Depends on the user. We have users who 1) we trust, and 2) have a legitimate need for admin rights. When both of those conditions are met, we let them have admin rights. If they fail either test, then no joy;)
Spoken like someone who's never worked in IT:rolleyes:
Yes, there are companies where the IT personnel are on a power trip, but IME, that's the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, IT's policies are put in place for a reason. We don't want to make your life any more difficult than it needs to be. But when some "superuser" with a super-ego decides to circumvent IT policies by taking data home on a thumb drive, and then loses the drive or posts the data on-line for some reason, we get a mandate to keep it from happening again. When a user connects the company laptop directly up to their DSL or cable modem at home, contracts a new virus that evades the A/V software's detection rules and infects the network, then we take steps to prevent users from connecting to any network we don't control. And when we find our users installing games and P2P software, then we take away the ability to install anything on company laptops unless you can show that you have a bona fide need to do so.
You gripe that "Enterprise IT policies are almost always to make IT's life easier at the expense of the end user." Yeah, maybe. Sometimes it's true. But how long would it take you to change your tune if *you* were they guy getting called out on the carpet because a virus took your network down for two days? How many times would you let a user install rogue DHCP servers on your network before you decided to configure your switches to only allow certain MAC addresses to use given ports? How many times would you give out administrative access to anyone who asked for it, if your users kept breaking their computers because they didn't understand what they were doing?
Quote: If they're truly breaking things, this means your network is so poorly designed that they are even capable of it.
Are you serious? Your entire post is criticizing IT for doing exactly that! Yeah, we can lock down a network so that no one can break it, but to do so, it would be locked down so much as to be entirely inflexible. Your example of your mother's laptop is what happens when an IT department doesn't trust it's users, and therefore tries to build a network so that it can't be broken.
Quote: Get off your BOFH horse and do a decent job before yelling at people who are just trying to do their job reasonably.
If that's all that our users were trying to do, you'd find the network wasn't nearly so restrictive. However, I've seen field techs delete all of the company-provided software so that they could install Quake 3 (no, I'm not kidding...). I've seen users copy warez on the file server. And consequently, I've seen network administrators take away admin rights and block ports on the corporate firewall. The problem is that *most* users play be the rules, but the ones that don't get the IT staff in trouble with management. Therefore, we lock things down so it can't happen again.
There *has* to be order in any society or it becomes unstable and falls apart. In the corporate enterprise network, IT is responsible for creating and maintaining that order, and therefore, IT implements the policies that are necessary to keep the IT infrastructure operating smoothly. Not everyone likes those policies, but believe me, you'd like it a lot less if they weren't there.
Then you probably aren't the person the parent post was talking about. There's nothing wrong with asking a question about applying the material you are learning to the real world, *if* it's a legitimate question, and you are asking so you can learn something.
The parent post was talking about people who already know the answer and are asking questions just to show how insightful they are. I've seen it, and it's annoying.
If I had a dollar for every person that called me because some "superuser" installed a test piece of equipment on my network (against company policy, incidentally) and screwed something up, I'd quit right now and retire in the Caymans.
I've seen rogue DHCP servers assign duplicate IP addresses on our network, I've seen rogue DHCP servers assign IP addresses from a different network on our LAN, and I've seen (multiple times, from the same "power user") two ports on a DSLAM plugged into my production network cause a broadcast storm. After the first time, we turned on Spanning Tree; the second time, it only took down the equipment connected to his SOHO switch.
The parent post is right -- just because you can connect your two Windows computers at home up to a WiFi network doesn't mean you are qualified to be a network administrator in an Enterprise network. If you'd rather be an IT system administrator, then take the steps to become one; don't try to subvert your corporate IT department just because you think you can do it better.
Ok, technically, it was asphalt->gravel->asphalt, but the point remains the same. Part of the road is maintained by the Municipality of Anchorage, part of the road is maintained by the Bureau of Land Management, and therefore, the road surface changed at various locations. But none of the road was private property.
Dang it -- you just placed the tin foil hat on my head (and I was doing soooo well today!).
FBI Agent to P2P file sharer: "You know, when you illegally download, you avoid paying your taxes. When you avoid paying your taxes, the government can't fight terrorists. You want the government to fight terrorists, don't you?"
Case in point: I visited my aunt and uncle a few years ago. While I was there my uncle asked me to find out why their 280K DSL was so slow. A speed test showed they were getting 80K, and a quick check of Task Manager showed KaZaA was running. Turns out their 14 year old daughter was file sharing. While she was savvy enough to use P2P apps, she really doesn't know squat about networking or broadband technologies. To her, computers and the Internet are an appliance, just like a toaster, but more fun:)
IME, you can find the answer to just about any question you have with google, forums and man pages.
