Posts by Doug Glass

Nothing New

Nothing new here. One "Ah Sh*t" wipes out a thousand "Atta-boys."

Marriage

She could have married "Trout Fishing in America" and become, well.... you get the picture.

Makes me feel a little bit more disposed to forced sterilization. Of the parents of course.

If Wishes Were Horses.....

RE: installation and WPA wireless

By Colin Morris

Posted Wednesday 23rd July 2008 16:10 GMT

Amen brother, amen.

Must be Gomer Pyle's Dumber Brother

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

"Many have questioned why Childs' bail is so high and how he apparently so easily gained complete control of the city's computer system."

The very fact they this sort of activity still brings surprise should tell us something about those who confess to not understand how easily it was done.

Idiots who are surprised at this must also be surprised that babies puke and pee.

ICUC2

RE:@everyone: Doesn't it get tiring ...

By Steve Ball

Posted Wednesday 23rd July 2008 08:28 GMT

As my USMC buddy is prone to saying concerning totally useless things, "Bring the rain brother, bring the rain".

Class Act ???

Would the original incident be classified as a "cock up"?

Here's Hoping

As much as I want the squeeze put on M$, what would you expect the executive director of the Linux Foundation to say? That in the end Linux will turn out to be the loser? I don't think so.

Don't get me wrong, I want M$ in thumb screws and I want the screws drawn down. Waaaaayyy down. But this is one of those situations where I'll believe it when I see it. And, frankly, I think I've see it to some degree. But nowhere near what I want to see.

@@ waste of iinvestment resources

Yep, that they did....in the past. But the race didn't end once they got to the "top", they just acted like it did.

AMD is in the same death spiral as the makers of typewriters and mechanical watches once were. You have to keep up the good work. That's especially true in a world that reinvents itself every eighteen months....or less.

If you look at AMD's recent financial statements, and factor in a recent $980M charge-off, I think it hardly delusional to believe they are in serious trouble. And strange as it may seem, it's the people who drive the business who are responsible for that. A rose by any other name is still a rose. So whether you call those in charge techno thieves, babbling idiots, or simply misguided individuals, the result is the same. And one thing is painfully clear, the chips themselves didn't cause the problem. Discounting natural disasters, business problems are caused by people and the decisions they make.

But it's good AMD has a cheerleader, they need it. Maybe you'd like to offer them the wisdom of the experience behind you comments. Surely you have some measure of expertise in the area in which you so strongly defend them.

@ Sorry for being stupid but...

I'd like the reporter to cite his references too, assuming of course he's up to the challenge.

Frivilous Forthwith

I suppose Master Torvalds would refer to me as a Regular Randy Retiree since I Found Fabulous Fiber and subsequently discovered the delights Monstrous Morning Movements.

Can't Get No Satisfaction

They didn't meet their projections, their [gross?] income went down a huge amount, and their stockholders are not happy.

Keep in mind the objectives of all "for profit" corporations: grow the company, increase the bottom line and increase stockholder value.

Any facet of the company that conflicts with these three objectives is fair game for taking costs out of the business. That includes procurement (lower quality parts a la Nvidia), staffing (terminating employees), scaling back R&D, outsourcing, and just about anything else that cost money. Excluding huge salaries and bonuses of top executives of course.

@@Putting The Target on My Chest

There's no way to win really and I guess that just validates that people have varying expectations, likes and dislikes. They say diversity is a strength.

The situation was I have more time on my hands now and I agreed to de-crapify a number of Windows XP computers if I'd be allowed to introduce Ubuntu first. There were a couple of machines that the simplest thing to do was reinstall Windows. On one of them I installed Ubuntu 7.10.

To make a long story short, I was patiently allowed to install Ubuntu and demo it. But in the end, I lived up to my end of the bargain and did what we'd agreed to.

This was done in a seminar-like setting and there was a measure of interest in the group. But when it came right down to it, even those that would have liked to have tried it weighed what they felt they, their families and extended families would most easily put to use. And that was Windows XP; their original comfort zone. And I respect that.

RE: Re: Farm it out boys !

Were it so easy. Once a large corporation "owns" your soul, you just keep taking the abuse. I have a wife and two kids (both of which have college degrees now) and unless you were actually there with me you can't understand the situation. The choice to simply not do the OT would certainly get you low annual reviews, no raises and no promotions. That's just the way the corporate jungle works in today's world. Growing the company, increasing the bottom line and increasing stockholder worth is what drives companies today. Seldom does the desire to be philanthropic make its way into a company's mission statement, but references to cut costs and enhance profitability do with increasing regularity.

