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Sticky Stuff (no pun intended) / What are you wearing?
« on: June 24, 2004, 03:42:49 PM »
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152
Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / Another example of government running amok« on: June 24, 2004, 10:24:53 AM »153
Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / Once you go Slack, you never go back« on: June 24, 2004, 10:12:22 AM »
Linkage
Slackware 10.0 has been released, in case anyone is interested. Sounds like it's got the latest GNOME, the latest KDE, and is built on the 2.4.26 Linux kernel, but it also includes a pre-compiled 2.6.7 kernel as well. Quote Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you'll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: I might just have to try this on my laptop and see if I have any better luck with it where my WiFi networking is concerned. 155
Anarchy / Want a list of 92 million idiots? It'll cost you $52,000« on: June 23, 2004, 04:27:40 PM »
Link
Quote Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, has been charged with stealing a list of 92 million AOL customer screen names and selling them to Internet marketer Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas, said David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in a statement. Ouch. But what a dumbass. He had to have known that this would release a shitstorm upon his own ass. But as for the spammer, it was probably a pretty smart marketing move, at the time. What better resource for someone interested in making money by duping people via online gambling though? It's like that spammer he sold the user list to was sitting back one day, wondering to himself, "Let's see here... I have this great scam to make money via online gambling, but anyone with a fucking BRAIN IN THEIR HEAD won't go for it. I know! I'll see if I can get a list of AOL users!" 
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Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / You should really turn autorun off on your CDROM drive« on: June 23, 2004, 12:31:07 PM »
Linkage
So the bastards are trying a new tactic... install DRM bullshit on your PC by sneaking it in via an autorun.inf on music CDs. Sure, it's not being distributed in the US or the UK, but that's not to say that they won't be trying something like that soon enough. Better safe than sorry, right? So, for those of you who run some flavor of Windows that are interested in protecting yourselves from this kind of stupid crap, I give you this, from our friends at Annoyances.org: How to turn off the CD-ROM autorun. The Register article I linked above also has some instructions, but the ones at Annoyances.org seemed a bit more complete. 157
I haven't done anything for Halloween in a few years... it seems like my wife and I almost always have something else going on every year, so we haven't gotten to go to any parties or anything.
Well, this year's going to be different. I'm getting an early start and I'm going to work on keeping some dates open because I'm thinking of having a Halloween party at our house this year. And I have a perfect idea for a costume. Vince Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer!  The best part is, everybody's seen Ghostbusters, so I won't have to explain it to anyone. 
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Anarchy / Stupid coworkers« on: June 22, 2004, 08:32:56 AM »
Cow-orkers can be stupid too.
I just finished with this conversation with one of our project managers that's handling a client of ours that just royally hosed up the data in their own VFP-based accounting system that we support. Him: So we need to roll back a fiscal period close manually in this client's data. Me: It would be a lot easier to just restore their entire system from the backup copy that was made of their system at 3:00 yesterday. Him: How long will it take to manually un-close their fiscal period? Me: I don't know, I've never done it before. But I do know it would involve undoing thousands of transactions that all got moved to different tables and manually resetting flags all over their system. That's why I said it would be quicker to just restore their system from backup. That's also the only way we can guarantee everything will work correctly. Him: I know it would be easier to restore from backup, but I want to be able to give them some sort of idea how long it would take to just undo their fiscal period close. Me: I've never done it before, and I'm not even totally sure what else would be involved. Him: Ballpark estimate? Me: I don't have one. I would have to spend some time looking through their data before I could even hazard a guess. Say an hour at least. Him: An hour? That's not bad though. That's only a little longer than it would take to do the restore-- Me: No, not an hour to roll back their fiscal period. An hour for me to look around so I can figure out what needs to be done. Him: *sigh* They won't pay for that. Me: Then tell them they need to restore from backup. That's a lot simpler anyway. Him: Look, I still need to let them know how long it will take to go the other route. Me: I DON'T KNOW. Him: Can't you even take a guess? Me: Without looking through it first to even figure out what NEEDS to be done? No. Him: Twenty minutes? An hour? Three hours? Me: I don't know. Maybe six or seven hours. Maybe twenty minutes. Unless they approve some time for me to gather some information, I can't make a solid estimate, or even a vague guess. Him: Well I have to tell them something. Me:  Fine. Tell them anywhere between twenty minutes and seven hours.Him: (leaves in a huff) Me: 
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Anarchy / favourite mis-heard lyrics« on: June 18, 2004, 04:28:51 PM »
One of my favourite mis-heard lyric songs of all time.
