Exactly! These kinds of examples are ideal for demonstrating to PHB types that data loss isn't just some kind of theoretical once-in-a-billion-years kind of thing, and that backups actually serve a purpose.
I also find it amusing that they could apparently afford to blow money on nice shiny Mac servers, yet a tape drive (hell, even a $99 external hard drive or two from Best Buy) was out of the question.
IE6 is still very popular despite the fact that 7 came out over two years ago. If users haven't upgraded by now, I see no reason why they would when 8 is released.
I'm sure IE8 will be broken in slightly different ways from 6 and 7. So all this really means is we will have to implement hacks for three different versions of a shitty, non-standards-compliant browser for the foreseeable future, instead of two.
A space-age version of the rusty springs under old pickup trucks will help NASA fix the most pressing technical problem with its high-tech new rocket to send astronauts back to the moon.... Officials on Tuesday said they have settled on a solution that is similar to what smooths the rides of pickup trucks: shock absorbers.
So are they springs, or are they shock absorbers? It's pretty sad that an "AP Science Writer" doesn't know that these are two completely separate things.
Million-dollar race cars also have shocks and springs, as do other forms of exotic machinery. It's cute how he implied that it's some kind of archaic concept limited to "old pickup trucks," though.
Could these pathetic hacks at least TRY to report things accurately and with a shred of objectivity? Christ.
Apple has built up a reputation for making simple, reliable, high-quality products that "just work." When they fail to make products that live up to the expectations that THEY created, customers are going to be pissed off.
To use the ol' car analogy: If some Korean subcompact did poorly in crash tests, it wouldn't be considered a very big deal since it's not really surprising. If a new Volvo turned out to be a death trap, it WOULD be noteworthy since their reputation is built on making safe cars.
It has never once been rebooted since the day we set it up. Another server was up even longer, but it was powered down last month to add a couple more hard drives. Guess I should be buying some lottery tickets!
I know MySQL permits un-quoted integers, as in "SELECT * from foo where foo_id=42".
In that case your first example would be adding an opening quote, so the injection would fail. Perhaps MSSQL is even more lenient and lets you get away with un-quoted strings as well.
1. The Second Amendment uses the militia as *one example* explaining why the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. It's basically like saying "Being necessary for political debate, the right to free speech shall not be infringed." Would you interpret that to mean the right to free speech only applies to political debates? I do wish they omitted that clause to prevent misinterpretation by gun control advocates, but it's still pretty clear.
2. Let's pretend that it *does* mean the right to bear arms is based solely on militias. A militia, by definition, is a group of private citizens. It exists to not only help the army defend against foreign invasions, but also to provide defense against our own government should it be necessary.
Since a militia is pointless without arms (in other words, it cannot be considered "well-regulated" if its members have no way to actually fight an armed enemy), an oppressive government could simply revoke gun ownership--basically rendering all militias impotent--and run roughshod over its citizens. The Second Amendment prevents that.
So you're saying criminals would think "Geez, it doesn't seem fair for me to use this Glock to rob the store when the clerk probably doesn't have a gun. I'll use the switchblade instead; that oughta level the playing field."
Hrm. It seems the DC gun ban would have reduced gun crime if criminals were truly that altruistic.
I use a Unicomp Model M at work every day. I type significantly faster on it-- 130 wpm, compared to 110 wpm on the mushy piece of crap I had before. I also type more accurately since the keys actually provide feedback, and I find it to be very comfortable.
Keyboards, like pretty much any other tool, are highly subjective. If you like keyboards that feel like you're poking a bowl of stale oatmeal, more power to you. But don't pretend your personal preferences are universal facts.
Well you're in luck-- a company bought the rights and tooling from IBM/Lexmark, and they're still cranking out brand-new Model Ms. They also sell modernized versions with USB and/or Windows keys. I'm typing on this one right now, and I'm happy to say that it feels just like the original IBM beasts.