But, I took the crap and retired "early". Basically the date was driven by the formula when retirement net income equaled working take home pay. Don't get me wrong, my salary was quite nice. 6,000 hours over 32 years works out to be about 190 hours per year. That worked out to be approximately 4 hours per week for me. Not a whole lot on a weekly, or daily, basis, but it does add up over 32 years.

The moral of my story is to take care of your future self and start preparing now. I quickly understood the economic situation when I took my job and I started preparing for my 2008 self right then... in 1976. Now, life is great and I have re-purchased my soul.

@Emotional responses

I think you confuse emotion with resolve. I bought Seagate exclusively over a period of several years and only after appropriate research, validated by personal experience, did I decide to steer clear of Seagate in the future.

Yes, mechanical things fail and because of that I've backed-up my data (multiple ways) for over three decades. But the point here is NOT the reality of mechanical failures. The point is Seagate's corporate strategy and how they fulfill their promises.

If you are willing to accept the way your vendors of choice treat you, however good or bad that is, then more power to you. As for me, I'll evaluate my situation and based on my experience make those decisions concerning my choices of where I spend my money. And I choose not to support Seagate any longer because they, as a company, have ceased to meet my standards as a spending consumer.

... End of Thread ...

A Little Help

http://grc.com/default.thm

These can help

The DCOMbobulator 1,634,863 downloads.

DCOMbobulator allows any Windows user to easily verify the effectiveness of Microsoft's recent critical DCOM patch. Confirmed reports have demonstrated that the patch is not always effective in eliminating DCOM's remote exploit vulnerability. But more importantly, since DCOM is a virtually unused and unneeded facility, the DCOMbobulator allows any Windows user to easily disable DCOM for significantly greater security.

Shoot The Messenger 2,144,420 downloads.

Even before the latest DCOM/RPC vulnerability (see above), many Windows users were being annoyed by "pop-up spam" notices appearing on their desktops. This intrusion is also facilitated by an exploitation of port 135. Our free "Shoot The Messenger" utility furthers the security of Windows by quickly and easily shutting down the "Windows Messenger" server that should never have been running by default in the first place.

UnPlug n' Pray 2,837,124 downloads

As originally urged by the FBI, and still urged by prominent security experts, our UnPnP utility easily disables the dangerous, and almost always unnecessary, Universal Plug and Play service. If you don't need it, turn it off. (For ALL versions of Windows.)

XPdite 1,090,543 downloads.

A Critical Security Vulnerability Exists in Windows XP. (Surprise) Actually, as we know, there are many, but we'll handle them one at a time. This particular vulnerability allows the files contained in any specified directory on your system to be deleted if you click on a specially formed URL. This URL could appear anywhere: sent in malicious eMail, in a chat room, in a newsgroup posting, on a malicious web page, or even executed when your computer merely visits a malicious web page. It is already being exploited on the Internet.

It's All Opportunity

Sometimes you have to get a slap in the face to realize the current strategy no longer works.

These companies can survive and even flourish. They just have to have the will to adopt the proper paradigm. Finding the right fit always the classic "agonizing reappraisal". I guess we'll see who has the balls to do take the right road.

Economies are like bowels. Every now and them they have to get rid of the crap and sometimes it's a smelly unpleasant process.

"Oh Where Will You Go Billy Boy, Billy Boy"

If you're fan of William Peterson's work, you'll likely enjoy "Manhunter" (1986). Not his earliest work, but damn close to it.

Having been made in 1986 it'll be a bit dated, but it's worth a look.

Shades of Dolcett

Whew! At first I thought this was a joint (whose name was a play on words) where humans served each other ... literally.

Etymology

Hmmmm....gives a whole new meaning to the word "Googled".

Strictly Speaking

The commercial version of the M-16 is not a genuine assault weapon since, for one thing, it doesn't have selective fire. It's classified as such only in legalistic circles. But that's splitting hairs maybe. But it disturbs the liberals and that's good enough for me.

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcassaul.html

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

http://www.sff.net/people/sanders/ar.html

Personally I prefer the Barrett Light Fifty sniper rifle and the mantra inspired by sniping, "You can run, but you'll only die tired".

http://www.navysealteams.com/hathcock.htm

http://dbestsrifles.blogspot.com/2008/01/m82a1-or-light-fifty.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHIV7RNLbTw

Bring it on........

On Being Old

RE: "everyone who actually remembers using this operating system is long gone"

I remember gasoline price wars and it being $0.11 / per gallon. I remember watching the first American Satellite launched into orbit. I remember live TV, B&W TV and the first color TV we ever owned. I remember taking computer programming in college and having to write programs and punch cards. I remember a lot of things because I'm 62, retired, and loving it.

