* Posts by foo_bar_baz

752 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Oct 2007

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Christians vs metalheads in FB flame war

foo_bar_baz
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So

"Free speech" doesn't' exactly apply here, but let's not critical thought get in the way of some good bashing.

You want to force a business to accept a client they decided was bad PR for them? Don't blame the fundie religious people for asking, blame the business for accepting.

foo_bar_baz
Grenade

LOL

First you colonized them to bring Christianity, now you want to colonize them again to take it away?

Because your world view du jour is always the right one.

foo_bar_baz
FAIL

For most Christians today, probably neither

The bible isn't a technical manual. Only unthinking fundamentalists and trolls like yourself would read it literally.

But congrats, you managed to read about 5 pages of the Bible and you gained 10 troll points for the achievement "Found a Contradiction in the Bible". You probably think you're the first to find one.

http://www.evilbible.com/Biblical%20Contradictions.htm

Quick tip before bible-baiting Christians the next time: use the New Testament instead. The Old Testament is about as relevant to Christian beliefs as The Silmarillion is to LOTR. See, Jesus (you know, Christ as in Christianity) doesn't feature until the New Testament, so his teachings are kinda absent in Genesis.

Oracle whacked by DoJ complaint

foo_bar_baz
Unhappy

Sad, too

Spot on. They don't seem to realize that customers have viable alternatives in terms of platform.

I'm saddened by the fate of Solaris as a technology.

A Linux server OS that's had 11 years to improve

foo_bar_baz
Linux

Yeah, right

When (not if) your Windows domain controller starts misbehaving and spewing log messages with strange error codes, it's no longer better. Out come the command line tools and you better be familiar (or become familiar quickly) with AD partitions, replication etc. I've had some really hard times, the last was decommissioning an old domain controller. It's not simpler than Linux for sure.

I don't see these as clickety click Linux distros. This is an appliance that happens to be based on Linux. There's a subtle but important difference.

foo_bar_baz

that's called

webmin :)

Royal Wedding: Prince Charles is a ZX81, Wills is an iPad

foo_bar_baz
Coffee/keyboard

rofls

< this

Linux servers for Windows folk: go on, give it a bash

foo_bar_baz
Thumb Up

I look forward to this

Yes I do!

North Carolina to raise army of Microsofties

foo_bar_baz
Jobs Horns

Nah

Steve-o is not worried. Apple is now a consumer product company. Screw schools and businesses.

How to make boots on Mars affordable - One way trips

foo_bar_baz

People die

Most people on early polar missions died, but they kept trying even as they knew this. What's happened?

We in the wealthy countries have kind of lost perspective. Death is inevitable anyway, and if it happens while doing something truly great and historical, that's the price to pay.

Xbox Kinect costs just £35 to build

foo_bar_baz
Coat

Cost of production vs. R&D

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_it_cost_to_manufacture_a_car_in_America

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_it_cost_to_develop_a_new_car

Nvidia poised to challenge Jobs on tablets

foo_bar_baz
Pint

Calm down Beavis

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/11/03/review_netbook_toshiba_ac100/

So did Windows Phone 7 'bomb in US'?

foo_bar_baz
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Anonymous source means etc.

No it doesn't Anonymous in this case because they were disclosing information they weren't supposed to reveal.

Nominet forgets what the first .uk domain name was

foo_bar_baz

As usual

Some are more equal than others.

Testy Turkey re-blocks YouTube over naughty hotel romp clip

foo_bar_baz
Paris Hilton

Familiar tune all over the developing world

For the US foreign policy it's always been military dictatorship > religious nuts > communists

In the name of democracy and human rights you don't want the military in power, but the alternative is invariably as bad. It's just that the US has backed the military dictators, or the religious if it's a choice against communism, every time all over the globe. Which is a big reason why they are so hated universally.

I can see why Obama would like to temper this, and Turkey is a relatively moderate case where there's a slim chance you could actually get a reasonable result for all involved, rather than a major cluster**** where everyone ends up hating the USA with equal fervour.

The last option would be to keep out of others' affairs, but that doesn't seem to be a consideration.