I nominate the IBM Model M keyboard and its brethren as being among the most bulletproof gadgets ever made. They weigh 5 pounds, mostly because the keys are mounted on a solid steel plate. And not only are they indestructible, but they're delightful to type on.
We will be forced to continue making standards-compliant sites with IE-specific hacks until IE6 and IE7 are finally eradicated (at this rate, I'm hoping for some time around 2025).
Then, on that glorious day, we will finally be able to make standardized sites without any IE-specific hacks. Except, of course, for the META tag that tells IE8+ not to mimic older versions of IE that are no longer in use. Wow.
Hey, while we're at it, why not have Firefox 3 act like Netscape 1.1 unless you add some arbitrary tag to every single website you work with? It would make just as much goddamned sense!
I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a government agency whose website was hacked. After a month-long "security audit", their in-house security experts devised a comprehensive plan to lock down their server and prevent it from ever being compromised again.
The solution, in its entirety, was to turn http://www.dumbass.agency.gov into the new, "secure" https://www.dumbass.agency.gov.
Sometimes I need to send a document that I only have on paper, a signed contract, a copy of my photo ID, etc.
Sure, fax machines are annoying. But it's nothing compared to firing up a scanner, previewing and setting it up to capture the right area, exporting to a PDF or other common format, attaching to an email, and hoping it doesn't get canned by their mail server's file size limit or attachment-blocking policies. And why spend 15 bucks to overnight a letter when it can be sent in 2 minutes for the cost of a phone call?
Sure, email is superior in many ways, but fax machines will still be convenient and relevant until we all work in paperless offices. In other words, pretty much forever. Telling people to avoid junk faxes by getting rid of them altogether is about as helpful as telling someone to get rid of their phone if they are bothered by telemarketers.
Anyway, we use a PC w/ a fax modem to receive faxes where I work. Deleting junk faxes is just as easy as deleting junk emails.
It's illegal to walk up to someone and verbally abuse them, make harassing telephone calls, write them threatening letters, etc.
How does bullying someone via e-mail or IM make the situation any different? WTF is the point in making yet another law when we already HAVE applicable laws against harassment and intimidation?
Between James Kim and this poor guy, I think it's a pretty clear sign that geeks and outdoor activities don't mix. As if that wasn't obvious enough already.
I'll never forget the time I tried to pitch a tent. Long story short, it was mostly supported by a rope attached to a tree and a bunch of rocks around the perimeter.
Headline the week after the Super Bowl: "Time Warner Cable runs out of storage space for returned HD DVRs".
I've been told that a surprising number of people buy a big-screen HDTV, watch the game, and return it the day after. People like them are the reason the rest of us get sacked with restocking fees.
As much as I hate DRM, I absolutely loathe bumbling idiot politicians who come up with these kinds of laws because they want to look like they're "embracing technology and taking a proactive stance on cyber-issues" or whatever.
I can understand and accept government standards for essentials like drinking water, utilities, food, etc. But how in the hell can anyone justify the government butting into the MP3 player market? If Apple was the world's only source of MP3s and MP3 players, they *might* have a leg to stand on. But they aren't, so they don't, end of story.
"It's not all about programming. It's not all about programmers. Programmers aren't somehow special and to be protected and coddled."
As a programmer, I agree 100%. I expect to work and be treated like any other professional.
NOT as a lab rat for "extreme programming" or whatever buzzword-laden feelgood bullshit management scheme comes along this week.
You wouldn't go to a painter and say "I want you to make me a painting. It doesn't matter what it consists of yet, we'll worry about that later. Just start out with a box or something and we'll meet every day and figure it out from there. And just to make damn sure you can't get anything done, I've hired another painter whose role is to sit around and annoy you." So why does that make sense for programmers?
They shouldn't be allowed to advertise (and charge a premium for) 3-5+ mbps service if they're going to actively prevent their customers from using it.
