (Lazy Eye) where his problem wasn't muscular but was related to the wiring in the brain. His brain just decided to use the one eye so the other was essentially useless. In our situation, this wasn't detected until he entered school where they did an eye exam on all the students. My son had adapted to a single eye for sight.
The treatment in his case didn't involve surgery. All we had to do was "force" him to use his "lazy eye" by patching his strong eye. The amount of patching can vary based on the severity of the case and for my son he was patching about 14 hours a day (essentially for entire time he was awake). After about 9 months, his vision went from 20/2000 to 20/70 bringing him into a much more acceptable range.
The brain will find a way to rewire itself if needed, but within limitations.
True, you have to pick which repairs your going to do in most cases. I don't do welding repairs either which is why my first car eventually went to the junkyard (it started "sagging" when I'd lift it for repairs and the control arm mount points were "out" too).
As for things like airbags, that definitely requires dealer or competent mechanic replacement. I've been fortunate so far to not have to deal with that yet (knocking on wood - curses, a metal desk).
I actually have two newer cars right now (a 2002 and a 2004) that are both Nissan's. One was a replacement for a 1993 Ford Aerostar, the other was a second vehicle. I've also had a 1997 Suzuki Esteem (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone, maybe a bad one off the line, but parts were difficult to find and pretty expensive/dealer only in most cases) and a 1985 Nissan Sentra. Out of all the vehicles, only the Aerostar had a tight engine compartment. When I look at vehicles now, even new ones, I naturally look at the space I have to work with. I've helped work on a fair number of vehicles (mostly economy class vehicles) and Honda's seem pretty tight in the engine compartment (fortunately they seem pretty reliable, but doing a roadside water pump replacement isn't much fun at night).
I guess from my experience, look at how difficult a common repair will be with your vehicle if your going to do it yourself, or ask a mechanic for some time estimates on common repairs. Mechanics have the resources to provide labor hours for just about any repair plus they'll have insight into which cars they see in the shop too often.
I have no problem spending the $200 or so for vehicles I own. My problem is that I'm not as willing to spend the $200 to solve another persons vehicle problem and in most cases, neither is the owner.
I always justify getting the new tools/toys over the cost of repair. Fortunately my wife can see it this way too. Now if only I can get her to let me keep some of the money saved to build another computer.
The problem for most people is that they are unwilling to do some repairs themselves. The cost of repairs for an older vehicle are often weighed against the cost of a new one. If the vehicle is older or plagued with problems, the economical choice tends to be a new vehicle.
As a backyard mechanic myself, I kept my old Nissan Sentra out of the junkyard for quite a while. Was cheaper to get a used engine for about $350 or a used transmission for $150. Another option is a rebuild kit which ran about $200 (piston rings, bearings, gaskets, etc...). Doing the repairs myself, I would add less than $75 for fluids, or misc parts (gaskets, hoses, etc...) and the car would last a couple more years. Only junked it when the car got to the point of the frame "sagging" (unfortunately I don't do welding).
Looks like I'll continue repairing my own vehicle along with the family/friend vehicles.
Really though, many of the repair manuals (I often use the Haynes manuals myself) available for vehicles contain fairly detailed information for troubleshooting and repairing vehicles. I do find that the tools that I have to purchase are becoming more expensive, but it still beats going to the mechanic in most cases. Of course I always look for an excuse to buy new tools.
I find that most people are afraid to attempt even simple repairs so the high tech problems won't change the consumer behavior of running to the shop for any problem. The trend will lead to higher tech mechanics though (higher salary, higher repair bill).
Now the one thing I would appreciate from the auto manufacturer is simplifying the onboard diagnostics. I'll even settle for the blinking LEDs sequences I've seen in some of my older cars.
One could argue that the swiping of the card provides some relief, for the bar, against serving a minor alcohol. Wether this would stand up in court, I don't know, but it may deter some underage drinkers and therefore the bar will lower it's risk. Of course, as you said, if it's a paying customer, that might be all they're looking for.
As for the government/corporate invading the private lives of citizens, people are giving up these rights all the time. The government tracks so much information through ID cards, birth certificates, SS cards, etc.... Corporations are doing it through customer "bonus" cards, surveys, credit applications/cards, etc.... You really can't avoid it if you need to identify yourself.
