Many (most?) folks on both sides of this debate are missing the point IMHO. They're arguing in essence about whether or not data is valid. Who cares? This isn't an issue about being "right" really.
Take a step back for a moment. Being right on this one SIMPLY DOES NOT MATTER.
What does matter is this:
As we reduce greenhouse gases--even if they're not a threat and/or causing global warming:
our air gets dramatically cleaner (think about the coal smog in major cities at the turn of the century)
our overall global environment get better.
if global warming & greenhouse gases ARE a real threat, we haven't waited to long to act.
Conversely, if we wait too long because no one can agree on data points to study then on data validity then on data modeling, etc., etc., at least we'll make great pets.
This is one of the most insightful comments in this entire (very active) list of comments. Point-by-point, you nail it. Really.
As for AMD, AMD has done so much so right with Opteron; by the same token, the Alphas were way ahead of their time. Sure seems like there's gotta be something good there to share where HP and AMD could both benefit.
As for consumables: I just dumped my HP inkjet MFD / printer in favor of a brother for ONE reason: ink cartridges. Replacing a super expensive tri-color ink cartridge when I'm only out of ONE color is absurd. A reasonable "annuity income" from ink is fair; milking me as a consumer isn't.
Oh yeah, I for one was a fan of the Compaq merger. I think HP gained measurably from that.
For smaller companies and individuals, blocking traffic from these netblocks is a tremendous help. I do it myself, in fact. Unfortunately, for those people and companies who do legimate business with Asia, this isn't really a viable solution.
You don't mention any desire (or ambition) to move into the management echelons, but IMHO you might be well-served to consider making the leap. Many companies would be well served to have a skilled programming manager (CTO??) who has been under the hood of so many successful software titles. Having someone like yourself who can take a programmer's time estimates for a given project, realize they're milking it, and call them out on it AND who likewise can also take management's time estimates, realize management's on crack, and call them out for it would be a find.
the gun gets dropped and/or the sensors get damaged
your hand and/or the gun is soaked in blood / sweat / sand / a mixture thereof, etc.
you're firing the gun from a compromised position (i.e. with one or two fingers)
your partner's gun jams and you're incapacitated and unable to fire your own
I read through the article, and I saw zero mention of any of that stuff. They state:
"The technology measures not only the size, strength and structure of a person's hand, but also the reflexive way in which the person acts. For smart gun, the observed actions are how the person squeezes something to produce a unique and measurable pattern. Embedded sensors in the experimental gun then can read and record the size and force of the users' hand during the first second when the trigger is squeezed."
Huh. Doesn't seem to address any of the above issues....
Indeedily. In my experience (I've bought literally hundreds of servers, workstations, and other machines) the best combination of price, service, flexibility, and reliability generally comes from the smaller OEMs like you mention. Sure, there are exceptions like HUGE servers where buying a branded solution makes sense, but usually something from an OEM is just right.
I myself feel like I was lucky to have found one seven or eight years ago in Orange County (45 min south of Los Angeles) that I've stuck with through a couple of different companies now. Area Electronics
No matter where you are though, there are companies like this one where you can pick up the phone, talk to someone about your needs, and get a system configured, quoted, and built, and feel like you're NOT just a number in your sales person's sales quota in making his/her company's Q3 numbers for The Street.
On behalf of us taxpaying-without-representation masses out here, let me say a loud and thunderous:
ROAR!
Ok, now that that's off my chest, and yes, I've read the article, let me also genuinely say, "Huh?"
"...make our source of funding more stable," they say. Hmmm. Last time I checked everyone was selling domain names--seems like their loot from registrar fees isn't going down. I wouldn't be shocked in the least to see McDonalds flogging domain names at an in-store kiosk. Maybe I'm a nutter, but "stable funding"(?!?!) Nossir. Not buying it.
"Please don't show me this error message ever again for any reason whatsoever even if it's a life threatening situation. Ever. Really. I mean it. I'm sure."
It's this kind of solid design that I've seen in their true workstations and servers, too. I just recently bought a used high end IBM workstation, and it has some of the same excellence in enginnering that the ThinkPads do. A bit pricier than some of the counterparts for sure, but it is the best workstation I've ever owned.