I've typed it out here (while listening to it), just as it could easily be mis-heard. The "Tony Danza" bit has been a long running joke with this song, but the rest is all mine. Tony Danza Poutine baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pyrite smile, you'll marry amusing men Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand And now she's in me, always with me, Tony Danza in my hand Cheese is freaks out in the street Handing tickets out for God Turning back she just laughs The boulevard is not that bad Piano man he makes his stand In the auditorium Looking on she sings the songs The words she knows, the tune she hums But oh how it feels so real Lying here with no one near Only you and you can't hear me When I say softly, slowly Hold me closer, Tony Danza Count the head lice on the highway Lay me down with sheeps of Landon you had a busy day today Poutine baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pyrite smile, you'll marry amusing men Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand And now she's in me, always with me, Tony Danza in my hand 160
So. Having not read or posted on HN since around the end of December or so, I have found that I miss it less than I thought I would.
I've come to the determination that I don't like being a forum moderator. I enjoy myself on forums a lot more when I'm not a mod. Anyway, that said, I do miss reading posts from some of the regulars there that don't cross post here much. For those of you who still frequent HN, how have things been going over there? Lots of Stupids? Any of the rare-but-always-welcome elite that manage to "get it" right off the bat and make good contributing regular members that stand out more than others? Have I missed anything worth mentioning? Anything worth my going over there and digging up? Or shouldn't I bother? Just curious. HN was my home online for three years. It's weird to not be there regularly anymore, and it's weirder still to find myself not really missing it as much as I thought I would. 161
Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / The phone I'm getting« on: June 16, 2004, 12:24:54 PM »
Since my wife and I moved (back in October), my mobile phone is pretty much useless at our house.
It's a good phone... it's a Nokia that is only three years old. Unfortunately, my provider's service area has a massive dead zone right outside of the St Cloud area (in the center of which our house is located  ).Pretty much every other provider we have access to for mobile phone service has better signal strength in our area. Needless to say, I'm switching. I'm going with a Sprint PCS plan that is actually going to be a bit cheaper than what I'm currently paying, and will offer me better service pretty much everywhere. I was looking at the various phones Sprint has for their service, and the one I think I want is this one: click Holy crap that's a long link. I wonder if that will work? EDIT: Yup, apparently so. 162
Anarchy / Photoshop contest: Today's Idiot Magazine« on: June 16, 2004, 09:43:50 AM »
Inspired by Lacerda's quick wit, I want to see a magazine cover for a new monthly publication called "Today's Idiot". Safe for work only, please.
No rewards (I'm hoarding my points again and don't have many to begin with)... just bragging rights. Uh, unless a mod wants to handle a point award for this and we can have a poll again to determine the winar. 163
Anarchy / Today's idiot« on: June 15, 2004, 04:04:09 PM »
Haven't had one of these this week until just now.