In a not quite related question - with the "speed cameras" that are spreading in the DC Metro area (and I imagine others), anyone have any thoughts on defeating them? Can a person put a license plate holder with text around it saying something like "No permission to photograph granted" (or some other message that indicates no permission to photograph) keep the photo from being used? I haven't gotten a ticket or anything, but with the cash these things will generate, I imagine it will only be a matter of time till get hit with one.
People stopped using their heads when they realized they could file lawsuits against others for their own dumb mistakes (thinking back to McDonalds coffee). If this went operational, how long till someone takes the creators to court if the owner uses it incorrectly and ends up in the wrong location after a trip to the pub.
Slashdot Mirror
What about the situations where someone who knows your work email address submits you to the p0rn sites and you start receiving messages. I had this happen to me a couple years back where a college buddy of mine decided it would be funny to sign me up for "p0rn picture of the day".
Could be difficult to prove that you weren't the one to do it, plus you'd be a lot more careful in who gets your email address.
Jim
I'd put Sun in the high performance category for certain products. The Blade equipment and their high end servers have always performed well for me (database, web development/hosting, Geographic Information System processing). I'll agree that not every product they put out pushes the performance envelope, but I doubt you'll find a single company that doesn't have a bit of variety in that category.
On point to consider is the end use of the products. In some cases, Sun products don't really start to "shine" (OK, bad pun) until you've started to scale them up.
firmware should not be a core component of a hardware company
Firmware can be valuable intellectual property just like any other hardware/software. If a company chooses to keep it closed, that is their decision. If you don't like it, don't buy that piece of hardware. Unfortunately, you'll probably find a small selection, at least today.
If a company finds a drop in sales due to keeping closed source, they'll change their business model to be competitive. If on the other hand most people don't care, they haven't given away their 'secrets' while still supporting customer usage.
In the strictest sense I agree with you but for the most part, the visuals are from the minds of the players. I imagine if the DM were to say that you were in a cave entrance with a couple of passage ways along with a brief description of the cave environment, we'd all draw a different picture based on what "we" see. The imagination also applies to dealing with the situation - they can pretty much do whatever they want (which a DM may find hard to deal with, especially from the minds of a 10 year old).
I may have to add D&D to the present list for him. I'm definitely not ready to part with my stuff yet. Should be interesting to see some of the newer versions of the books.
After I get him hooked on D&D, I'll have to try him at Rifts or Space Frontiers (I'll have to "acquire" that one from my brother next time I go to his place. *checking my thieving abilities now*).
You say nerd like it's a bad thing.
Well it's a good thing I have my son and his friends playing (all in the 10 year old range). They'll be able to consider themselves the "real deal" now.
Seriously though, my son and his friends love it. With all the "eye candy" offered in the video game world, it's still amazing to see that kids use their imagination to create a fantasy world instead of viewing someone else's version of one.
IE will freeze up. The amount of time seems to depends on the page your trying to view though. If I'm forced to use IE for a page within my companies Intranet while connected via VPN and specific proxy settings, I find that if I forget to reset my proxy settings, it can hang for a while (few seconds) when I hit my home page. Hitting the Stop button doesn't seem to speed things up either as IE feels it has to load some system page to give me a friendly message by default.
All that said though, a few seconds wait isn't the worst thing to put up with.
I think IE has fallen behind other browser development but imagine the next version will "integrate" these capabilities. For now, I'll use Netscape.
With web based voting, how long till some group/company comes up with a plan to "buy" your vote? Without some physical sort of security I could see a possibility where citizens could be enticed to exchange their vote for 20% off purchases at some website. Imagine a website giving out free memberships if you turn in your voting information?
While illegal, I wouldn't put it past someone to pull something like this (foreign companies?).
Going to a polling location as you indicated should pretty much be required (mail in ballots probably being the only exception).
I guess I should have double checked my posting. I was writing it in between other task at my desk. Started out as sarcasm but obviously ended up the wrong way. It should have read as you pointed out (that custom applications are used rather than the MS mail clients...my bad).
It would be a pain but from Lord Ender's post, the issue is that dorm students are "forced" to use the schools network and pay for it. What he needs to do is either follow the schools policies or pressure to get his own ISP service (which as you point out would be a pain and certainly will be lower bandwidth).
Lord Ender's comments about "you should be able to do whatever you damn well please with your net connection, including entertainment." is the only reason he should push to get his own ISP that allows him to do what he wants. Using the schools service subjects him to their policies and he'll have to live with it or play outside the roles and accept the consequences for it if caught.