Google open sources Apache server speed mod

foo_bar_baz
Boffin

Agreed

It appears they have separate sites for the end user and developer. I had to use a certain Internet search engine to find the mod_pagespeed developer site: http://code.google.com/p/modpagespeed/

US Army trials robot 'leccy-n-bandwidth war-mules

foo_bar_baz
Boffin

What's the robot tech for?

Couldn't you just add a steering wheel and some seats while you're at it?

Oh, more DARPA pork? I get it.

EA takes Angry Birds publisher under its wing

foo_bar_baz
Jobs Horns

"iPhone developer"

Yes, you missed the fact that there are other mobile gaming platforms aside from iOS.

Angry Birds is available for Symbian, Maemo, webOS, Android etc. and Rovio make games for other platforms like *gasp* Flash.

Lone Android dev 'almost brought down T-Mobile'

foo_bar_baz
Megaphone

Read above comments

This is not about the quantity of data being transmitted. It's (most likely) about the radio network being hosed due to connections being established and torn down in rapid succession.

Google Android chief smacks Steve Jobs with Linux speak

foo_bar_baz

title

You can be both right and a jackass.

foo_bar_baz
WTF?

@garibaldi

"OSX is based on UNIX therefore way better for the masses."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xywqv1cDH8

foo_bar_baz
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@TeeCee

It was just a tweet, not the headline slogan of an international marketing campaign.

Microsoft confirms Russian pill-pusher attack on its network

foo_bar_baz
Megaphone

"MS probably doesn' t understand Linux security"

Microsoft is note a monolithic entity, it's made of tens of thousands individuals.

Being blinkered into using and understanding only MS products is "probably" not a prerequisite to be employed there.

It's just a workplace. I'm 100% there are plenty of Linux, *BSD and *gasp* Apple enthusiasts employed at Microsoft, and many with deep understanding of those. These are techies after all.

People always read too much into these events. As suggested above, being a test environment it was probably configured with root/root as username and password or something similar. Accidents happen, lessons are learned.

French cops claimed to hold secret, illegal gypsy database

foo_bar_baz
FAIL

Nice play, Godwin. I see your "society" and raise you a "tolerant".

What sickens me is when you can't even have a conversation without being called a Nazi. I find this deliciously ironic since usually it's me at the head of the self flagellation brigade going left wing on the Yanks' asses on Slashdot.

It seems it's "inhuman" and "intolerant" to say anything conceivably negative in conjunction with the name of a minority group. The fact that person X committed a crime just *cannot* be related to his ethnic, cultural or geographic background, it must be another reason. Let's willfully ignore the facts and just treat every crime on a case by case basis, let's never get to the source.

"Madrid police say that 95% of children under 14 that they pick up stealing on the streets are Roma from Romania."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8226580.stm

No, Roma are not all thieves. Yes, they deserve the protection of the law. Yes, they should be treated with respect. No, it's *not* intolerant or inhuman to recognize a problem and state the facts.

I'm not pretending there's an easy answer, but it's not your straw man nor your ostrich method.

Terry Pratchett computer sniper-scope deal inked

foo_bar_baz

Still the weakest link

.. is the meatbag holding the gun. If you can have stabilization and facial recognition in a compact camera, why can't they produce ... oh, wait. Yeah, marry it with this and make it small enough to be portable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iT25FUG3z4&feature=related

Nokia’s new CEO needs to change the message

foo_bar_baz

"Which don't have any money"

It doesn't matter if your customers "don't have any money" as long as there are a billion of them (yes, count them) and you can make a even a tiny profit on each sale.

To put the margin vs. volume equation in another context: Jaguar or Tata? I'm sure you'd buy a Jaguar but which company bought which?

Voice of America chap ejaculates over Paris Hilton

foo_bar_baz
Thumb Up

Another one bites the dust

Yet another *tard trolled by Bootnotes ... Bootnoted. Or is it Lestered? LesHained? Registered?

Rackspace claims credit for shushing Koran-burning 'pastor'

foo_bar_baz
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How about a balanced point of view?