If car manufacturers operated like ISPs, they would sell 300 horsepower cars with shoddy transmissions, then limit them to 150hp so they wouldn't have to deal with the warranty repairs.
-Use a good, large monitor with the highest resolution you can see easily, set to the highest possible refresh rate.
-It's amazing how a good quality mouse & keyboard can improve your work environment. $30 for a high-quality Logitech mouse to replace a 10 year old Microsoft POS is an excellent investment.
-Get a large collection of music and the best headphones you can afford. Cheap uncomfortable headphones will just be annoying and induce headaches. Good ones will make your work much more enjoyable.
-Ritalin. The thought of having ADD never really crossed my mind until I talked to my doctor about my problems at work. He diagnosed me for ADD, and I ended up nailing pretty much every symptom. He said that it's extremely common among computer programmers. Ritalin has been a miracle for me, especially when it comes to getting through boring repetitive stuff.
This kind of frustration is very common, and it makes sense. Most of us are programmers because we enjoy the challenges, complex problems, and creativity that is inherent to programming. But we also end up maintaining software, making trivial revisions to other peoples' work, and doing repetitive, simple, boring tasks.
That's somewhat unique to our line of work-- playwrights don't have to make copies and revisions of other peoples' plays. Automobile designers don't spend half their time bolting things together at an assembly line. I never saw the guy with the afro get interrupted in the middle of painting his "happy trees" because his manager needed him to go whitewash someone's garage.
So the French government has made the country so prosperous and solved so many problems that they're now able to worry about things like how MP3 players store their files? Damn, they need to share their secret with the rest of us!
I don't like the iPod's proprietary file storage format, so I bought a competing model that doesn't have that drawback. Problem solved, no government intervention necessary.
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Exactly! These kinds of examples are ideal for demonstrating to PHB types that data loss isn't just some kind of theoretical once-in-a-billion-years kind of thing, and that backups actually serve a purpose.
I also find it amusing that they could apparently afford to blow money on nice shiny Mac servers, yet a tape drive (hell, even a $99 external hard drive or two from Best Buy) was out of the question.
IE6 is still very popular despite the fact that 7 came out over two years ago. If users haven't upgraded by now, I see no reason why they would when 8 is released.
I'm sure IE8 will be broken in slightly different ways from 6 and 7. So all this really means is we will have to implement hacks for three different versions of a shitty, non-standards-compliant browser for the foreseeable future, instead of two.
A space-age version of the rusty springs under old pickup trucks will help NASA fix the most pressing technical problem with its high-tech new rocket to send astronauts back to the moon. ... Officials on Tuesday said they have settled on a solution that is similar to what smooths the rides of pickup trucks: shock absorbers.
So are they springs, or are they shock absorbers? It's pretty sad that an "AP Science Writer" doesn't know that these are two completely separate things.
Million-dollar race cars also have shocks and springs, as do other forms of exotic machinery. It's cute how he implied that it's some kind of archaic concept limited to "old pickup trucks," though.
Could these pathetic hacks at least TRY to report things accurately and with a shred of objectivity? Christ.
Apple has built up a reputation for making simple, reliable, high-quality products that "just work." When they fail to make products that live up to the expectations that THEY created, customers are going to be pissed off.
To use the ol' car analogy: If some Korean subcompact did poorly in crash tests, it wouldn't be considered a very big deal since it's not really surprising. If a new Volvo turned out to be a death trap, it WOULD be noteworthy since their reputation is built on making safe cars.
You can win the lottery too, if you are lucky. How many people win the lottery though?
One of our servers running RHEL:
16:48:46 up 499 days, 7:58, 1 user, load average: 0.02, 0.02, 0.00
It has never once been rebooted since the day we set it up. Another server was up even longer, but it was powered down last month to add a couple more hard drives. Guess I should be buying some lottery tickets!
I know MySQL permits un-quoted integers, as in "SELECT * from foo where foo_id=42".
