The original poster made no mention of midwestern anything and specifically said the brainwashing was not religious. So the brainwashed religious zealot midwestern kid is your own stereotype, not the original posters. Your post fairly clearly states "for all those morons in the midwest, we have smart people elsewhere to make up for it". Now this may have not been your intention, but then you shouldn't have brought in the regionalization of your categories of moron/not moron.
I have a wonderfully hilarious image of fundamentalists chasing homosexuals around with flashlights because they read the dumbed down Fox friendly version of this story.
I typically only run into that looking over someone else's shoulder since my job isn't coding, but I can generally decypher enough to know when something really stupid is being done. I always feel a twinge of guilt as I walk away laughing at their impossible task. But hey, my job is typically untangling infrastructure (both physical and logical) so the whining programmers have it easy since they can make a whole copy and test. Trying to unknot an infrastructure problem without causing downtime is worlds worse than mucking with a copy of some misbehaving code.
So change your stereotype to another stereotype so that your point about stereotypes not being true is valid? Makes perfect sense. Your contention is that there are so many people outside of those zones are smart that it makes up for the stupid ones in those zones. If anything you are perpetuting the stereotype that we are all arrogant asshats (I have no idea why you think that is an internet meme) by pointing at "some other group" as the problem.
My point is there is a wide variety of people and even many of those "stupid religious" people are much better human beings than people who otherwise believe themselves to be superior for whatever reason. I may not agree with their religios beliefs, but I have had more of those "stupid religious zealots" watch out for me and my family than any of the twats that spend more time deriding "stupid religious zealots" than managing their own life.
I hate the attack on sciences that has been going on, but the fact is many of those "bible thumping rednecks" have MUCH stronger communities where people actually watch out for eachother rather than playing that every man for himself crap. I am inclined to believe that our problem actually comes from arrogant intollerant assholes more than any bible thumper. Sure, they coincide, but arrogant intollerant asshole pretty much coincides with every type of person from militant atheist to bible thumper to redneck to intellctual.
And for every ignorant asshat that thinks that its all about "stupid brainwashed religious zealot midwestern kids" there are hordes of decent midwestern people religious or not that don't use such moronic stereotypes while pretending to sound intelligent.
There is still a significant spin up time with a new language, and many languages aren't designed around good fundamental behaviors. Especially when the primary purpose of the language is to serve as a competing product rather than a useful language. I'm not a coder by profession, but I do have do some coding from time to time. I steer very clear of those implementation specific vendor specific lock in garbage languages.
I can't count how many times I have heard "Why don't you just do that in VB, its way easier". Great...so working with Windows crap is easier in a Windows specific language. Programming shouldn't be easy for the same reason building jets or engineering bridges shouldn't be easy. There are horrible consequences when you lower the bar enough that every amature with a keyboard can work in a "professional" realm. I am convinced thats why we have so many problems in security in general. You can listen to the radio and hear a dozen "Get your MCSE at Computers-R-Us now and triple your income!". So now anyone can drop a fist full of cash, get a shiney sticker, and go to work in a field they really aren't qualified to because they will accept less money than someone who IS qualified.
Ok...lets examine this for a moment because I keep hearing this and it is patently stupid. I am ok with a good selection of languages for a variety of tasks, but "who cares how many languages" is stupid.
Lets fast forward a bit more. Now we have a huge variety of redundanat languages in use. Now we have two major problems.
1. Finding a job gets very very difficult. I already have seen jobs asking for 10 years experience in things that haven't been around for 10 years. Adding an alphabet soup worth of programming languagse is sure going to make that tech sector job hunt better... Oh, well...all our code was made by the last guy who called himself a programmer and he used this bizarre alphabet soup of redundant proprietary languages, so we need experience in that.