Old is a state of mind and I ain't there yet.

Wekk Just Damn!

And I do love a hot spicy bitch!

Oh Neat!

Microsoft was up 100% of the time to enable fixes for their pitifully insecure software.

I guess Texas should claim an uptime record too; no execution in the last year was delayed because of the system being unavailable.

There are some "records" that just don't need to be bragged about.

The Truth, The Whole Truth yada yada yada...

What pissed off the FCC wasn't that Comcast was throttling, they were proven to be doing that early on. The real irritants were 1.) they denied it and 2.) they later admitted it but called it something else. Purely the old shell game.

So what will the US of A gov-en-ment do? Well, they'll fine Comcast some amount that will be huge to the common man but will be peanuts to Comcast. And, that kind of loss is considered just a cost of doing business in large corporations and will be factored into their next tax return. To prevent that "tax action" the fine would have to be paid for by the investors, i.e. below the line, and not allowed as a business expense and that wont happen.

If fined heavily, all Comcast will do is sit tight, watch their profits go down over time because of the fine and then have a legitimate reason to raise rates. Unless that too is disallowed but that wont happen either.

There ain't no free lunches and the consumer always pays in the end.

Selling Ubuntu

Hmmm. I think I'll start a small company, call it something weird like "Uboon 2 2 U" and start selling it for $19.95 and provide 30 days phone service. I got plenty of time and people seeking help are used to waiting on the phone for long periods of time anyway.

And after a while I can claim economies of scale and drop the price to $15.95 and corner the market.

By Design Rev. 1

RE:

Re: By design and What is the quality?

By Chris W

I believe you truly understood what I was really saying. And yes, I stopped storing bowel movement data when I discovered dietary fiber; a real moving experience.

Actually I have several sizes of disks depending on what role each plays, but yes, I'd prefer an emphasis on reliability and not size. And at my age (recent retiree) that comment holds true in a number of arenas... if you get my drift. :+)

Huh?

I think I'll just fuel-up the cat and take my grandson fishing and let somebody else drool over this new-fangled contraption.

Port 25

RE: Another workaraound

By Mike Collins

"Now why didn't I think of that?"

You might want to add port 25 too.

Business 101

Small business don't have the deep pockets of the larger corporations and therefore can afford even less to make costly mistakes.

M$ is about to get a real lesson in real world economics. If the big boys are staying away from Vista, small ones wont touch it.

Why Choose M$

I recently retired from the largest investor owned utility in the US of A. My former company chose M$ because they viewed "the Vole" as having the best chance of providing long term services and products.

And yes, we took they crap, we put up with them for over two decades Virtually no enterprise products of non M$ origin were allowed because they were "unproven", lacked the proper business model (read that as low net worth), and such.

Sadly Anonymous Coward is ... spot on.

Read The End User LICENSE Agreement

Keep in mind, you neither buy nor own M$ software. You buy the right to use the software of which they retain full ownership. So the idea of having in your possession a software package they own is not necessarily repugnant to M$. They just expect [demand?] you purchase the license. You can, in fact, buy a license (a key code) and not get any software at all.

Think about it, if the disks were freely handed out a certain portion would "do the right thing" and plop down the cash to legally use it. You can download trial versions of Office 2007 and many other M$ programs; I have one of each they've offered in the last five years or so. And if you really wanted to, you could wipe the drive every thirty days, or whatever, and start over. Adobe offers trial downloads of their flagship software which by the way are the full programs.

What M$, Adobe, and others fight most fervently is the construction, posting, and use of KeyGen programs and the sharing of good key codes. This is the piracy they claim hurts them so badly. They've never yet said a drive needed to be wiped of a shared program, they've consistently said "buy the license" or words to that effect. They do say that Volume Licensed products are not for individuals and I do suspect if they found you with one they'd ask you to surrender it. The same holds true for academic programs too probably. But the salient point is buying the proper license.

Seen It All Before

When this idea was first promoted the place where you typed was called a "dumb terminal". It had no software of its own; it just made input possible. It didn't take long to find out this approach just didn't work.

It failed then and it will fail now. The technology is not mature enough and the ability of third party vendors to provide the necessary up-time is not there.

It kind of reminds me of the plan to have all airplanes controlled from a few control centers world-wide and have no pilots aboard. No thanks, I'll take my plane with a human pilot on board...he has a stake in my safety. I feel the same way about software, Jack Sheit's PC may crash but others likely wont. Having them all crash at once just makes for impromptu in situ vacations and we all know how our bosses just love those.

Too Little; Too Late

BFD

Microsoft is just now getting around to doing this? I believe this type effort is referred to as a last gasp or the death rattle.