Like have it parse the front page for new ?sid= values to post to.
Have it randomly generate new user id's to post under after several posts.
port it to languages like perl
Even more devious? A Win32.exe, or even worse an.ocx...
Get it in circulation via outlook express or some MS browser bug, one of the multitude of holes that allows WinX machines to execute arbitrary code behind the users' back.
Get it into wide circulation and have a million/. trolls posting here, without their knowledge. Forget just banning IP's at that point. We now have a Distributed Troll DDoS attack.
What I just described made me shudder. Rob and gang, PLEASE tighten up posting - PLEASE!
Whether this particular prank was intelligent could be up for debate. I believe that calling for "more porn" is hardly original.
I wonder how long it would have taken CNN to figure it out if he was more subtle? Imagine the noteriety this incident would get if he was able to impersonate the prez for 20 minutes or something, rather than the 10 seconds it took to post his "porn" remarks?
Then again maybe it was a "Holy shit, I can't believe that actually worked" moment and he just said the first thing that came to mind...
As for whether the authorities should come down on this guy, I certainly don't belive they should.
However, there are laws against impersonation as an attempt to mis-represent yourself as a public official. I would think the penalty for impersonating the POTUS would be especially harsh. I assume the authorities don't have much of a sense of humour when it comes to this sort of thing.
Again, I'm not saying anything bad should happen to the guy, just that something might. Personally, I think he's got nice big brass ones...
Why is a BIOS running specifically on Crusoe such a big achievement? I thought it was supposed to run x86 native code with no modification?
What is a BIOS other than some relatively compact x86 code, tightly coupled to the motherboard?
Or is the Phoenix acchievment really more related to the interfaces with the peripherals and system board in a Crusoe system, which presumably are not the same as a Wintel system?
Presumably the Processor related sections of the BIOS can run un-touched, right? Or is code-morphing not all it's cracked up to be?
Unless you had a/. enabled newsreader that could process the X-Slashdot headers.
It could provide message threading display options the same as on/. (flat, nested, etc). It would also parse the moderations on the articles so it could filter articles based on your preferences.
You could do moderation from within the newsreader, but the/. comments server would have to allow the clients to modify the moderation fields in real time. Which would mean the client would have to authenticate/. member logins, and then only provide moderator access to users at the same time the regualr/. interface does, keep track of points left, etc.
On the downside, this is going to require some knowledge/changes/co-operation from the/. servers and operators.
On the upside, imagine a/. client for the Palm Pilot...
(yes, I know, you can read/. on a Palm with a web browser now, but the point is you could probably code a lightweight/. client for just about ever platform.)
I agree this enforcement action is probably a good thing. This company sounds like a bunch of low life, domain-squatting, Linux-IPO-craze-cashing-in-on, scum.
Linus's lawyers got them to cease and desist; nevertheless, I'd be more inclined to look for
I woudn't. Put yourself in the position of Joe Clueless-Manager looking for Linux programmers. I'd be looking for www.linuxprogrammer.com first. "Open Source" has not reached buzzword status, "Linux" (R) has.
Personally I applaud Linus for enforcing his trademark. It's a tribute to him as a computer scientist that something he created has reached status where people want to make money off just its name.
*Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds
PS: Did anybody else get the "LINUX" vanity license plate cover Compaq was giving out with the Testdrive program? Mine came in the other week, and I was impressed by the fact they included the "Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds" statement on the bottom. Nice touch!
Umm.... The key HAD to be in teh part of the data that had to be redone.
If the key was in the data from before the part that had to be redone, then we would have never gotten to the part that had to be redone becuase we would have already one adn stopped the project.
Totally in the gutter. I read that completely dyslexic. What's scary is I even re-read that line about 4 times just to make sure I really saw what I thought I saw. I really did see r before d.
Duh, it's really d before r, not r before d. Guess I'm showing my nearly complete ignorance of particle physics, eh? That and a complete lack of sleep for most of this week...
I meant it in the exceedingly plural form, like in the millions. Like the 15-20 million people on TW cable, like the 16-20 million people on AOL, not the 50 folks that you hang with.
Food for thought: The post you're replying to was saying that there are alternative ways to make oneself known, including emailing everybody you know (word of mouth on a scale gone mad...)
You said you don't think that sort of promotion is any competition to the AOL-TW monstrosity, and I'd agree with you that there's probably no other way to harness the sheer number of eyballs they have.