I was working on doing some hard drive swapping on a workstation after lunch, and I was away from my desk during this time, and I came back to find I had a voice mail. It was from "Brad" from another local company that provides IT services to a couple of our clients. I'd worked with him on other things before, and he's kind of a putz. Anyway, I called him back and it turns out that he was calling on behalf of one of our clients that he works with, saying that they were having trouble with their report writer program. The only reason he was involved was because it seems that the trouble only started since they moved the program to a new terminal server he had set up for them, and he wanted to give me remote access to it so I could see what they were talking about. So I connected to the terminal server and looked at their report writer and didn't see anything wrong at first. I still had "Brad" on the phone, and he told me that he wasn't sure which report they were running, but he said they weren't getting any data from before a specific date, and they knew the data from before that date was still there, because they could access it in other ways. So I called "Annie" at this company, since "Brad" told me she'd know which specific reports were giving them problems. And "Annie" copped an attitude pretty much right off the bat. I was still connected to their terminal server and running their report writer, and was poking around with it when she finally answered her phone. Me: Hi Annie. This is Demosthenes from <the company for whom I work>. I just got off the phone with Brad from <company for whom Brad works> and he said that you were having trouble with a report in your report writer? Annie: Well yeah... it isn't pulling any data from before March 19th of this year. Me: Which report were you running? I see quite a few in here. Annie: ANY of them. Me: Could you give me a specific example, so I know where to start looking? Annie: (sighs impatiently) Yeah, try the "NETDAILY" report. It's the daily totals by salesperson for whatever date range you put in. Me: Okay, thanks. Just a moment please while I run this so I can see what you're talking about. What date range are you putting in? Annie: 01/01/2004 thru 06/14/2004. Me: (runs report) Okay, it ran. It gives the totals by sales person, and it looks like there's a grand total at the bottom as well. Annie: Well I DIDN'T SAY it wasn't giving me totals... I said it wasn't including any of the sales from prior to March 19th. That's not the problem! Me: I have no way of knowing if these totals are correct or not, Annie. I don't work at your company and I don't know what those totals SHOULD be. Annie: Annie: Annie: Me: So what should the grand total read? If it's missing three months worth of data, it should be a pretty big discrepancy, I would think. Annie: It should read $4,288,357.55 Me: That's what it says. Annie: Well that's not what it said this morning when I ran it! Me: Well, it seems to be working fine now. Was there anything else I could help you with? Annie: You can fix the report writer so that it doesn't do this again! Me: There isn't anything I can do to it if it's working the way it's supposed to be working.Annie: Well it wasn't including any data from before 03/19/04 on ANY report this morning. Me: (looking around in their accounting system that they have that we support) Annie, do you know when the last time was that you guys closed a fiscal period? Annie: March 19th. Me: When you run reports in the report writer, where it says "Data Set: Current/History/Both", were you running the reports on "Both", so that it includes data from prior fiscal periods? Annie: Annie: Annie: Uh... yes. I ran it on "Both". Me: Well, when I run it with "Both" selected, it doesn't exclude data from before your last fiscal period close. My guess is that you had "Current" selected when you ran the reports, which would keep it from pulling any data from prior to March 19th of this year. Annie: Well if it's going to pull incorrect data, what good is this program?Me: It appears to be doing what it's supposed to be doing. If there's anything else going wrong with it, let me know. Annie: Well aren't you going to fix this? Me: Pardon me? It seems to be running just fine for me. Annie: (runs report) Well it is working correctly now. But I don't believe that it will keep working right. Me: Well, just make sure that "Both" is selected, and it won't exclude prior fiscal period data. It's that top field on the first screen when you-- Annie: I KNOW WHERE IT IS. Me: Oh! Okay then you shouldn't have any problems running it that way. Have a good afternoon.
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Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / Major site downtime this morning« on: June 15, 2004, 11:47:16 AM »
If any of you noticed this morning that a few major sites were having problems (Google, MSN, Microsoft.com, and Yahoo to name a few), there was apparently a good reason for the problems.
Quote Akamai has not explained yet exactly what happened. The company has yet to return our calls and there is no notice on its website. A recorded message on the company's support line explained that there was an issue and that it was unsure when the service would be up again. A support representative said the company was trying to find out what had happened, all sites were back up and an announcement would be made as soon as possible. D'oh! Nothing quite like pissing off 15% of the web's traffic. 
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Political Opinions / Kerry: "I'm running for president because..."« on: June 15, 2004, 09:34:53 AM »
Link
You know, in reading that, I didn't see him take advantage of the MAIN reason he should be giving potential voters. He should drop all that other stuff and say: "I'm running for president because I'M NOT GEORGE W. BUSH." That'll take him a lot further than any stand on any issue, I think.
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Annoyances.org has a pretty funny humor section, I discovered this morning.
I thought I'd share it wit youse guys. Clickage. I like this one: Code: [Select] Windows 95 Source Code
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Anarchy / My current "Music To Buy" list« on: June 14, 2004, 03:23:44 PM »
Since I'm still in the process of replacing, piece-by-piece, my extensive cassette collection with CDs, I've been going through my old tapes lately and deciding which ones I'm going to replace, and which I'm just not going to bother with.