I for one was really saddened to see this sale happen.
"with the code verified by both parties before the election"
Open source code is really only a part of the battle, IMHO. Let's:
- review the code before the election
- throw some CRC checks for use before, at runtime, and post-election into the mix to give some surety to the binaries being untampered with
- put some real authentication in the vote tabulation process, i.e. there have been too many stories of people walking / driving memory sticks to another location to tabulate the votes. Ick.
This reminds me of the most important lesson I've ever learned in security: NEVER, EVER allow yourself to say: "It's not like...."
As soon as you say, "It's not like [insert bad thing here] would happen" or "It's not like [xxxx] would possibly switch out the memory sticks with bogus ones," you open yourself up to that very impossibilty becoming both possible and worse still, probable.
When I read the mainframe bit, at least I knew someone there had some smarts.
They may not have k3wl fading-window interfaces like Windows, but at least mainframes "just work".
Sure, the power bill for their big iron probably gets hidden deep in their shareholder reports (it probably consumes enough power to keep half the Eastern seaboard powered during the summer months), but its uptime is measured in scientific notation.
Assuming you have to run Windows, first remember there are multiple steps that you'll likely have to take with no silver bullet. Consider these 10 steps as a spring board:
The first step is to put in place policies (where possible) on domain controllers that prohibit both the installation of BHOs and of other software by anyone other than Administrators. Given that many, many bits of spyware (I'll go out on a limb and say most) work as (so called) "browser helper objects", don't let people install them at all. Other software Administrators can install when needed. It's actually fairly easy to do.
Second, where possible, deploy W2K or XP, and...
Then, third, where possible, yank people's admin privs. In virtually all cases, with a bit of good ol' trial-and-error, you can successfully adjust users' permissions to take away admin from most folks. Let's face it, most people SHOULD NOT have the ability to have admin on their own machines.
Fourth, where possible, dump IE.
Fifth, do some short SMALL GROUP tutorials about the evils of spyware and how it works. (I found this to be surprisingly useful for teaching users about passwords.)
Sixth, where possible, dump IE.
Seventh, consider netbooting the workstations and storing users files on fileservers. That way the OS you give 'em is the OS they get and it's always the same every day. (Tell them to think of it as life imitating art as in "50 First Dates", where they get a fresh start every day....)
Eighth, where possible, dump IE.
Ninth, go with something many of the folks here have/will recommend in terms of enterprise-based anti-spyware/anti-virus/anti-?????? software. I used Norton Corporate Edition in a fairly recent gig, and while that particular version didn't check for sypware, there are a number of solutions others are proposing that will. (The Corporate Edition is critical to your sanity--you can manage the AV software on *all* desktops via a central console.)
What's baffling is the perceived randomness of the decisions to us on the outside. It's like:
a.) there's no one at the helm actually making these decisions
b.) they're being made by a variety of different people who never talk to one another
c.) there's a little shell script someone forgot about that's caught in some unfortunate random loop that's somehow tragically linked to the checking account
----
Re:Still can't open message in a new window
on
Gmail Adds Features
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm...what about a [shift]-click?
That opens a new window in both IE and Firefox. That might be just what you're after.
I think what they're really trying to tell us is that if we don't all order T1 lines (stop me if you've heard this one before) the terrorists will win.
"...sales are quoted at more than 250 billion dollars, their IT spending is less than 1% of that."
Let's see here....
$250,000,000,000.00
x.01
----------------------
2,500,000,000.00
Just working with the 1% number, we can see their IT budget is ~2.5 billion bucks. With that much loot, I think it's fair to say, one can move mountains... and still make it back in time for afternoon tea.
IMHO, this is a yet another example of the most dangerous line in security, "It's not like...."
I'm sure in many cases these folks literally said to themselves something like, "It's not like someone's ever going to try to attack an image. That's just too much effort! / That doesn't make sense."
Grrr. I guess expecting people to stop themselves mid-thought on that one is too much to ask though.
Siemens make a lot more than just cell phones. In fact there's a fair chance that the repeater stations your phone is getting calls from are buit by them. Not to mention the turbines and generators that power the base stations...