However, word of mouth on the internet (email especially) is a very powerful force. How else can you explain the Mahir phenomenon?
And who says the blanket spam/popup/banner ads crap that AOL does are all that effective anyway? I personally know of NO ONE who has ever bought a product or service based on such spam. I don't know anybody who "clicks through" on banners.
I know I do respond to my buddies telling me "This CD rocks" or "read this book" or "get this video card". It's the open, one to one/one to several non-broadcast nature of the internet that gives its appeal.
There are some insightful posts farther down in this story discussing how AOL and the other media behemoths will simply implode on them selves from their own bulk. After a certain point, a company gets just TOO big.
2. Palm Computing was a solo company. Got bought by 3com. Spun off by 3com. Doesn't that seem like the long way to get back where you started?
The trip is longer and stranger than that. Palm was an independent company, and got bought by USR. Not long after that, 3Com bought USR, thus getting Palm. Now 3Com is spinning Palm back into an independent company. Can't tell the players without a scorecard, anymore...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The blockbuster merger pact of America Online and Time Warner aims to make the world a better place by fighting social ills, the heads of both companies said Tuesday.
``This is not just about big business. This is not just about money,'' said Gerald Levin, the Time Warner chairman who will be chief executive of the new linkup.
``This is about making a better world for people because we now have the technology and the instruments to do that,'' he said in a round of early-morning television appearances with Steve Case, the on-line company's chairman.
What a GOOD idea! Goes along with the post up above, about somebody going to every country and (R)ing the (TM) in Linus' name.
The most fair outcome for everybody in Uruguay would be if both parties agree to pay half the cost each, and submit the paperwork to register the TM in Linus' name.
As I understand it, Linus owns the TM and will let basically anybody use it. Is there a FAQ somewhere where Linus states his position on the "Linux" (TM) trademark? I did a Dejasearch (TM?) and didn't find anything definitive.
It sounds to me like this is all some personal vendetta thing between the guys in the company and some other guys in the LUG (Who it sounds like also have some sort of commercial enterprise).
The company's problem seems to be that they think if they DON'T get the TM in Uruguay, the Users' group will get it, and then stop the company from using the word "Linux" (TM) in its name. If the company is worried that the LUG is going to block it, the company should register it to Linus who will NOT block them or anybody else.
Then The LUG and the company and anybody else in Uruguay can use the word "Linux" (TM) and everybody will be happy.
Unless of course what the company really wanted was the EXCLUSIVE use of the (TM) in Uruguay, in which case they should be taken out and shot.
Not to get into a debate on whether they HAVE to change to the.com TLD (I tend to believe they probably shouldn't be a.org anymore, but you could say the same thing about jennicam and probably several hundred OTHER sites...)
When you come right down to it, in today's internet it doesn't matter a darn bit what your TLD is. I guess you would never be able to get a.edu,.gov, or.mil since those are privately controlled and registered, but the public domains like.net,.org, and.com seem to have no hard-fast rules.
Interestingly, slashdot.com appears to be already taken:
================= Whois Server Version 1.1
Domain names in the.com,.net, and.org domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information.
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.COM Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC. Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com Referral URL: www.networksolutions.com Name Server: NS.2WIRE.COM Name Server: NS3.2WIRE.COM Name Server: NS4.2WIRE.COM
>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 4 Jan 00 02:13:44 EST
The Registry database contains ONLY.COM,.NET,.ORG,.EDU domains and Registrars. =================
Of the cartoons he mentioned I only follow UF (but now that he gave a pointer somwhere else I have to check that one out too...)
I think he needs to lighten up. It's only humour after all. UF doesn't exist solely to mock the clueless lusers, it also mocks management, techs, funny accents, linux, Microsoft, Quake, internetworking, the.com economy, programming geeks/nerds and (lately) relationships and dating!
In other words, the UF author is fairly well plugged in to this sub-culture we call whatever it is we call it, and he seems to be able to see and illustrate the humour in it. UF is not mean spirited humour by any stretch.
I have to take issue with the following statement: Anyone in the world, can learn how to work in tech support. It's basic memorization, there is no real math or intelligence skills required. All you need a good solid 2 or 3 weeks of training and you can answer the phones too.