2. Finding an employee gets very very difficult. Well congratulations...you are stuck with a bunch of projects written in obscure proprietary garbage languages...now you have to find someone who can maintain that after you let yourself be coded into a corner by your last programmer. Talk about an excellent morale builder "Hello, welcome to company X, we either need you to learn these obscure languages to maintain this ductape and paperclip code, or you need to port everything that was done by the person that talked us into the latest and greatest alphabet soup language that turned out to be crap but we didn't know better because we aren't programmers."
Ugh...I have watched this crap happen way too many times in the field to listen to that "a new language for every purpose" crap. I don't expect everything to be coded in one language, and some languages are indeed better in certain regards...but to constantly invent new languages is bullshit. Especially when we are dealing with companies like Microsoft who's primary interest isnt building a better tool to get the job done, but building a better tool to enforce vendor lock in.
Now, before you get upset, I want to say I agree with you, but holy shit, "purists" bitching about MythBusters and the like...are you fucking kidding me...don't even give those douches the honor of being called "purist" anything other than pure asshats.
Let me explain...You don't get kids into math and science by teaching them math and science. It is a fairly counterintuitive method to get a kids interest in anything...make them like it for the sake of liking it? Please. MythBusters, Junkard Wars, etc are EXACTLY the kinds of things that get kids into science. Math and Science are nothing to be interested in for the sake of doing them. Math and Science are nothing more than a means to an end. That end being making things in your imagination into reality. Do you think all the years of research into flight was for the sake of the math and science? Absolutely not! It was nothing more than the desire and imagination to "slip the surly bonds of earth"! Show kids giant robots, science fiction, fantastic "impossibilities", make them imagine the impossible. Science never has and never will be about doing the possible, it is about making the "impossible" possible. MythBusters, Junkyard Wars, and the like are nothing more than a catalyst to make them realize that they CAN start doing the things they imagine (That and the redhead...mmmm... role model for young girls in smart/sexy, wishful thinking for boys of all ages wanting to impress the smart/sexy girls.)
I have my son learning basic math so he can play Warhammer 40k. He sees us doing the modeling and painting and wanted some too. So we told him we would start buying some for him when he learns his basic math fast enough to do it in his head. Less than a week later he has probably has about half of the possible combinations of addition under 10 memorized without counting and about half of that came from an hour or two while he was watching me put together some of the models that will be his.
More importantly, would they even tell anyone and cause a panic. I suspect if it was a real threat they wouldn't let the news out until it was too late to worry.
On your first point that is why I used the "mean" with quotes since you had initially mentioned being mean for the sake of being mean. I think we are just splitting hairs over terminoligy here.:)
I learned an incredible lesson during basic training. The only real requirements for a drill instructor are being an NCO (which you can achieve by age 21-22 if you are a fast burner and come in early), and to have been to the training on how to be a drill instructor. So, we had a young twenty something inpiring shock, fear, and immediate obedience in guys as old as their early thirties. This was done almost entirely through voice, and occasionaly being made to do lots of pushups or other physical labor. They can't beat the shit out of you like the older days. It isn't just screaming or being loud either. You have to be loud, commanding, and out of nowhere like a thunderclap. So my "overreacting" is typically when I catch him starting to do something and just thunderclap out of nowhere. It is satisfying in a weird way to see the kid momentarily jump out of their skin and then correct themselves
Well I figure if they manage to not hurt themselves then they are ok. Typically it is things like running in the house and so on. He tripped once and managed to split his forehead open on the corner, had to get stapled back shut (apparently they don't use stitches much anymore and the glue doesn't work with hair around, so he just got two little metal staple things). Holy shit does that lesson work well. Anytime he starts acting up running around, or whining about how something hurts we just have to remind him "Do you want to go get stapled again?". Puts the brakes on that behavior in a hurry.
Funny, I always got "Do you think money grows on trees?" which is a terribly strange question to ask a child with no concept of where money DOES come from. You eventually learn the correct answer is "no", but you still have no idea WHY the answer is "no".