In that case your first example would be adding an opening quote, so the injection would fail. Perhaps MSSQL is even more lenient and lets you get away with un-quoted strings as well.
1. The Second Amendment uses the militia as *one example* explaining why the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. It's basically like saying "Being necessary for political debate, the right to free speech shall not be infringed." Would you interpret that to mean the right to free speech only applies to political debates? I do wish they omitted that clause to prevent misinterpretation by gun control advocates, but it's still pretty clear.
2. Let's pretend that it *does* mean the right to bear arms is based solely on militias. A militia, by definition, is a group of private citizens. It exists to not only help the army defend against foreign invasions, but also to provide defense against our own government should it be necessary.
Since a militia is pointless without arms (in other words, it cannot be considered "well-regulated" if its members have no way to actually fight an armed enemy), an oppressive government could simply revoke gun ownership--basically rendering all militias impotent--and run roughshod over its citizens. The Second Amendment prevents that.
So you're saying criminals would think "Geez, it doesn't seem fair for me to use this Glock to rob the store when the clerk probably doesn't have a gun. I'll use the switchblade instead; that oughta level the playing field."
Hrm. It seems the DC gun ban would have reduced gun crime if criminals were truly that altruistic.
I use a Unicomp Model M at work every day. I type significantly faster on it-- 130 wpm, compared to 110 wpm on the mushy piece of crap I had before. I also type more accurately since the keys actually provide feedback, and I find it to be very comfortable.
Keyboards, like pretty much any other tool, are highly subjective. If you like keyboards that feel like you're poking a bowl of stale oatmeal, more power to you. But don't pretend your personal preferences are universal facts.
I'm amazed that it's still in one piece and recognizable.
I've always been skeptical when a hard drive's specs mention being able to handle 300 g's. Looks like they aren't kidding.
I hope they find the perp and whip off his windscreen wiper.
Well you're in luck-- a company bought the rights and tooling from IBM/Lexmark, and they're still cranking out brand-new Model Ms. They also sell modernized versions with USB and/or Windows keys. I'm typing on this one right now, and I'm happy to say that it feels just like the original IBM beasts.
I nominate the IBM Model M keyboard and its brethren as being among the most bulletproof gadgets ever made. They weigh 5 pounds, mostly because the keys are mounted on a solid steel plate. And not only are they indestructible, but they're delightful to type on.
So let me get this straight:
We will be forced to continue making standards-compliant sites with IE-specific hacks until IE6 and IE7 are finally eradicated (at this rate, I'm hoping for some time around 2025).
Then, on that glorious day, we will finally be able to make standardized sites without any IE-specific hacks. Except, of course, for the META tag that tells IE8+ not to mimic older versions of IE that are no longer in use. Wow.
Hey, while we're at it, why not have Firefox 3 act like Netscape 1.1 unless you add some arbitrary tag to every single website you work with? It would make just as much goddamned sense!
That's much more "Insightful" than "Funny".
I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a government agency whose website was hacked. After a month-long "security audit", their in-house security experts devised a comprehensive plan to lock down their server and prevent it from ever being compromised again.
The solution, in its entirety, was to turn http://www.dumbass.agency.gov into the new, "secure" https://www.dumbass.agency.gov.
I wish I was kidding.
Sometimes I need to send a document that I only have on paper, a signed contract, a copy of my photo ID, etc.
Sure, fax machines are annoying. But it's nothing compared to firing up a scanner, previewing and setting it up to capture the right area, exporting to a PDF or other common format, attaching to an email, and hoping it doesn't get canned by their mail server's file size limit or attachment-blocking policies. And why spend 15 bucks to overnight a letter when it can be sent in 2 minutes for the cost of a phone call?
Sure, email is superior in many ways, but fax machines will still be convenient and relevant until we all work in paperless offices. In other words, pretty much forever. Telling people to avoid junk faxes by getting rid of them altogether is about as helpful as telling someone to get rid of their phone if they are bothered by telemarketers.