I think he really has no idea what real tech support is all about. It sounds like the only "tech support" he's ever dealt with is the type I call "Customer Service Agents" whose job is to answer the phone pleasantly, follow the script, regurgitate the answers from the FAQ list, enter the trouble ticket, and then hurry up and answer the next call. Little more than tele-marketting really...
Real tech support is remote troubleshooting. It is fixing technical problems with some sort of device.
Before one can fix a technical problem, one has to find the cause of the problem. Ever notice that the actual fix to the problem at hand is usually really short/easy/quick? The most time consuming part of tech support is trying to figure out what the cause of the problem actually is in the first place. Once we know that, fixing it is (usually) the easy part.
Before one can find the cause of the problem, one has to have an accurate statement and understanding of what the problem actually is. Here's where the user comes in. The tech support person has to know all the right questions to ask to get the information out of the user that will tell them what the problem actually is. All the user knows is "it doesn't work, and I'm pissed off becuase of it!"
The tech has to know what the device is supposed to do if it is working right. This usually means knowing steps a user would follow and what the expected response is to each step. Alterately, the tech needs to know what the possible error responses the device would produce at each step, and what does each error point to as being the problem. Often there is not a one-to-one relationship between problem and error response - usually one problem can produce any of many different errors, or one error response could point to several different problems depending on what other errors are observed, in what order, and in what combination.
The tech then needs to be able to piece all that into a step by step sequence of questions to ask the user, and based on the user's answer, go here or go there and check this other thing, and so on.
Sure, a lot of this stuff can be written up in scripts and flowcharts, but if all somebody knows how to do is follow the flowchart, what happens when they are presented with a set of conditions the flowchart writer never thought to write up? Tech support is not ALWAYS fixing the same problems over and over. Granted there may be a certain amount of repetitiveness, but the true test of a real tech is not in handling the easy stuff, it's handling the stuff "nobody's ever seen before".
Genuine troubleshooting skills are not picked up in 2 weeks of training, there are college courses that teach this type of thing. Sure a lot of it is simple deductive reasoning and basic problem solving skills, but the application of those skills takes on new dimensions in a technical setting.
I have worked with a fair amount of the type of person that get the 2 weeks training and then get on the phones, and they are usually the worst type, worse than the customers. They are unable to think beyond what's in the script, and panic and come running for the help of the ones in the know seemingly on every call. They seem to be unable to assimilate and connect information learned on calls. They can't seem to figure things out for themsleves.
<rant>Don't ask me "Is the email server down?" First, there are about 6 dozen email servers here. All of them have a name. Find out what email server the luser is on. Secondly, once you know what email server it is, then don't come to me asking "Is the email server mail.foo.com email down?"
How many times do I have to how to find out for yourself? How many times do I have to tell you to ping the thing? How many times do I have to show you how to log in and check processes? How many times to I have to show you how to test the server with a known good client? How many times have I shown you how to do all that and you still can't seem to get how this is basic troubleshooting?
I can see having to walk you through it two or three times, it is new to you, and it is a lot of steps for you to remember. But after a while you should be able to at least get started by yourself, and if you need help in one of the later steps because you forgot what's next, I'll be happy to help. The main thing is that you are making progess, you are learning, and maybe down the road you won't need my help anymore, and you can be the one who helps the others.
What I can't stand is how you never seem to even learn what the start of this procedure is, and when it might be useful to try. Instead all you ever ask me is "Is the email server down?"
Techs like you are worse than the users. The users don't get paid for knowing how to do this technical stuff. You do get paid for knowing, now do your job and learn!</rant>
Alright fine. I never said anything about ear piercings in a mall or any of the other BS you extrapolated from who-knows-where.
You don't know anything about me. Admittedly my comment was rather short and wouldn't give you a chance to learn more about me, but the fact is it was YOU who jumped to conclusions.
My comment was intended as a short, simple, gut reaction to the story and pictures. If his intention is to be different from everyone else, and to shock those who see him, well he certainly accomplished that. With me anyway, I was definitely shocked...
As for piercings, tatoos, cosmetic surgery, etc: none that sort of self mutilation interests me at all. I've never had an earing, tatoo or anything else. I'm not saying there ought to be a law or anything, just that it is un-attactive to me.
I AM NOT being intolerant, I am merely expressing my opinion. If others want to do that stuff to themselves so be it. There should be nothing to stop them from doing whatever they want to themselves, and there should be nothing stopping me from saying I think they are crazy for doing it and I think their appearance distasteful.