I tend to agree. I think you have to be "mean" for the sake of being mean sometimes though. Mostly in just not letting them have their way all the time even if there is no specific reason other than "I said so" or occassionally "overreacting" for a relatively minor infraction. I loathe this sugar coated society where everyone gets a trophy, noone loses, etc. Part of being successful in life is learning how to lose gracefully and that life isn't always fair. That is a lesson that is much much harder to learn the older they get and tends to have stronger negative ramifications.
To be honest I actually enjoy the little contests of wills sometimes. It ultimately teaches them a great deal. How to lose gracefully, how to deal with disappointment, how to pick their battles, how to stand their ground.
We also don't tend to give much sympathy when they hurt themselves doing something we told them not to do. The 5yr old fell off an office chair standing up and making it swivel (warned more times than I can count about this). Slams into floor, starts howling because he smacked his knee. I just looked at him "That hurts alot doesnt it" (yes) "And have we told you to not do that?" (yes) "Do you think that is why we told you not to do that?" (yes) "Good! Learning has occurred, now get up, we have to go"
I must disagree on hitting the kids, but only slightly. If you are hitting them to hurt them you are doing it wrong. The biggest pain you should be causing them is their pride. It also has to be reserved for the most outrageous or immediate violations for it to have a real effect.
When my 5yr old decides its ok to hurt the 2yr old because she annoyed him I come down on him like a flash and give him a solid crack on the butt and send him straight to the corner. His butt only stings for a minute, its his pride that suffers the most there. Most of the effect should be from the shock value.
The 2 yr old typically gets the immediate end of things. Reaching for something that she shouldn't touch (easily damaged, dangerous, etc) and she will get a quick slap on the hand. She is a quick one and is frequently shocked into compliance without so much of a wimper and just a "holy crap, daddy smacked my hand!" facial expression. However, every now and then she gets that willful scowl and will do it again just to see what you will do.
If it isn't something immediate or outrageous they pretty much get time in the corner. This usually comes from ignoring instruction, arguing about instruction, or just whining and then its to the corner until they are ready to try again. The 5yr old basically gets one warning glare before he winds up in the corner from me. My wife argues with him a bit more so she tends to have more troubles with him bickering back.
Tasteless jokes are not the same thing as bigotry. Laughing or making a racist joke is not even in the same ballpark as not hiring minorities, burning crosses, or telling that "uppity nigger" you are going to string him up.
Sounds like it could be used for Microsoft to take a swing at all of the legitimate anti-virus/scumware/etc apps for advertising how critical their software is because Windows has so many problems.
Wow +5 Interesting, I would have expected +5 Funny.
Are you still really convinced that YOU are the consumer? YOU are the product. Even assuming you remove the ads, look how often the draconian "it is our data now" policies get applied to things like this. Free to be searched, cataloged, fed throug metrics, etc. They could be explicitly looking for code samples or geek chatter about projects to feed into their own dev teams. You would have a hard time proving that they aren't doing that, and even if you could many of them make it rather difficult to prove that they aren't allowed to do that based on your agreement to use their services.
Whoa whoa whoa now. I think the lack of naked celeb-titties in other DVD copying software is pretty big missing feature. Don't act so smug when they clearly have the superior product. Seriously, what are you worried about with the spyware in this case? If it shows naked celeb-titties while ripping DVDs are you actually going to use that computer for anything other than ripping mass quantities of DVDs?
Not really, it is a pretty simple economics and nature problem. That ultrasocialist view of natural resources completely and totally ignores the economic problem of scarcity. Nevermind that not even nature aligns itself that way. Go try and take a zebra leg from the lion that is it's "owner". Maybe you could try and sleep in the cave with that bear "owner" and see what happens. Nevermind that when everyones individual energies are perpetually focused on survival in this manner nothing productive ever happens. We would have no significant medical, technological, or even social advancement. Noone studies or plays music when they have to spend all of their time trying to find food, clean water, and so on.
Your argument here shows me you have not studied natural sciences or economics.