However, sometimes it is nice to have a reference manual on your bookshelf. When I first installed Linux, I used the "Slackware Linux Essentials" book to help with the install, then pored over another book (I forget the title now) that gave an overview of various services common to Linux distros (Apache, Sendmail, Bind, Samba, etc.) to start my education. *THEN* I started hanging out on forums to fill in all the gaps the books left in my knowledge. You can avoid a lot of flame-the-n00b replies by researching first and asking second;)
So if a judge does something (s)he isn't supposed to do, what repercussions are there? Can a judge lose his seat, be subject to lawsuits himself, or ???
Errr....I should have said "...and soliciting donations" rather than "supporting donations" in the post above. My bad; should have used "preview" first <sheepish>
Shoot down the guy that's making your product work. That's a brilliant strategy.
I couldn't agree more.
Kawakami probably should have not solicited donations, but that's the only questionable thing he's done here.
How is that questionable? That's the business strategy of a good portion of open source software. What's the difference between writing an open source application and soliciting funds to continue your work/bandwidth/etc. and writing a driver for a specific piece of hardware and supporting donations?
He should make out a cashier's check for the total amount of donations he's received, mail it to Creative Labs, and refuse any further donations.
Please tell me this is your idea of an April Fools' joke; I really hope you aren't serious. You want him to feed the (patent) trolls?!?!? *I* think at this point, he should update his donations request to say that he is now soliciting funds to help with his legal fees. I'd toss a few bucks his way for that on principle alone, and I don't even *use* Vista.
I gotta say, I'm really surprised by your opinion here -- in general, I see the "TMM" signature and prepare for a very insightful comment, but I really disagree with you on this one.
Would you feel that way if the ISP's customer was a spamhaus essentially DDoS'ing your mail server every day at a given time?
The simple fact is that, while I think you are right in theory, the real world has some very real snags that ISPs have to deal with. If a user on a network misbehaves and the ISP doesn't care, the ISP soon gets blacklisted. Consequently, ISPs put policies and technology in place to cover their backside from the users who abuse the Internet connection.
Make a "joke" corporate web site...
We did a variation on this at a company I worked for that was purchased by a competitor. Shortly after the acquisition, the other network admin and I modified our internal web server to redirect all incoming requests to the competitor's web site. The manager of one of the other departments came over to ask WTF was going on. It was priceless watching him turn redder and redder, but I felt bad when he stomped out of our area, and started yelling at the HR manager (she's actually a pretty cool lady), who then had to come ask our boss to put things back.
You probably can't d/l from a single source at 40G/s, but you could pull pieces from multiple sources at a combined total of 40G/s (isn't that essentially what torrent does?) or you can d/l multiple items from multiple sources so that, while you aren't getting any one download any faster, you could get a days' worth of downloads in the time it usually takes to download one file.
True, but even though wiring Anchorage is easy, we've still got really crappy speeds here. I've got a 720K/320K DSL connection in Anchorage's east side. I *could* upgrade to ADSL, but I really don't like the Paradyne and Westell modems ACS uses, so I stick with the slow Nortel cDSL modem. While you can get megabit speeds from GCI's cable service it is still a far cry from the 10-50M speeds I hear people bragging about in the lower-48 and Europe.
Oh, and the line owning companies would be localized, since it is a municipality issue anyways.
Hmmm...what about the lines running between municipalities? For example, a lot of Alaska is connected to the Internet by fiber cables running underwater from either Seward, AK or Whittier, AK to Seattle, WA. Which municipality is responsible for those lines?
I haven't tried the "Head First" books, but the concept sounds a lot like the "Dummies" books, which I really didn't like. There is a fine balance between being friendly & approachable and taking far too long to finally get to the point. I always thought the "Dummies" books were on the "too long to get to the point" end of the spectrum, and therefore usually picked the "Sams Teach yourself...in 24 Hours" books, instead.
How do the "Head First" books compare to the "Dummies" and "Tech Yourself" books?