I'm sure that spammers are using these products for their mass emailing instead of custom applications to obscure header information.
The reduction of spam (solution is too optimistic) will likely come from a multiple solution approach as a single approach will be circumvented. Approaches I think will help are:
Go after the person paying the spammer in the first place. Cut off the spam funding to reduce the amount of spam
Filters. While not perfect, they do catch at least the obvious spammers.
List. Again, not a perfect solution, but it can help.
SMTP rework. Certainly refining protocols can help as long as it's accepted by vendors. This may not solve every case, but may deter some spammers.
While I realize that spam is still flooding the Internet, I have noticed less in my inbox so something is working from my ISP and my employer.
I mostly agree with you on this. Certainly you have no other real choices in obtaining Internet access so your pretty well screwed (unless you go for dial-up - or can one get DSL? - I won't have to worry about this for a few more years till my kids are in college.). On the other hand, the university is acting like the ISP to you and they can establish policies similar to those home users choose. The policies for most home users have restrictions but are generally not enforced (depends on the ISP though).
Maybe schools should wire their dorms so that students can obtain their own ISP service. I imagine the new issue will be allowing secure access to the school network from ISP's networks then.
I work at a place where passwords are commonplace. We deal with system security as part of our software development process.
For a particular client, our contract had us setting up the systems in our lab. Being the system admin for the systems (and new to the company), I left the administrator and root passwords blank thinking everyone would try blanks at least once. As people started asking for the password, I found that the group was so used to complex password policies that they hadn't considered ever leaving it blank.
I imagine that some stores could do this, but it probably isn't a corporate policy.
My brother works for OfficeMax (the store he works at is located near Pittsburgh, PA) restocking shelves at night and they lock him in. He can get out in an emergency, but alarms will go off. His understanding of the policy is that it is part of a theft control policy. Stores don't want people slipping things out of the store at night.
So your comment about the policy being "DEAD wrong" may be correct for your wife's store, but may not apply to others.
You've actually gone to the other extreme from what the article's author has written. I think we can safely say that not all hardware will work with the drivers provided by either OS. You've essentially gone to his level of bitching about the other OS.
I think most people in this crowd will realize the author is trying to appear unbiased, but not doing a very good job.
What the author fails to take into account is that the drivers are provided with the MS Windows installation CD. Vendors are going to produce their hardware for more popular Operating Systems in most cases and the drivers they write will first be for MS OS's and if we're lucky, others. In some cases, older drivers will work on newer hardware, but some of the newer functionality may not be available until you upgrade the driver.
Basically until Linux takes a larger market share, look for vendors to provide limited support to the Linux OS's. Until then, if your going Linux, try to purchase hardware from vendors that are writing drivers for it.
I think it all depends on the car you buy. From the cars I've had, Nissan Sentras (2002 and 2004 models) and the Suzuki Esteem (1997), they have a decent amount of engine compartment space, even with the extras (PS & AC). Compared to the 1985 Sentra that I had a while back, I think I actually have more room to work. (Not quite related - Thankfully Nissan went to using a timing chain over the timing belt on the newer Sentras. I actually had the belt go and snap a valve that dinged up the piston and the wall pretty bad.)
I would guess that your RX-8 will probably take just about every inch of space, but that's to be expected with a performance car. BTW, nice car choice. Specs from the Mazda site are pretty nice. The RX product line has produced some sharp cars. Had a friend with one of the RX-7's from the mid 80's that was fun to ride in.
Honda's seem to be pretty tight in the compartment , but they've been that way for a while. My father and I did a road side repair for a water pump on an 1981 Prelude that practically had us thinking about removing body panels to get access. Not everything on the Honda is bad, but the side room (timing belt, water pump, AC, various belts) is definitely limited.
Another example...
My son has Ambliopia (Lazy Eye) where his problem wasn't muscular but was related to the wiring in the brain. His brain just decided to use the one eye so the other was essentially useless. In our situation, this wasn't detected until he entered school where they did an eye exam on all the students. My son had adapted to a single eye for sight.
The treatment in his case didn't involve surgery. All we had to do was "force" him to use his "lazy eye" by patching his strong eye. The amount of patching can vary based on the severity of the case and for my son he was patching about 14 hours a day (essentially for entire time he was awake). After about 9 months, his vision went from 20/2000 to 20/70 bringing him into a much more acceptable range.