Yeah. You're absolutely right. I'd also add that Siemens does make a lot of solid, quality products in an array of industries. (Not counting your personal experience with a phone of theirs.)
I was simply struck at how in the article they made no mention of any other news with Siemens that might count for the stock price increase, and it came across more as: "bad news at Co., stock price up."
Slashdot Mirror
Take a step back for a moment. Being right on this one SIMPLY DOES NOT MATTER.
What does matter is this:
As we reduce greenhouse gases--even if they're not a threat and/or causing global warming: Conversely, if we wait too long because no one can agree on data points to study then on data validity then on data modeling, etc., etc., at least we'll make great pets.
This is one of the most insightful comments in this entire (very active) list of comments. Point-by-point, you nail it. Really.
As for AMD, AMD has done so much so right with Opteron; by the same token, the Alphas were way ahead of their time. Sure seems like there's gotta be something good there to share where HP and AMD could both benefit.
As for consumables: I just dumped my HP inkjet MFD / printer in favor of a brother for ONE reason: ink cartridges. Replacing a super expensive tri-color ink cartridge when I'm only out of ONE color is absurd. A reasonable "annuity income" from ink is fair; milking me as a consumer isn't.
Oh yeah, I for one was a fan of the Compaq merger. I think HP gained measurably from that.
For smaller companies and individuals, blocking traffic from these netblocks is a tremendous help. I do it myself, in fact. Unfortunately, for those people and companies who do legimate business with Asia, this isn't really a viable solution.
And the quest continues.
You don't mention any desire (or ambition) to move into the management echelons, but IMHO you might be well-served to consider making the leap. Many companies would be well served to have a skilled programming manager (CTO??) who has been under the hood of so many successful software titles. Having someone like yourself who can take a programmer's time estimates for a given project, realize they're milking it, and call them out on it AND who likewise can also take management's time estimates, realize management's on crack, and call them out for it would be a find.
Good luck!
it's freezing cold and you're wearing gloves
it's pouring down rain or snow
the gun gets dropped and/or the sensors get damaged
your hand and/or the gun is soaked in blood / sweat / sand / a mixture thereof, etc.
you're firing the gun from a compromised position (i.e. with one or two fingers)
your partner's gun jams and you're incapacitated and unable to fire your own
Huh. Doesn't seem to address any of the above issues....I read through the article, and I saw zero mention of any of that stuff. They state:
Indeedily. In my experience (I've bought literally hundreds of servers, workstations, and other machines) the best combination of price, service, flexibility, and reliability generally comes from the smaller OEMs like you mention. Sure, there are exceptions like HUGE servers where buying a branded solution makes sense, but usually something from an OEM is just right.
I myself feel like I was lucky to have found one seven or eight years ago in Orange County (45 min south of Los Angeles) that I've stuck with through a couple of different companies now. Area Electronics
No matter where you are though, there are companies like this one where you can pick up the phone, talk to someone about your needs, and get a system configured, quoted, and built, and feel like you're NOT just a number in your sales person's sales quota in making his/her company's Q3 numbers for The Street.
Well, actually, no one understands the meaning of Java as far as Sun's marketing strategy (or any other) is concerned. ;-)
Ah ha! It IS a conspiriacy.
;-)
I've got it: Linus and Stallman are in cahoots, and they're cashing my checks!!
Ok, now that that's off my chest, and yes, I've read the article, let me also genuinely say, "Huh?"
"...make our source of funding more stable," they say. Hmmm. Last time I checked everyone was selling domain names--seems like their loot from registrar fees isn't going down. I wouldn't be shocked in the least to see McDonalds flogging domain names at an in-store kiosk. Maybe I'm a nutter, but "stable funding"(?!?!) Nossir. Not buying it.
Maybe there's a fox in the henhouse who's making these looney calls... and shorting the stock.
Just a thought.
It's this kind of solid design that I've seen in their true workstations and servers, too. I just recently bought a used high end IBM workstation, and it has some of the same excellence in enginnering that the ThinkPads do. A bit pricier than some of the counterparts for sure, but it is the best workstation I've ever owned.
I for one was really saddened to see this sale happen.