I had this happen once. I use my own DNS server, but I had just moved and was trying to get my new connection up and running. I had typo'd a few things and it kept taking me to these type of adpages. It certainly put me in a bit of a panic thinking I had somehow picked up a browser hijack (very disturbing since the initial box I noticed it on was a Linux box). After some tinkering I realized that all of the typos were resolving to the same IP and only when my ISPs DNS servers were involved.
I am actually not entirely convinced that it was my ISPs DNS servers specifically doing it and not someone upstream of them. They are a small very knowledgable and geeky ISP and are very *nix friendly so I would be a tad surprised by that kind of behavior. (I called once asking for my static IP to be reversed to my own domain expecting a big hastle and a "no" and they did it without batting an eye.)
I am actually pretty impressed with our SunRay setup performance. It would be a lot better if Windows Terminal Server was more stable than Charles Manson, but I have been looking at the virtual desktop pool idea to try and move away from a single user having the ability to blow out all the users when they manage to crash something. (Now, part of this is some of the main apps in use, but to some degree it is still a sin on Windows part as well for ever allowing apps to be designed that take advantage of such stupid insecure features regardless that they are now off by default in later versions and require to be enabled for such software to work.)
What an awesome idea! That way us security guys get to try and patch them while users are actively working on them. With any luck we can cause some business losses as users cancel out, refuse to reboot, or otherwise lose what they are doing. Nevermind that as we force them to sit around during reboots and patching we still get to pay them for doing nothing!
If we get really lucky we can suffer from a major infection or data exfiltration and turn that into millions of loss to counter the few bucks we would save by shutting it off as a result of never having a good time to patch.
I mean, turning off just the monitor would be nice, but I would just as soon as have the OS shut that off rather than trying to explain the difference to a user about which power button is OK to hit and which one isn't.
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The original poster made no mention of midwestern anything and specifically said the brainwashing was not religious. So the brainwashed religious zealot midwestern kid is your own stereotype, not the original posters. Your post fairly clearly states "for all those morons in the midwest, we have smart people elsewhere to make up for it". Now this may have not been your intention, but then you shouldn't have brought in the regionalization of your categories of moron/not moron.
Eugenics here we come!
I have a wonderfully hilarious image of fundamentalists chasing homosexuals around with flashlights because they read the dumbed down Fox friendly version of this story.
I typically only run into that looking over someone else's shoulder since my job isn't coding, but I can generally decypher enough to know when something really stupid is being done. I always feel a twinge of guilt as I walk away laughing at their impossible task. But hey, my job is typically untangling infrastructure (both physical and logical) so the whining programmers have it easy since they can make a whole copy and test. Trying to unknot an infrastructure problem without causing downtime is worlds worse than mucking with a copy of some misbehaving code.
So change your stereotype to another stereotype so that your point about stereotypes not being true is valid? Makes perfect sense. Your contention is that there are so many people outside of those zones are smart that it makes up for the stupid ones in those zones. If anything you are perpetuting the stereotype that we are all arrogant asshats (I have no idea why you think that is an internet meme) by pointing at "some other group" as the problem.
My point is there is a wide variety of people and even many of those "stupid religious" people are much better human beings than people who otherwise believe themselves to be superior for whatever reason. I may not agree with their religios beliefs, but I have had more of those "stupid religious zealots" watch out for me and my family than any of the twats that spend more time deriding "stupid religious zealots" than managing their own life.
I hate the attack on sciences that has been going on, but the fact is many of those "bible thumping rednecks" have MUCH stronger communities where people actually watch out for eachother rather than playing that every man for himself crap. I am inclined to believe that our problem actually comes from arrogant intollerant assholes more than any bible thumper. Sure, they coincide, but arrogant intollerant asshole pretty much coincides with every type of person from militant atheist to bible thumper to redneck to intellctual.
And for every ignorant asshat that thinks that its all about "stupid brainwashed religious zealot midwestern kids" there are hordes of decent midwestern people religious or not that don't use such moronic stereotypes while pretending to sound intelligent.