I'm sure all these folks who do this are real nice people, articulate, intelligent, and all that. In response to this story on/. I spent some time looking at the websites that others have linked. I read some of the material they have written and said, and I grant that they seem to have a pretty good head on their shoulders.
And I guess I'm in the wrong for being all hung up on this too.
Finally:
Eric's part of a vanguard of pre-cyborgs
WHAT!?! You gotta be kidding me. What a load of horse shit.
Sounds like the email client is Outlook, and they use IE for some kind of web browsing. Unclear if they're browsing live pages on the network or if they have some static HTML files on the hard drive. He said they were using IE to bring up documents in Acrobat to print out.
BTW, they think they migh want to try a new printer driver, so they've asked the ground to send up a new installation file. If they can transfer decent sized files, they must have a pretty good speed on the network.
I'd like to see a/. interview with somebody at NASA who supports the Orbiter Communications Adapter (OCA). The OCA is the radio data link to the onboard laptops and printer on the orbiter. They use it to send up "email" to the Shuttle from Mission Control.
One part I'd like to hear about is what they have on the laptops as far as OS, applications, what brand of printer, what model of laptop, etc.
Even more interesting would be to hear about the communications and email protocol they use. Are they running standard TCP/IP across the link, and standard email protocols? What email clients and servers do they use? (I hope they don't say MS Exchange...)
If it's standard TCP/IP, can the astronauts surf the web from orbit? I hope they have whatever network the Orbiter PC's are on firewalled out the ying-yang. Do the astronauts have email addresses that we outside NASA can send to? Do they get spam in orbit?
Slashdot Mirror
On another note, does anybody really believe that Robin was up and posted this article at 2:10 am on a Friday?
no, boitano is a yank.
add features
.exe, or even worse an .ocx...
/. trolls posting here, without their knowledge. Forget just banning IP's at that point. We now have a Distributed Troll DDoS attack.
Like have it parse the front page for new ?sid= values to post to.
Have it randomly generate new user id's to post under after several posts.
port it to languages like perl
Even more devious? A Win32
Get it in circulation via outlook express or some MS browser bug, one of the multitude of holes that allows WinX machines to execute arbitrary code behind the users' back.
Get it into wide circulation and have a million
What I just described made me shudder. Rob and gang, PLEASE tighten up posting - PLEASE!
Whether this particular prank was intelligent could be up for debate. I believe that calling for "more porn" is hardly original.
I wonder how long it would have taken CNN to figure it out if he was more subtle? Imagine the noteriety this incident would get if he was able to impersonate the prez for 20 minutes or something, rather than the 10 seconds it took to post his "porn" remarks?
Then again maybe it was a "Holy shit, I can't believe that actually worked" moment and he just said the first thing that came to mind...
As for whether the authorities should come down on this guy, I certainly don't belive they should.
However, there are laws against impersonation as an attempt to mis-represent yourself as a public official. I would think the penalty for impersonating the POTUS would be especially harsh. I assume the authorities don't have much of a sense of humour when it comes to this sort of thing.
Again, I'm not saying anything bad should happen to the guy, just that something might. Personally, I think he's got nice big brass ones...
Why is a BIOS running specifically on Crusoe such a big achievement? I thought it was supposed to run x86 native code with no modification?
What is a BIOS other than some relatively compact x86 code, tightly coupled to the motherboard?
Or is the Phoenix acchievment really more related to the interfaces with the peripherals and system board in a Crusoe system, which presumably are not the same as a Wintel system?
Presumably the Processor related sections of the BIOS can run un-touched, right? Or is code-morphing not all it's cracked up to be?
Looks like our man Kev had some NASTY shit in his f1lez then...
Unless you had a /. enabled newsreader that could process the X-Slashdot headers.
/. (flat, nested, etc). It would also parse the moderations on the articles so it could filter articles based on your preferences.
/. comments server would have to allow the clients to modify the moderation fields in real time. Which would mean the client would have to authenticate /. member logins, and then only provide moderator access to users at the same time the regualr /. interface does, keep track of points left, etc.
/. servers and operators.
/. client for the Palm Pilot...
/. on a Palm with a web browser now, but the point is you could probably code a lightweight /. client for just about ever platform.)