My Metallica won't be replaced... in the past several years, I've spurned everything that ever had "Metallica" on it, because they pissed me off so bad, and after listening to their only good albums (i.e., their first four), I've discovered that they just don't do it for me anymore. I mean, sure... I still like songs from "Kill 'Em All" and "Master Of Puppets", but not enough to re-purchase those albums on CD, even used. I've pretty much moved on. Most of the rest of my tape collection is eventually going to be phased into CD, however. Particularly the ones listed below... I really miss being able to listen to these in my car (where I have no tape deck). Currently I'm looking at purchasing the following on CD, used of course:
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Political Opinions / "Patriot II: The Son of the Patriot Act"« on: June 14, 2004, 12:25:26 PM »
Gah... this is some scary shit. I don't think it has enough support to pass, but the fact that they're even trying to sneak this in is disturbing.
And "sneak" is the correct word here, considering their tactics on this. Quote Pitts [an attorney with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee] said that although HR 3179 is not yet on the radar screen of most congress members, activists are working to thwart what he calls a "stealth measure." I particularly like this bit here: Quote Barr said the surveillance powers of the Patriot Act play "fast and loose" with the Constitution and that the secrecy penalties in HR 3179 would make its assault on the Fourth Amendment even worse. That's what I've been saying all along... if they want to perform searches and seizures and arrests with secret warrants and no probable cause, fine.... but amend the constitution first so that it's legal. Until then, they should knock it the fuck off. 170
Political Opinions / Dead Horses« on: June 14, 2004, 11:45:50 AM »
I ran across this on a libertarian forum and thought it funny:
Quote The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." However, in government, education, and frequently in corporate culture, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:- My favourite is #8. 171
Anarchy / Don't like the "must register to read this article"« on: June 14, 2004, 09:35:10 AM »
A lot of news sites have been doing this stuff. I presume it's for marketing purposes, making people register and provide basic information (age, location, email address) before allowing people to read their articles online.
Personally, I usually just avoid those sites because I don't like the idea of handing them any info, but mostly because it's just one more pain in the ass login to remember, and I'm lazy. Particularly since I can get the same news elsewhere without having to jump through such hoops. Or mostly, anyway. But, for those of you who just gotta see that Washington Post article or an article on any other "register only" site, I ran across something that might be useful to you: BugMeNot.com provides communal logins for those sites so that you don't have to register. Which I find amusing.
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Political Opinions / I probably don't need to point out the hypocrisy here, but..« on: June 14, 2004, 09:24:53 AM »173
Anarchy / The very BEST thing« on: June 11, 2004, 01:45:37 PM »
Everybody has something, even if it's fairly useless and/or pointless, that they're good at.
It can be a natural talent, a learned skill, or a combination thereof. But everyone has at least one. Sometimes people aren't even aware of what it is until they get older. What is the thing that you do BEST? Not necessarily better than anyone else... but the one thing you're best at compared to everything else you can do. For example, one of my best friends has one particular thing that he does WAY better than anything else that he can do... Martial Arts. He's a genius when it comes to just about any form he's ever tried. Instructors he's studied under have always been amazed at how naturally he picks new things up, and he's a top-notch instructor himself now. He's good at a number of other things, but his ability to learn, retain, and perform Martial Arts far outshines all of his other skills. As for myself, I think the one skill/talent that I am BEST at in my life is probably what contributes to some other things that depend on it. Logic. That's my best skill. I do that better than pretty much everything else I know how to do. It contributes to my skills at math, physics, et al, and particularly when it comes to arguing with others. Heck, my job pretty much depends on my logic, because that's almost entirely what I depend on in order to troubleshoot almost anything, whether it's hardware, code, whathaveyou. The thing I'm second-best at is less important, and I'm not nearly as good at it, even though I do have some natural ability for it: Music. I've never met an instrument I couldn't manage to at least puzzle out the basics for if given some time to work on it. I'm not what I would call an "excellent" musician, though I think I can hold my own pretty well in my instrument of choice (guitar). What about you? What's your best skill/talent? What's your next best one? 174
Political Opinions / Which dictator are you?« on: June 10, 2004, 03:30:05 PM »
Clicky
I ended up getting this: Quote
What about you guys?
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Anarchy / OMG1!11 ITS ABOUT TIEM!1111!! Weird Tingly Feeling LOL« on: June 10, 2004, 02:03:50 PM »
I can't believe they waited this long to release this: A-Team: Season One DVD
I pity tha foo' who don't be buyin' this DVD!!! 
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