There is still a significant spin up time with a new language, and many languages aren't designed around good fundamental behaviors. Especially when the primary purpose of the language is to serve as a competing product rather than a useful language. I'm not a coder by profession, but I do have do some coding from time to time. I steer very clear of those implementation specific vendor specific lock in garbage languages.
I can't count how many times I have heard "Why don't you just do that in VB, its way easier". Great...so working with Windows crap is easier in a Windows specific language. Programming shouldn't be easy for the same reason building jets or engineering bridges shouldn't be easy. There are horrible consequences when you lower the bar enough that every amature with a keyboard can work in a "professional" realm. I am convinced thats why we have so many problems in security in general. You can listen to the radio and hear a dozen "Get your MCSE at Computers-R-Us now and triple your income!". So now anyone can drop a fist full of cash, get a shiney sticker, and go to work in a field they really aren't qualified to because they will accept less money than someone who IS qualified.
Ok...lets examine this for a moment because I keep hearing this and it is patently stupid. I am ok with a good selection of languages for a variety of tasks, but "who cares how many languages" is stupid.
Lets fast forward a bit more. Now we have a huge variety of redundanat languages in use. Now we have two major problems.
1. Finding a job gets very very difficult. I already have seen jobs asking for 10 years experience in things that haven't been around for 10 years. Adding an alphabet soup worth of programming languagse is sure going to make that tech sector job hunt better... Oh, well...all our code was made by the last guy who called himself a programmer and he used this bizarre alphabet soup of redundant proprietary languages, so we need experience in that.
2. Finding an employee gets very very difficult. Well congratulations...you are stuck with a bunch of projects written in obscure proprietary garbage languages...now you have to find someone who can maintain that after you let yourself be coded into a corner by your last programmer. Talk about an excellent morale builder "Hello, welcome to company X, we either need you to learn these obscure languages to maintain this ductape and paperclip code, or you need to port everything that was done by the person that talked us into the latest and greatest alphabet soup language that turned out to be crap but we didn't know better because we aren't programmers."
Ugh...I have watched this crap happen way too many times in the field to listen to that "a new language for every purpose" crap. I don't expect everything to be coded in one language, and some languages are indeed better in certain regards...but to constantly invent new languages is bullshit. Especially when we are dealing with companies like Microsoft who's primary interest isnt building a better tool to get the job done, but building a better tool to enforce vendor lock in.
AAAAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHHHAHAHA...(gasp)...AAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
Now, before you get upset, I want to say I agree with you, but holy shit, "purists" bitching about MythBusters and the like...are you fucking kidding me...don't even give those douches the honor of being called "purist" anything other than pure asshats.
Let me explain...You don't get kids into math and science by teaching them math and science. It is a fairly counterintuitive method to get a kids interest in anything...make them like it for the sake of liking it? Please. MythBusters, Junkard Wars, etc are EXACTLY the kinds of things that get kids into science. Math and Science are nothing to be interested in for the sake of doing them. Math and Science are nothing more than a means to an end. That end being making things in your imagination into reality. Do you think all the years of research into flight was for the sake of the math and science? Absolutely not! It was nothing more than the desire and imagination to "slip the surly bonds of earth"! Show kids giant robots, science fiction, fantastic "impossibilities", make them imagine the impossible. Science never has and never will be about doing the possible, it is about making the "impossible" possible. MythBusters, Junkyard Wars, and the like are nothing more than a catalyst to make them realize that they CAN start doing the things they imagine (That and the redhead...mmmm... role model for young girls in smart/sexy, wishful thinking for boys of all ages wanting to impress the smart/sexy girls.)
I have my son learning basic math so he can play Warhammer 40k. He sees us doing the modeling and painting and wanted some too. So we told him we would start buying some for him when he learns his basic math fast enough to do it in his head. Less than a week later he has probably has about half of the possible combinations of addition under 10 memorized without counting and about half of that came from an hour or two while he was watching me put together some of the models that will be his.
ha ha!