I think you'd find churches speaking and acting against injustices are the norm, but that doesn't make juicy headlines or spoutfodder for anon cowards like yourself.

Maybe this book burning nut job is just carrying on the same old Anglo-American racist and imperialist traditions as the troops are currently in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not that I'd subscribe to such ridiculous notions.

foo_bar_baz

Not aware of the details in this case

But I'm sure the Soviet Union sent troops to Hungary and Czechoslovakia to "protect" them as well.

Shopping mall mulls Supreme Court bid to back no-speaking ban

foo_bar_baz
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Twit

Whether you have a reasoned or balanced belief has nothing to do with being militant, which has everything to do with your behaviour and demeanour. See dictionary definitions of militant: "aggressive", "belligerent" etc.

Instead of engaging the woman in reasoned argument you sought to embarrass and undermine her in front of her child.

Ellison wrestles Google to strangle 'unofficial' Java

foo_bar_baz
Gates Horns

Standards Shmandards

*cough* *gasp* *choke*

Sorry, I've trouble breathing. *phew* Laughing so hard. You mean like the OpenXML document standard?

"Converting all my products". What Java products does your astroturfing agency produce?

Also note please, humans derive from fish. Monkeys are carbon based life forms. Whitespace works better on 32 bit hardware. Therefore all your base belongs to Microsoft.

Open source's ardent admirers take but don't give

foo_bar_baz
Stop

Imagine a large company publicly committed to Linux

that doesn't contribute any source code back to the "community". Evil free rider?

Red Hat makes its profits from _somewhere_! Red Hat is the biggest contributor to Linux development, and many ostensible free riders are actually funding it.

There are many stories, don't be too quick to judge.

Independent bigs up the 'Wanky Balls festival'

foo_bar_baz
Jobs Horns

Hand in geek cards, now

17 posts and nobody has done a whois lookup on the now-banned IP from which the offending edit was made.

<-- hint

German arrested for Adolf Hitler ringtone

foo_bar_baz
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It may look like it to you

But it isn't the truth.

Romford coppers try to stopper young snapper

foo_bar_baz
FAIL

Oh please

Reference please. After all, Wikipedia must be wrong when it asserts that the presumption of innocence is encoded into EU law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence

Android apps: Shifty little bleeders

foo_bar_baz

As the previous poster indicates

My guess is it's for Google's benefit. They want to gather as much data about you as they can, they are primarily an advertising business anyway. You aren't Google's customer - the advertisers are.

Women reveal all for X-rayted pin-up calendar

foo_bar_baz
Coat

Definitely females

You aren't looking at the right parts.

World Cup: Holland to win, Spain to slump

foo_bar_baz
Coat

Hilarious

All of which goes to reinforce the national stereotype of liberal, laid back Dutchies. They don't make controversy out of small things like naming a country.

- Hey Van Dijk, why are all the silly foreigners mistaking Holland for our entire frikkin' country?

- I dunno, Smit. Hmm. Let's do it too if it makes life our easier.

- Good idea! Pass the spliff, willya?

*puff* *puff*

NASA: Civilization will end in 2013 (possibly)

foo_bar_baz

Dejavu indeed

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/15/solar_flares_en_route/

Finland mulls legalizing use of unsecured Wi-Fi

foo_bar_baz

No

It's currently illegal to use someone else's wireless network without their permission, regardless of whether it's encrypted or not.

Plucky Finn attempts to drive length of Finland in small digger

foo_bar_baz
Badgers

WTF?

I don't think the point of the story was so much to impress as to laugh at/with a guy making a two week journey at 2 1/2 mph.

Patching is a pain...

foo_bar_baz
Boffin

Which "idea"?

I take it by "torn apart" you refer to this survey

"Of 542 networks, 218 ran BISS.

316 unique BISS applications were identified.

292 were identified as requiring administrative privilege."