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Depends on the user. We have users who 1) we trust, and 2) have a legitimate need for admin rights. When both of those conditions are met, we let them have admin rights. If they fail either test, then no joy ;)
Spoken like someone who's never worked in IT :rolleyes:
Yes, there are companies where the IT personnel are on a power trip, but IME, that's the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, IT's policies are put in place for a reason. We don't want to make your life any more difficult than it needs to be. But when some "superuser" with a super-ego decides to circumvent IT policies by taking data home on a thumb drive, and then loses the drive or posts the data on-line for some reason, we get a mandate to keep it from happening again. When a user connects the company laptop directly up to their DSL or cable modem at home, contracts a new virus that evades the A/V software's detection rules and infects the network, then we take steps to prevent users from connecting to any network we don't control. And when we find our users installing games and P2P software, then we take away the ability to install anything on company laptops unless you can show that you have a bona fide need to do so.
You gripe that "Enterprise IT policies are almost always to make IT's life easier at the expense of the end user." Yeah, maybe. Sometimes it's true. But how long would it take you to change your tune if *you* were they guy getting called out on the carpet because a virus took your network down for two days? How many times would you let a user install rogue DHCP servers on your network before you decided to configure your switches to only allow certain MAC addresses to use given ports? How many times would you give out administrative access to anyone who asked for it, if your users kept breaking their computers because they didn't understand what they were doing?
Quote: If they're truly breaking things, this means your network is so poorly designed that they are even capable of it.
Are you serious? Your entire post is criticizing IT for doing exactly that! Yeah, we can lock down a network so that no one can break it, but to do so, it would be locked down so much as to be entirely inflexible. Your example of your mother's laptop is what happens when an IT department doesn't trust it's users, and therefore tries to build a network so that it can't be broken.
Quote: Get off your BOFH horse and do a decent job before yelling at people who are just trying to do their job reasonably.
If that's all that our users were trying to do, you'd find the network wasn't nearly so restrictive. However, I've seen field techs delete all of the company-provided software so that they could install Quake 3 (no, I'm not kidding...). I've seen users copy warez on the file server. And consequently, I've seen network administrators take away admin rights and block ports on the corporate firewall. The problem is that *most* users play be the rules, but the ones that don't get the IT staff in trouble with management. Therefore, we lock things down so it can't happen again.
There *has* to be order in any society or it becomes unstable and falls apart. In the corporate enterprise network, IT is responsible for creating and maintaining that order, and therefore, IT implements the policies that are necessary to keep the IT infrastructure operating smoothly. Not everyone likes those policies, but believe me, you'd like it a lot less if they weren't there.
Then you probably aren't the person the parent post was talking about. There's nothing wrong with asking a question about applying the material you are learning to the real world, *if* it's a legitimate question, and you are asking so you can learn something.
The parent post was talking about people who already know the answer and are asking questions just to show how insightful they are. I've seen it, and it's annoying.
If I had a dollar for every person that called me because some "superuser" installed a test piece of equipment on my network (against company policy, incidentally) and screwed something up, I'd quit right now and retire in the Caymans.
I've seen rogue DHCP servers assign duplicate IP addresses on our network, I've seen rogue DHCP servers assign IP addresses from a different network on our LAN, and I've seen (multiple times, from the same "power user") two ports on a DSLAM plugged into my production network cause a broadcast storm. After the first time, we turned on Spanning Tree; the second time, it only took down the equipment connected to his SOHO switch.
The parent post is right -- just because you can connect your two Windows computers at home up to a WiFi network doesn't mean you are qualified to be a network administrator in an Enterprise network. If you'd rather be an IT system administrator, then take the steps to become one; don't try to subvert your corporate IT department just because you think you can do it better.
They have no beer? Then let them drink mead. (With apologies to Marie Antoinette, and FWIW, I'd rather drink beer than mead myself).
Maybe not at the consumer level, but there are plenty of Firewire at the amateur/semi-pro musician level. Check out http://www.musiciansfriend.com/, http://www.zzounds.com/ and http://www.sweetwater.com/ for examples.
About four days ago.
Ok, technically, it was asphalt->gravel->asphalt, but the point remains the same. Part of the road is maintained by the Municipality of Anchorage, part of the road is maintained by the Bureau of Land Management, and therefore, the road surface changed at various locations. But none of the road was private property.
Dang it -- you just placed the tin foil hat on my head (and I was doing soooo well today!).
FBI Agent to P2P file sharer: "You know, when you illegally download, you avoid paying your taxes. When you avoid paying your taxes, the government can't fight terrorists. You want the government to fight terrorists, don't you?"
You've got someone tailgating you and you think it's a good idea to get them hopped up on *energy* drinks?!?!?
sed "s/sumo/reality tv" and you just described TV here in the States. Thank you, no.
Your alternatives to watching TV apply equally well in the U.S., too <grin>
P2P != "savvy users" in all cases.