More importantly, would they even tell anyone and cause a panic. I suspect if it was a real threat they wouldn't let the news out until it was too late to worry.
On your first point that is why I used the "mean" with quotes since you had initially mentioned being mean for the sake of being mean. I think we are just splitting hairs over terminoligy here. :)
I learned an incredible lesson during basic training. The only real requirements for a drill instructor are being an NCO (which you can achieve by age 21-22 if you are a fast burner and come in early), and to have been to the training on how to be a drill instructor. So, we had a young twenty something inpiring shock, fear, and immediate obedience in guys as old as their early thirties. This was done almost entirely through voice, and occasionaly being made to do lots of pushups or other physical labor. They can't beat the shit out of you like the older days. It isn't just screaming or being loud either. You have to be loud, commanding, and out of nowhere like a thunderclap. So my "overreacting" is typically when I catch him starting to do something and just thunderclap out of nowhere. It is satisfying in a weird way to see the kid momentarily jump out of their skin and then correct themselves
Well I figure if they manage to not hurt themselves then they are ok. Typically it is things like running in the house and so on. He tripped once and managed to split his forehead open on the corner, had to get stapled back shut (apparently they don't use stitches much anymore and the glue doesn't work with hair around, so he just got two little metal staple things). Holy shit does that lesson work well. Anytime he starts acting up running around, or whining about how something hurts we just have to remind him "Do you want to go get stapled again?". Puts the brakes on that behavior in a hurry.
Funny, I always got "Do you think money grows on trees?" which is a terribly strange question to ask a child with no concept of where money DOES come from. You eventually learn the correct answer is "no", but you still have no idea WHY the answer is "no".
I tend to agree. I think you have to be "mean" for the sake of being mean sometimes though. Mostly in just not letting them have their way all the time even if there is no specific reason other than "I said so" or occassionally "overreacting" for a relatively minor infraction. I loathe this sugar coated society where everyone gets a trophy, noone loses, etc. Part of being successful in life is learning how to lose gracefully and that life isn't always fair. That is a lesson that is much much harder to learn the older they get and tends to have stronger negative ramifications.
To be honest I actually enjoy the little contests of wills sometimes. It ultimately teaches them a great deal. How to lose gracefully, how to deal with disappointment, how to pick their battles, how to stand their ground.
We also don't tend to give much sympathy when they hurt themselves doing something we told them not to do. The 5yr old fell off an office chair standing up and making it swivel (warned more times than I can count about this). Slams into floor, starts howling because he smacked his knee. I just looked at him "That hurts alot doesnt it" (yes) "And have we told you to not do that?" (yes) "Do you think that is why we told you not to do that?" (yes) "Good! Learning has occurred, now get up, we have to go"
None of the other comments thus far seem to touch on this.
I must disagree on hitting the kids, but only slightly. If you are hitting them to hurt them you are doing it wrong. The biggest pain you should be causing them is their pride. It also has to be reserved for the most outrageous or immediate violations for it to have a real effect. When my 5yr old decides its ok to hurt the 2yr old because she annoyed him I come down on him like a flash and give him a solid crack on the butt and send him straight to the corner. His butt only stings for a minute, its his pride that suffers the most there. Most of the effect should be from the shock value.
The 2 yr old typically gets the immediate end of things. Reaching for something that she shouldn't touch (easily damaged, dangerous, etc) and she will get a quick slap on the hand. She is a quick one and is frequently shocked into compliance without so much of a wimper and just a "holy crap, daddy smacked my hand!" facial expression. However, every now and then she gets that willful scowl and will do it again just to see what you will do.
If it isn't something immediate or outrageous they pretty much get time in the corner. This usually comes from ignoring instruction, arguing about instruction, or just whining and then its to the corner until they are ready to try again. The 5yr old basically gets one warning glare before he winds up in the corner from me. My wife argues with him a bit more so she tends to have more troubles with him bickering back.