It could provide message threading display options the same as on
You could do moderation from within the newsreader, but the
On the downside, this is going to require some knowledge/changes/co-operation from the
On the upside, imagine a
(yes, I know, you can read
Gee I wish I had a site that hundred of thousands of people watched for news. Perhaps I should create a geek gossip site for just this kind of stuff.
If you think you can do better, be our guest and leave.
It's probably a good thing
I agree this enforcement action is probably a good thing. This company sounds like a bunch of low life, domain-squatting, Linux-IPO-craze-cashing-in-on, scum.
Linus's lawyers got them to cease and desist; nevertheless, I'd be more inclined to look for
OpenSourceProgrammers.org
OpenSourceProgramming.org
first!
I woudn't. Put yourself in the position of Joe Clueless-Manager looking for Linux programmers. I'd be looking for www.linuxprogrammer.com first. "Open Source" has not reached buzzword status, "Linux" (R) has.
Personally I applaud Linus for enforcing his trademark. It's a tribute to him as a computer scientist that something he created has reached status where people want to make money off just its name.
*Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds
PS: Did anybody else get the "LINUX" vanity license plate cover Compaq was giving out with the Testdrive program? Mine came in the other week, and I was impressed by the fact they included the "Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds" statement on the bottom. Nice touch!
Umm.... The key HAD to be in teh part of the data that had to be redone.
If the key was in the data from before the part that had to be redone, then we would have never gotten to the part that had to be redone becuase we would have already one adn stopped the project.
Logic man, logic...
Totally in the gutter. I read that completely dyslexic. What's scary is I even re-read that line about 4 times just to make sure I really saw what I thought I saw. I really did see r before d.
Duh, it's really d before r, not r before d. Guess I'm showing my nearly complete ignorance of particle physics, eh? That and a complete lack of sleep for most of this week...
...or at the machine to be completed in Europe, the Large Hadron Collider.
Is this machine really called that? Or was it a transcription error? Is it really the "Hydrogen Collider" or something?
(my karma's probably doing to hell becasue of this, but I just thought it was kinda funny...)
Food for thought: The post you're replying to was saying that there are alternative ways to make oneself known, including emailing everybody you know (word of mouth on a scale gone mad...)
You said you don't think that sort of promotion is any competition to the AOL-TW monstrosity, and I'd agree with you that there's probably no other way to harness the sheer number of eyballs they have.
However, word of mouth on the internet (email especially) is a very powerful force. How else can you explain the Mahir phenomenon?
And who says the blanket spam/popup/banner ads crap that AOL does are all that effective anyway? I personally know of NO ONE who has ever bought a product or service based on such spam. I don't know anybody who "clicks through" on banners.
I know I do respond to my buddies telling me "This CD rocks" or "read this book" or "get this video card". It's the open, one to one/one to several non-broadcast nature of the internet that gives its appeal.
There are some insightful posts farther down in this story discussing how AOL and the other media behemoths will simply implode on them selves from their own bulk. After a certain point, a company gets just TOO big.
It's advertising for the Fluent Fluid Dynamics software. If you read the yahoo article, it reads like a thinly veiled press release for the product.
Good for a chuckle at bedtime anyhow...
2. Palm Computing was a solo company. Got bought by 3com. Spun off by 3com. Doesn't that seem like the long way to get back where you started?
The trip is longer and stranger than that. Palm was an independent company, and got bought by USR. Not long after that, 3Com bought USR, thus getting Palm. Now 3Com is spinning Palm back into an independent company. Can't tell the players without a scorecard, anymore...
Nice satire, I like it...
This disturbs me.
Quoting the first few lines of the article:
Tuesday January 11 9:36 AM ET
AOL, Time Cite Social Goals
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The blockbuster merger pact of America Online and Time Warner aims to make the world a better place by fighting social ills, the heads of both companies said Tuesday.
``This is not just about big business. This is not just about money,'' said Gerald Levin, the Time Warner chairman who will be chief executive of the new linkup.
``This is about making a better world for people because we now have the technology and the instruments to do that,'' he said in a round of early-morning television appearances with Steve Case, the on-line company's chairman.
What a GOOD idea! Goes along with the post up above, about somebody going to every country and (R)ing the (TM) in Linus' name.
The most fair outcome for everybody in Uruguay would be if both parties agree to pay half the cost each, and submit the paperwork to register the TM in Linus' name.