:)
Case in point: I visited my aunt and uncle a few years ago. While I was there my uncle asked me to find out why their 280K DSL was so slow. A speed test showed they were getting 80K, and a quick check of Task Manager showed KaZaA was running. Turns out their 14 year old daughter was file sharing. While she was savvy enough to use P2P apps, she really doesn't know squat about networking or broadband technologies. To her, computers and the Internet are an appliance, just like a toaster, but more fun
No, but it does mean open and free specs. It wasn't until the EU forced their hand that the Samba guys had the specs for the SMB/CIFS protocol.
IME, you can find the answer to just about any question you have with google, forums and man pages.
;)
However, sometimes it is nice to have a reference manual on your bookshelf. When I first installed Linux, I used the "Slackware Linux Essentials" book to help with the install, then pored over another book (I forget the title now) that gave an overview of various services common to Linux distros (Apache, Sendmail, Bind, Samba, etc.) to start my education. *THEN* I started hanging out on forums to fill in all the gaps the books left in my knowledge. You can avoid a lot of flame-the-n00b replies by researching first and asking second
I'd pay good money to see Steve Balmer through another chair :P
So if a judge does something (s)he isn't supposed to do, what repercussions are there? Can a judge lose his seat, be subject to lawsuits himself, or ???
my mountain bike more and more. At least until they mandate TPMS in bicycles, too...sigh.
Errr....I should have said "...and soliciting donations" rather than "supporting donations" in the post above. My bad; should have used "preview" first <sheepish>
I couldn't agree more.
Kawakami probably should have not solicited donations, but that's the only questionable thing he's done here.
How is that questionable? That's the business strategy of a good portion of open source software. What's the difference between writing an open source application and soliciting funds to continue your work/bandwidth/etc. and writing a driver for a specific piece of hardware and supporting donations?
He should make out a cashier's check for the total amount of donations he's received, mail it to Creative Labs, and refuse any further donations.
Please tell me this is your idea of an April Fools' joke; I really hope you aren't serious. You want him to feed the (patent) trolls?!?!? *I* think at this point, he should update his donations request to say that he is now soliciting funds to help with his legal fees. I'd toss a few bucks his way for that on principle alone, and I don't even *use* Vista.
I gotta say, I'm really surprised by your opinion here -- in general, I see the "TMM" signature and prepare for a very insightful comment, but I really disagree with you on this one.
Would you feel that way if the ISP's customer was a spamhaus essentially DDoS'ing your mail server every day at a given time?
The simple fact is that, while I think you are right in theory, the real world has some very real snags that ISPs have to deal with. If a user on a network misbehaves and the ISP doesn't care, the ISP soon gets blacklisted. Consequently, ISPs put policies and technology in place to cover their backside from the users who abuse the Internet connection.
We did a variation on this at a company I worked for that was purchased by a competitor. Shortly after the acquisition, the other network admin and I modified our internal web server to redirect all incoming requests to the competitor's web site. The manager of one of the other departments came over to ask WTF was going on. It was priceless watching him turn redder and redder, but I felt bad when he stomped out of our area, and started yelling at the HR manager (she's actually a pretty cool lady), who then had to come ask our boss to put things back.
Our boss thought it was funny, though...
You probably can't d/l from a single source at 40G/s, but you could pull pieces from multiple sources at a combined total of 40G/s (isn't that essentially what torrent does?) or you can d/l multiple items from multiple sources so that, while you aren't getting any one download any faster, you could get a days' worth of downloads in the time it usually takes to download one file.
True, but even though wiring Anchorage is easy, we've still got really crappy speeds here. I've got a 720K/320K DSL connection in Anchorage's east side. I *could* upgrade to ADSL, but I really don't like the Paradyne and Westell modems ACS uses, so I stick with the slow Nortel cDSL modem. While you can get megabit speeds from GCI's cable service it is still a far cry from the 10-50M speeds I hear people bragging about in the lower-48 and Europe.
Hmmm...what about the lines running between municipalities? For example, a lot of Alaska is connected to the Internet by fiber cables running underwater from either Seward, AK or Whittier, AK to Seattle, WA. Which municipality is responsible for those lines?
I haven't tried the "Head First" books, but the concept sounds a lot like the "Dummies" books, which I really didn't like. There is a fine balance between being friendly & approachable and taking far too long to finally get to the point. I always thought the "Dummies" books were on the "too long to get to the point" end of the spectrum, and therefore usually picked the "Sams Teach yourself...in 24 Hours" books, instead.
How do the "Head First" books compare to the "Dummies" and "Tech Yourself" books?
Troll? You guys have no sense of humor. I thought it was pretty funny, myself.