Tasteless jokes are not the same thing as bigotry. Laughing or making a racist joke is not even in the same ballpark as not hiring minorities, burning crosses, or telling that "uppity nigger" you are going to string him up.
I maintain my position of grow a thick skin.
Well, when in France you became accustomed to the smell. When you were on the bus in Denver the scent you brought back stood out.
P.S. Grow a thicker skin.
Sounds like it could be used for Microsoft to take a swing at all of the legitimate anti-virus/scumware/etc apps for advertising how critical their software is because Windows has so many problems.
You clearly didn't see the the alternate ending involving the electric blanket burning down the house.
Wow +5 Interesting, I would have expected +5 Funny.
Are you still really convinced that YOU are the consumer? YOU are the product. Even assuming you remove the ads, look how often the draconian "it is our data now" policies get applied to things like this. Free to be searched, cataloged, fed throug metrics, etc. They could be explicitly looking for code samples or geek chatter about projects to feed into their own dev teams. You would have a hard time proving that they aren't doing that, and even if you could many of them make it rather difficult to prove that they aren't allowed to do that based on your agreement to use their services.
Whoa whoa whoa now. I think the lack of naked celeb-titties in other DVD copying software is pretty big missing feature. Don't act so smug when they clearly have the superior product. Seriously, what are you worried about with the spyware in this case? If it shows naked celeb-titties while ripping DVDs are you actually going to use that computer for anything other than ripping mass quantities of DVDs?
Not really, it is a pretty simple economics and nature problem. That ultrasocialist view of natural resources completely and totally ignores the economic problem of scarcity. Nevermind that not even nature aligns itself that way. Go try and take a zebra leg from the lion that is it's "owner". Maybe you could try and sleep in the cave with that bear "owner" and see what happens. Nevermind that when everyones individual energies are perpetually focused on survival in this manner nothing productive ever happens. We would have no significant medical, technological, or even social advancement. Noone studies or plays music when they have to spend all of their time trying to find food, clean water, and so on.
Your argument here shows me you have not studied natural sciences or economics.
I had this happen once. I use my own DNS server, but I had just moved and was trying to get my new connection up and running. I had typo'd a few things and it kept taking me to these type of adpages. It certainly put me in a bit of a panic thinking I had somehow picked up a browser hijack (very disturbing since the initial box I noticed it on was a Linux box). After some tinkering I realized that all of the typos were resolving to the same IP and only when my ISPs DNS servers were involved.
I am actually not entirely convinced that it was my ISPs DNS servers specifically doing it and not someone upstream of them. They are a small very knowledgable and geeky ISP and are very *nix friendly so I would be a tad surprised by that kind of behavior. (I called once asking for my static IP to be reversed to my own domain expecting a big hastle and a "no" and they did it without batting an eye.)
I am actually pretty impressed with our SunRay setup performance. It would be a lot better if Windows Terminal Server was more stable than Charles Manson, but I have been looking at the virtual desktop pool idea to try and move away from a single user having the ability to blow out all the users when they manage to crash something. (Now, part of this is some of the main apps in use, but to some degree it is still a sin on Windows part as well for ever allowing apps to be designed that take advantage of such stupid insecure features regardless that they are now off by default in later versions and require to be enabled for such software to work.)
What an awesome idea! That way us security guys get to try and patch them while users are actively working on them. With any luck we can cause some business losses as users cancel out, refuse to reboot, or otherwise lose what they are doing. Nevermind that as we force them to sit around during reboots and patching we still get to pay them for doing nothing!
If we get really lucky we can suffer from a major infection or data exfiltration and turn that into millions of loss to counter the few bucks we would save by shutting it off as a result of never having a good time to patch.
I mean, turning off just the monitor would be nice, but I would just as soon as have the OS shut that off rather than trying to explain the difference to a user about which power button is OK to hit and which one isn't.