[sigh]
Open source code is really only a part of the battle, IMHO. Let's: This reminds me of the most important lesson I've ever learned in security: NEVER, EVER allow yourself to say: "It's not like...."
As soon as you say, "It's not like [insert bad thing here] would happen" or "It's not like [xxxx] would possibly switch out the memory sticks with bogus ones," you open yourself up to that very impossibilty becoming both possible and worse still, probable.
----
When I read the mainframe bit, at least I knew someone there had some smarts.
They may not have k3wl fading-window interfaces like Windows, but at least mainframes "just work".
Sure, the power bill for their big iron probably gets hidden deep in their shareholder reports (it probably consumes enough power to keep half the Eastern seaboard powered during the summer months), but its uptime is measured in scientific notation.
Oh, and best of all, no three finger salute.
----
This was one of the few 'funny' posts on /. I acutally literally laughed out loud (LLOL, for the uninitiated) after reading.
;-)
Thanks for the laugh.
---
Here, here!
Greeeeeaaaat. Nimda and CodeRed meet reruns of Seinfeld and Friends. Just what we all need.
-------
Assuming you have to run Windows, first remember there are multiple steps that you'll likely have to take with no silver bullet. Consider these 10 steps as a spring board:
The first step is to put in place policies (where possible) on domain controllers that prohibit both the installation of BHOs and of other software by anyone other than Administrators. Given that many, many bits of spyware (I'll go out on a limb and say most) work as (so called) "browser helper objects", don't let people install them at all. Other software Administrators can install when needed. It's actually fairly easy to do.
Second, where possible, deploy W2K or XP, and...
Then, third, where possible, yank people's admin privs. In virtually all cases, with a bit of good ol' trial-and-error, you can successfully adjust users' permissions to take away admin from most folks. Let's face it, most people SHOULD NOT have the ability to have admin on their own machines.
Fourth, where possible, dump IE.
Fifth, do some short SMALL GROUP tutorials about the evils of spyware and how it works. (I found this to be surprisingly useful for teaching users about passwords.)
Sixth, where possible, dump IE.
Seventh, consider netbooting the workstations and storing users files on fileservers. That way the OS you give 'em is the OS they get and it's always the same every day. (Tell them to think of it as life imitating art as in "50 First Dates", where they get a fresh start every day....)
Eighth, where possible, dump IE.
Ninth, go with something many of the folks here have/will recommend in terms of enterprise-based anti-spyware/anti-virus/anti-?????? software. I used Norton Corporate Edition in a fairly recent gig, and while that particular version didn't check for sypware, there are a number of solutions others are proposing that will. (The Corporate Edition is critical to your sanity--you can manage the AV software on *all* desktops via a central console.)
Last, and not least: dump IE.
------
----
Hmmm...what about a [shift]-click?
That opens a new window in both IE and Firefox. That might be just what you're after.
----
"...sales are quoted at more than 250 billion dollars, their IT spending is less than 1% of that."
.01
Let's see here....
$250,000,000,000.00
x
----------------------
2,500,000,000.00
Just working with the 1% number, we can see their IT budget is ~2.5 billion bucks. With that much loot, I think it's fair to say, one can move mountains... and still make it back in time for afternoon tea.
---
"Hey, I'm just doing my job. You give me that Juris-my-diction crap, you can cram it up your...."
Sorry, but I just couldn't resist. [grin]
Here, here.
IMHO, this is a yet another example of the most dangerous line in security, "It's not like...."
I'm sure in many cases these folks literally said to themselves something like, "It's not like someone's ever going to try to attack an image. That's just too much effort! / That doesn't make sense."
Grrr. I guess expecting people to stop themselves mid-thought on that one is too much to ask though.
Siemens make a lot more than just cell phones. In fact there's a fair chance that the repeater stations your phone is getting calls from are buit by them. Not to mention the turbines and generators that power the base stations...
Yeah. You're absolutely right. I'd also add that Siemens does make a lot of solid, quality products in an array of industries. (Not counting your personal experience with a phone of theirs.)
I was simply struck at how in the article they made no mention of any other news with Siemens that might count for the stock price increase, and it came across more as: "bad news at Co., stock price up."
----