The brain will find a way to rewire itself if needed, but within limitations.
True, you have to pick which repairs your going to do in most cases. I don't do welding repairs either which is why my first car eventually went to the junkyard (it started "sagging" when I'd lift it for repairs and the control arm mount points were "out" too).
As for things like airbags, that definitely requires dealer or competent mechanic replacement. I've been fortunate so far to not have to deal with that yet (knocking on wood - curses, a metal desk).
I actually have two newer cars right now (a 2002 and a 2004) that are both Nissan's. One was a replacement for a 1993 Ford Aerostar, the other was a second vehicle. I've also had a 1997 Suzuki Esteem (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone, maybe a bad one off the line, but parts were difficult to find and pretty expensive/dealer only in most cases) and a 1985 Nissan Sentra. Out of all the vehicles, only the Aerostar had a tight engine compartment. When I look at vehicles now, even new ones, I naturally look at the space I have to work with. I've helped work on a fair number of vehicles (mostly economy class vehicles) and Honda's seem pretty tight in the engine compartment (fortunately they seem pretty reliable, but doing a roadside water pump replacement isn't much fun at night).
I guess from my experience, look at how difficult a common repair will be with your vehicle if your going to do it yourself, or ask a mechanic for some time estimates on common repairs. Mechanics have the resources to provide labor hours for just about any repair plus they'll have insight into which cars they see in the shop too often.
I have no problem spending the $200 or so for vehicles I own. My problem is that I'm not as willing to spend the $200 to solve another persons vehicle problem and in most cases, neither is the owner.
I always justify getting the new tools/toys over the cost of repair. Fortunately my wife can see it this way too. Now if only I can get her to let me keep some of the money saved to build another computer.
The problem for most people is that they are unwilling to do some repairs themselves. The cost of repairs for an older vehicle are often weighed against the cost of a new one. If the vehicle is older or plagued with problems, the economical choice tends to be a new vehicle.
As a backyard mechanic myself, I kept my old Nissan Sentra out of the junkyard for quite a while. Was cheaper to get a used engine for about $350 or a used transmission for $150. Another option is a rebuild kit which ran about $200 (piston rings, bearings, gaskets, etc...). Doing the repairs myself, I would add less than $75 for fluids, or misc parts (gaskets, hoses, etc...) and the car would last a couple more years. Only junked it when the car got to the point of the frame "sagging" (unfortunately I don't do welding).
Looks like I'll continue repairing my own vehicle along with the family/friend vehicles.
Really though, many of the repair manuals (I often use the Haynes manuals myself) available for vehicles contain fairly detailed information for troubleshooting and repairing vehicles. I do find that the tools that I have to purchase are becoming more expensive, but it still beats going to the mechanic in most cases. Of course I always look for an excuse to buy new tools.
I find that most people are afraid to attempt even simple repairs so the high tech problems won't change the consumer behavior of running to the shop for any problem. The trend will lead to higher tech mechanics though (higher salary, higher repair bill).
Now the one thing I would appreciate from the auto manufacturer is simplifying the onboard diagnostics. I'll even settle for the blinking LEDs sequences I've seen in some of my older cars.
One could argue that the swiping of the card provides some relief, for the bar, against serving a minor alcohol. Wether this would stand up in court, I don't know, but it may deter some underage drinkers and therefore the bar will lower it's risk. Of course, as you said, if it's a paying customer, that might be all they're looking for.
As for the government/corporate invading the private lives of citizens, people are giving up these rights all the time. The government tracks so much information through ID cards, birth certificates, SS cards, etc.... Corporations are doing it through customer "bonus" cards, surveys, credit applications/cards, etc.... You really can't avoid it if you need to identify yourself.
In a not quite related question - with the "speed cameras" that are spreading in the DC Metro area (and I imagine others), anyone have any thoughts on defeating them? Can a person put a license plate holder with text around it saying something like "No permission to photograph granted" (or some other message that indicates no permission to photograph) keep the photo from being used? I haven't gotten a ticket or anything, but with the cash these things will generate, I imagine it will only be a matter of time till get hit with one.
People stopped using their heads when they realized they could file lawsuits against others for their own dumb mistakes (thinking back to McDonalds coffee). If this went operational, how long till someone takes the creators to court if the owner uses it incorrectly and ends up in the wrong location after a trip to the pub.