As I understand it, Linus owns the TM and will let basically anybody use it. Is there a FAQ somewhere where Linus states his position on the "Linux" (TM) trademark? I did a Dejasearch (TM?) and didn't find anything definitive.
It sounds to me like this is all some personal vendetta thing between the guys in the company and some other guys in the LUG (Who it sounds like also have some sort of commercial enterprise).
The company's problem seems to be that they think if they DON'T get the TM in Uruguay, the Users' group will get it, and then stop the company from using the word "Linux" (TM) in its name. If the company is worried that the LUG is going to block it, the company should register it to Linus who will NOT block them or anybody else.
Then The LUG and the company and anybody else in Uruguay can use the word "Linux" (TM) and everybody will be happy.
Unless of course what the company really wanted was the EXCLUSIVE use of the (TM) in Uruguay, in which case they should be taken out and shot.
-James
Not to get into a debate on whether they HAVE to change to the .com TLD (I tend to believe they probably shouldn't be a .org anymore, but you could say the same thing about jennicam and probably several hundred OTHER sites...)
.edu, .gov, or .mil since those are privately controlled and registered, but the public domains like .net, .org, and .com seem to have no hard-fast rules.
.com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered
.COM, .NET, .ORG, .EDU domains and
When you come right down to it, in today's internet it doesn't matter a darn bit what your TLD is. I guess you would never be able to get a
Interestingly, slashdot.com appears to be already taken:
=================
Whois Server Version 1.1
Domain names in the
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS.2WIRE.COM
Name Server: NS3.2WIRE.COM
Name Server: NS4.2WIRE.COM
>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 4 Jan 00 02:13:44 EST
The Registry database contains ONLY
Registrars.
=================
Domain squatting anyone?
Of the cartoons he mentioned I only follow UF (but now that he gave a pointer somwhere else I have to check that one out too...)
.com economy, programming geeks/nerds and (lately) relationships and dating!
I think he needs to lighten up. It's only humour after all. UF doesn't exist solely to mock the clueless lusers, it also mocks management, techs, funny accents, linux, Microsoft, Quake, internetworking, the
In other words, the UF author is fairly well plugged in to this sub-culture we call whatever it is we call it, and he seems to be able to see and illustrate the humour in it. UF is not mean spirited humour by any stretch.
I have to take issue with the following statement:
Anyone in the world, can learn how to work in tech support. It's basic memorization, there is no real math or intelligence skills required. All you need a good solid 2 or 3 weeks of training and you can answer the phones too.
I think he really has no idea what real tech support is all about. It sounds like the only "tech support" he's ever dealt with is the type I call "Customer Service Agents" whose job is to answer the phone pleasantly, follow the script, regurgitate the answers from the FAQ list, enter the trouble ticket, and then hurry up and answer the next call. Little more than tele-marketting
really...
Real tech support is remote troubleshooting. It is fixing technical problems with some sort of device.
Before one can fix a technical problem, one has to find the cause of the problem. Ever notice that the actual fix to the problem at hand is usually really short/easy/quick? The most time consuming part of tech support is trying to figure out what the cause of the problem actually is in the first place. Once we know that, fixing it is (usually) the easy part.
Before one can find the cause of the problem, one has to have an accurate statement and understanding of what the problem actually is. Here's where the user comes in. The tech support person has to know all the right questions to ask to get the information out of the user that will tell them what the problem actually is. All the user knows is "it doesn't work, and I'm pissed off becuase of it!"
The tech has to know what the device is supposed to do if it is working right. This usually means knowing steps a user would follow and what the expected response is to each step. Alterately, the tech needs to know what the possible error responses the device would produce at each step, and what does each error point to as being the problem. Often there is not a one-to-one relationship between problem and error response - usually one problem can produce any of many different errors, or one error response could point to several different problems depending on what other errors are observed, in what order, and in what combination.
The tech then needs to be able to piece all that into a step by step sequence of questions to ask the user, and based on the user's answer, go here or go there and check this other thing, and so on.
Sure, a lot of this stuff can be written up in scripts and flowcharts, but if all somebody knows how to do is follow the flowchart, what happens when they are presented with a set of conditions the flowchart writer never thought to write up? Tech support is not ALWAYS fixing the same problems over and over. Granted there may be a certain amount of repetitiveness, but the true test of a real tech is not in handling the easy stuff, it's handling the stuff "nobody's ever seen before".