Anyway, we use a PC w/ a fax modem to receive faxes where I work. Deleting junk faxes is just as easy as deleting junk emails.
It's illegal to walk up to someone and verbally abuse them, make harassing telephone calls, write them threatening letters, etc.
How does bullying someone via e-mail or IM make the situation any different? WTF is the point in making yet another law when we already HAVE applicable laws against harassment and intimidation?
Between James Kim and this poor guy, I think it's a pretty clear sign that geeks and outdoor activities don't mix. As if that wasn't obvious enough already.
I'll never forget the time I tried to pitch a tent. Long story short, it was mostly supported by a rope attached to a tree and a bunch of rocks around the perimeter.
Headline the week after the Super Bowl: "Time Warner Cable runs out of storage space for returned HD DVRs".
I've been told that a surprising number of people buy a big-screen HDTV, watch the game, and return it the day after. People like them are the reason the rest of us get sacked with restocking fees.
As much as I hate DRM, I absolutely loathe bumbling idiot politicians who come up with these kinds of laws because they want to look like they're "embracing technology and taking a proactive stance on cyber-issues" or whatever. I can understand and accept government standards for essentials like drinking water, utilities, food, etc. But how in the hell can anyone justify the government butting into the MP3 player market? If Apple was the world's only source of MP3s and MP3 players, they *might* have a leg to stand on. But they aren't, so they don't, end of story.
What the fuck is "Pwned"? I thought this was a news site, not an AOL chatroom.
"It's not all about programming. It's not all about programmers. Programmers aren't somehow special and to be protected and coddled."
As a programmer, I agree 100%. I expect to work and be treated like any other professional.
NOT as a lab rat for "extreme programming" or whatever buzzword-laden feelgood bullshit management scheme comes along this week.
You wouldn't go to a painter and say "I want you to make me a painting. It doesn't matter what it consists of yet, we'll worry about that later. Just start out with a box or something and we'll meet every day and figure it out from there. And just to make damn sure you can't get anything done, I've hired another painter whose role is to sit around and annoy you." So why does that make sense for programmers?
They shouldn't be allowed to advertise (and charge a premium for) 3-5+ mbps service if they're going to actively prevent their customers from using it.
If car manufacturers operated like ISPs, they would sell 300 horsepower cars with shoddy transmissions, then limit them to 150hp so they wouldn't have to deal with the warranty repairs.
Here's what helps me:
-Use a good, large monitor with the highest resolution you can see easily, set to the highest possible refresh rate.
-It's amazing how a good quality mouse & keyboard can improve your work environment. $30 for a high-quality Logitech mouse to replace a 10 year old Microsoft POS is an excellent investment.
-Get a large collection of music and the best headphones you can afford. Cheap uncomfortable headphones will just be annoying and induce headaches. Good ones will make your work much more enjoyable.
-Ritalin. The thought of having ADD never really crossed my mind until I talked to my doctor about my problems at work. He diagnosed me for ADD, and I ended up nailing pretty much every symptom. He said that it's extremely common among computer programmers. Ritalin has been a miracle for me, especially when it comes to getting through boring repetitive stuff.
This kind of frustration is very common, and it makes sense. Most of us are programmers because we enjoy the challenges, complex problems, and creativity that is inherent to programming. But we also end up maintaining software, making trivial revisions to other peoples' work, and doing repetitive, simple, boring tasks.
That's somewhat unique to our line of work-- playwrights don't have to make copies and revisions of other peoples' plays. Automobile designers don't spend half their time bolting things together at an assembly line. I never saw the guy with the afro get interrupted in the middle of painting his "happy trees" because his manager needed him to go whitewash someone's garage.
So the French government has made the country so prosperous and solved so many problems that they're now able to worry about things like how MP3 players store their files? Damn, they need to share their secret with the rest of us! I don't like the iPod's proprietary file storage format, so I bought a competing model that doesn't have that drawback. Problem solved, no government intervention necessary.