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User: jacksonj04

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  1. Re:yes on Does a Lame E-Mail Address Really Matter? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Things like @aol.com and @hotmail.com don't bother me, what bothers me is before the @ symbol. joe_middlename_bloggs@ is fine, even from things like Hotmail, but xXxXx_BuBbLe_PrInCeSs_1987_xXxXx@ is going to find its way to my trash folder very, very quickly.

  2. Re:Depends on How Many Admins Per User/Computer Have You Seen? · · Score: 1

    To an extent. If my manager suddenly told me to turn off the print servers (printing for over 10,000 users) I wouldn't blindly log in and shut them down. It's an action which affects the vast majority of the business operations, and therefore needs more than my manager coming to me and saying "kill the servers" before it'll actually happen.

  3. Re:Is it too hard... on Uniforms For the Help Desk? · · Score: 1

    The trouble with lanyards is they get caught, especially annoying if you're crawling under desks. Plus once you start adding the paraphernalia of all but the most state-of-the-art centrally controlled door locking systems you end up with a wide variety of swipe cards and keys which mean it's equivalent to carting a good pocket full of crud around your neck. I don't want to walk around with my ID badge, two USB sticks, a SecurID fob, two RFID fobs and twelve keys bouncing off my chest.

    How about the tried and tested solution - name badges. Your name on one line, "IT Services" on the second line, and the corporate logo on the left hand side. Make them the fancy magnetic clip type so they don't ruin clothes and can be pulled off if they snag. Simples.

  4. Re:Depends on How Many Admins Per User/Computer Have You Seen? · · Score: 1

    If you don't have enough time in the day to read bits of /. during office hours, you don't have enough staff. There should always be a bit of idle time in an IT department's day so that when the shit does hit the fan you've got enough slack time to deal with it without sacrificing other things.

  5. Re:Over 9000 on How Many Admins Per User/Computer Have You Seen? · · Score: 1

    Yep. It's called Active Directory and Group Policy. Plus Windows Installer is amazing for managed applications.

  6. Re:Over 9000 on How Many Admins Per User/Computer Have You Seen? · · Score: 1

    We were once like that, with every room having a printer. Now it's all centralised and it's a 5 minute trek to your nearest printer to collect anything.

  7. Re:Worthless gimmicks for worthless cars on Ford's New Cars To Be Wi-Fi Hotspots · · Score: 1

    American cars manage straight lines perfectly well, but fail miserably around a small feature of most road networks - corners with a radius of under 300 yards.

    Come to Europe and we'll explain concepts such as handling, fuel efficiency and build quality.

  8. Re:Worthless gimmicks for worthless cars on Ford's New Cars To Be Wi-Fi Hotspots · · Score: 1

    I knew American cars always had a blind spot for manual transmissions, but popping out of gear at high temperatures? Is your friend revving the nuts off it or what?

  9. Re:god damn self driving cars on Ford's New Cars To Be Wi-Fi Hotspots · · Score: 1

    Here's why. Imagine your car, full to the brim of GPS, rangefingers and inter-car communication - it's completely ready to drive in harmony with other road users and speed you to your destination.

    Then, it tries to switch lanes whilst doing 70mph down the motorway and gets walloped by the lorry coming up on the outside because a) the rearward facing rangefinders can't see into the other lane and b) the lorry driver hasn't bothered to fit £3,000 worth of gear so that his cab can tell your car what it's doing.

  10. Re:Another iPhone? Inconceivable! on iPhone 3.1 Spotted In Field Testing · · Score: 1

    The 3GS had an oleophobic screen you didn't have to clean quite as often. I however seriously doubt they're going to finish development on, test, announce and ship a new iPhone before Christmas.

  11. Re:Yes, I do. But people don't call me one. on Do You Hate Being Called an "IT Guy?" · · Score: 1

    It seems to be an ongoing trend in the world that vocational and academic strands of life are being muddled into one, and they shouldn't be. I would not expect a plumber (with a vocational, hands-on, 'tradesman' career) to be able to design a dam any more than I would expect a hydrodynamic engineer (with an academic, theoretic, 'professional' career) to be able to fit my toilet.

    The trouble is the word 'professional' - I would consider that plumbers, electricians and mechanics are all professionals since they have a profession they do for a living.

  12. Re:Title is key in resume searches on Do You Hate Being Called an "IT Guy?" · · Score: 1

    I'm an Online Services Team Computing Officer, in the Online Services team, which is a part of ICT Services department, which is a part of Business Systems.