I believe it's possible that BISS software absolutely requires admin privileges. However, if you don't ask why you've got to turn in your geek card right now. In my own experience a piece of software that "requires" admin privileges has simply been installed with administrator-only file and/or registry permissions, which are a doddle to change. In other words, the admin privileges are not an intrinsic requirement for the software, merely the result of a poor installer. Of the above 292 pieces of software, how many would work with a simple visit to registry and file permissions? My guess is many. When I had to worry about this stuff I used the sysinternals tools to follow what directories and registry entries to software was trying to access and change. Granting users write access to those parts worked like a charm. YMMV.

I'm not saying one never needs to grant administrative privileges to end users. I meant to point out that by repackaging software (for ease of installation, patching, accounting etc) you often get the benefit of setting the registry and file permission such that those privileges are not required.

My main point was about patching software. Since I quit my admin job I've worked in two very large companies as a developer and my approach has been vindicated. Never has anyone from IT touched my PC to install or upgrade software. Each company had a centralized software repository, including plenty of bespoke software, and mechanisms of delivering new installations and software updates. There's never a case of "oops, I missed a PC in room 413", or having to rely on the half-dozen software update agents running on each PC.

Random pointers:

www.bmc.com

www.appdeploy.com

foo_bar_baz
Boffin

Old problem "solved" 10 years ago

I had this issue when I was doing Windows system administration years ago. The answer is (was) in repackaging the software yourself in MSI packages and using existing Microsoft tools to do the installation and updates centrally. It's a drag, sure, but you can make sure those lousy Adobe apps have the correct registry permissions such that a regular user is able to use them.

There's no reason to let users have admin rights. If they need a piece of software you repackage and publish it via Active Directory, and normal users can choose to install it via the Control Panel. If you don't like the default Microsoft tools, there are 3rd party utilities for packaging and distributing/publishing software for users. Even Windows 2000 Pro came with a utility from Veritas for repackaging software, although I found the 3rd party ones to be better.

There are even websites that describe how to repackage specific software. Can't be bothered to Google them now.

Sometimes a piece of software appears to be difficult to manage centrally as it is provided with an executable installer, but actually it has well documented procedures for creating the MSI package and setting it up for centralized distribution and configuration using the standard Microsoft tools. Norton antivirus corporate was one.

Repackaging software is a lot of work for a lone administrator in a small environment, but should still be a priority. Once you're familiar with the quirks of each software package it becomes easier. As a customer the ease of deployment should also factor also into your choice of software purchases, and you should also push the supplier to package the software in MSIs. Many vendors have already "got it", and it's high time others caught up. The facility has been there for 10 years from Microsoft's side!

BTW, it's not always rosier on the Linux side. Especially commercial software vendors provide a binary installer instead of RPMs or Debs. Luckily there's no registry to worry about so making your own RPMs and Debs is a lot easier than creating MSIs, but again as a customer it's your duty to inform the vendor about your needs.

The problem is people tend to think if you can maintain your home PC you have the skills to be a Windows sysadmin. Wrong. As a sysadmin you need the power to maintain hundreds of PCs by yourself without lifting your butt off your chair. If scripting, the command line (yes you need it on Windows) or the registry are too scary you should reconsider your chosen profession.

Nokia debuts four cheapo phones

foo_bar_baz

"Europe"

Which "Europe" are we talking about? In "my Europe" the telco has zero say in phone features as contract phones are the exception. Don't blame the manufacturer if their offerings are dictated by the telcos, take it up with your toothless national regulator.

foo_bar_baz

Zegactly

These phones were unveiled in Nairobi, should be a hint about the intended market. Here's a hint:

http://www.newhorizons.org/future/elgin_2020_fig3.gif

For the majority of the world's population £30 represents a significant investment - weeks' or even months' income. There's a market there for a shared phone two people can take turns using.

Confessions of a sysadmin

foo_bar_baz
Grenade

What an insightful and constructive post

"Your" one eloquent SOB, I wish we all could reach your high standards.

Woman sues Google after highway knockdown

foo_bar_baz
WTF?

The real WTF

... is the $100K in medical expenses. If she loses the case and is bankrupt at least she can be safe in the knowledge that the US is still a bulwark against the commie evil of <whisper>socialized medicine</whisper>.

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