Genuine troubleshooting skills are not picked up in 2 weeks of training, there are college courses that teach this type of thing. Sure a lot of it is simple deductive reasoning and basic problem solving skills, but the application of those skills takes on new dimensions in a technical setting.
I have worked with a fair amount of the type of person that get the 2 weeks training and then get on the phones, and they are usually the worst type, worse than the customers. They are unable to think beyond what's in the script, and panic and come running for the help of the ones in the know seemingly on every call. They seem to be unable to assimilate and connect information learned on calls. They can't seem to figure things out for themsleves.
<rant>Don't ask me "Is the email server down?" First, there are about 6 dozen email servers here. All of them have a name. Find out what email server the luser is on. Secondly, once you know what email server it is, then don't come to me asking "Is the email server mail.foo.com email down?"
How many times do I have to how to find out for yourself? How many times do I have to tell you to ping the thing? How many times do I have to show you how to log in and check processes? How many times to I have to show you how to test the server with a known good client? How many times have I shown you how to do all that and you still can't seem to get how this is basic troubleshooting?
I can see having to walk you through it two or three times, it is new to you, and it is a lot of steps for you to remember. But after a while you should be able to at least get started by yourself, and if you need help in one of the later steps because you forgot what's next, I'll be happy to help. The main thing is that you are making progess, you are learning, and maybe down the road you won't need my help anymore, and you can be the one who helps the others.
What I can't stand is how you never seem to even learn what the start of this procedure is, and when it might be useful to try. Instead all you ever ask me is "Is the email server down?"
Techs like you are worse than the users. The users don't get paid for knowing how to do this technical stuff. You do get paid for knowing, now do your job and learn!</rant>
Alright fine. I never said anything about ear piercings in a mall or any of the other BS you extrapolated from who-knows-where.
You don't know anything about me. Admittedly my comment was rather short and wouldn't give you a chance to learn more about me, but the fact is it was YOU who jumped to conclusions.
My comment was intended as a short, simple, gut reaction to the story and pictures. If his intention is to be different from everyone else, and to shock those who see him, well he certainly accomplished that. With me anyway, I was definitely shocked...
As for piercings, tatoos, cosmetic surgery, etc: none that sort of self mutilation interests me at all. I've never had an earing, tatoo or anything else. I'm not saying there ought to be a law or anything, just that it is un-attactive to me.
I AM NOT being intolerant, I am merely expressing my opinion. If others want to do that stuff to themselves so be it. There should be nothing to stop them from doing whatever they want to themselves, and there should be nothing stopping me from saying I think they are crazy for doing it and I think their appearance distasteful.
I'm sure all these folks who do this are real nice people, articulate, intelligent, and all that. In response to this story on
And I guess I'm in the wrong for being all hung up on this too.
Finally:
Eric's part of a vanguard of pre-cyborgs
WHAT!?! You gotta be kidding me. What a load of horse shit.
If you would have bothered to read the frickin article, you would know the answer to that.
Hint: look in the second yellow paragraph.
That is just SO wrong...
OK well that answers one of my questions...
Sounds like the email client is Outlook, and they use IE for some kind of web browsing. Unclear if they're browsing live pages on the network or if they have some static HTML files on the hard drive. He said they were using IE to bring up documents in Acrobat to print out.
BTW, they think they migh want to try a new printer driver, so they've asked the ground to send up a new installation file. If they can transfer decent sized files, they must have a pretty good speed on the network.
I'd like to see a /. interview with somebody at NASA who supports the Orbiter Communications Adapter (OCA). The OCA is the radio data link to the onboard laptops and printer on the orbiter. They use it to send up "email" to the Shuttle from Mission Control.
One part I'd like to hear about is what they have on the laptops as far as OS, applications, what brand of printer, what model of laptop, etc.
Even more interesting would be to hear about the communications and email protocol they use. Are they running standard TCP/IP across the link, and standard email protocols? What email clients and servers do they use? (I hope they don't say MS Exchange...)
If it's standard TCP/IP, can the astronauts surf the web from orbit? I hope they have whatever network the Orbiter PC's are on firewalled out the ying-yang. Do the astronauts have email addresses that we outside NASA can send to? Do they get spam in orbit?