    If anybody can tell me what's supposed to go on my business card (and by extension my CV) I'll give them a cookie.

  13. Re:Check your voltages and frequencies! on Geek Travel To London From the US — Tips? · · Score: 1

    I'd strongly recommend hitting the East Coast Main Line up to York, but generally speaking if you cannot get to where you want to go directly from London then it's really not worth the hassle of fighting the UK rail network.

  14. Re:Most important thing to do in London on Geek Travel To London From the US — Tips? · · Score: 1

    Alternatively, you can pay for access to the BT OpenZone hotspots on either a short or longer term, which tend to be broadcast from some phone booths, places like Starbucks, McDonalds etc so it's unlikely you won't be able to find wifi within 50 yards unless you're outside the tourist areas.

  15. Re:Internet kiosks? on Geek Travel To London From the US — Tips? · · Score: 1

    One's colder than the other, even taking into account England's notoriously unreliable weather.

    In all seriousness though, they do taste quite different.

  16. Re:Have a great trip! on Geek Travel To London From the US — Tips? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Small but incredibly useful tip if you plan on travelling around London to see the sights and intend on using the tube (It's easier and in most cases faster than anything else):

    Get an Oyster Card instead of buying individual or daily tickets. Cheaper fares, easier getting through the gates, and it works on busses as well.

  17. Re:dropbox? on Synchronize Data Between Linux, OS X, and Windows? · · Score: 1

    Another one voting for this. It also has the benefit in that it installs entirely within a roaming 'Documents and Settings' directory if the windows network makes use of one. I use Dropbox to sync my Mac laptop, my Ubuntu VM, my XP installation, and my University roaming profile (and the app follows me around campus with no need to install on every machine). The web interface is quite good as well, plus it sports sharing of files if you want to.

    It lacks the ability for you to encrypt it with your own key, however it's a matter of convenience vs security. I'm not keeping my doomsday device plans on there and I think it fairly unlikely that the company is going to sell my lab reports, so the lack of 'privacy' in an absolute sense is balanced out by the fact that communication between client and server is encrypted and it does what I want it to.

  18. Re:wow, a whole million? on Mark Cuban's Plan To Kill Google · · Score: 4, Informative
  19. Re:Censorship depends on the country. on UN Officials Remove Poster Mentioning Chinese Firewall · · Score: 1

    There is something similar in the UK. It's called "Are you aware we have the right to detain you without charge under anti-terrorism laws?" which is generally used to get people to shoo without all the hassle of getting banning orders.

  20. Re:Censorship depends on the country. on UN Officials Remove Poster Mentioning Chinese Firewall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm actually quite impressed with the French approach to religion in public. Either everybody can show their religion freely, or nobody can. Compare and contrast with the UK, where there have been instances of nurses being told to remove any and all religious symbology... oh, unless you're muslim, in which case headscarves are fine. Oh, and jews are cool with the skullcap. Whilst we're at it, sikhs can all wear turbans. In fact, just take off any christian symbols.

  21. Re:View from a US citizen living in Brazil. on How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid? · · Score: 1

    Ahh, fair enough. The US plug always struck me as poorly designed but then again I come from the UK, the land of the sturdiest domestic plug known to mankind.

  22. Re:How vulnerable is *your* power grid? on How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid? · · Score: 1

    Last time I was in the US travelling we experienced regular power glitches over the course of two weeks, over most of the midwest. Nothing massive, just the odd drop in voltage which made charging devices think they'd been unplugged or plugged back in combined with lights dimming.

    I don't know if that's 'normal' for US power, but in the UK such events are few and far between. and generally occur for no more than a minute or two whilst the Grid shuffles some energy around.

  23. Re:How vulnerable is *your* power grid? on How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid? · · Score: 1

    Umm... that link is saying that £4.7 billion is needed for a Grid upgrade. Not that we need £4.7 billion to make the Grid less vulnerable to things like cascading failures.

  24. Re:View from a US citizen living in Brazil. on How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid? · · Score: 1

    Who decided the North American plug would be a good one for an international standard?

  25. Re:Old Axiom on How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid? · · Score: 1

    I believe what was meant was no external access points outside a 'secure' physical location. It's widely (although not as widely as it should be) understood that a machine which attackers can physically get to is a big problem, but if you run a network entirely inside a secured location then although you can 'get in there' to maintain it, Joe Public can't even see the network exists let alone try to attack it short of either physically breaking in or social engineering.