Re: [CGUYS] Secure IT Inventory & accounts DB record keeping software?
Keepass will securely store the passwords. Inventory is another matter. > -Original Message- > I'm looking for a computer based software (or template/ plug-in to > other > software) for keeping a business's IT inventory, accounts, password, > setup information in a secure fashion. > > Anyone have any suggestions? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Secure IT Inventory & accounts DB record keeping software?
Also give Spiceworks a look. It will audit the network, creating a hardware and software inventory. But, it doesn't do password mgmt. Free! http://www.spiceworks.com/ > -Original Message- > From what I know, quikbooks is an accounting software. Does it have > templates for recording IT inventory, passwords and the like. > > I am trying to avoid "recreating the wheel." * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] imax
No idea about Phoenix, but I just got out from seeing it at the Uptown Theater in DC. Non-Imax, but a HUGE, parabolic single screen. It was f***ing awesome. (Here endeth the review) I would kill to see it in Imax. > -Original Message- > I've been looking around our local imax theaters to go see Dark Knight > since > this is one of the few movies actually shot and not converted for imax. > I > don't know anything about the tech specs behind imax, just that it's > big. > I've been hearing conflicting stories about the theaters here locally, > mainly that we have one what is referred to as 'real' imax and then a > few > smaller ones. Anyone know about the tech behind these theaters? Are > there > several size variations? I'm not speaking to the 3d ones...I don't > think. > Any tips appreciated...btw, I'm in the Phoenix area. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Macs in business...take 2
> I also think that is a big reason that many steer clear > of Macs. Only if they've never been on this list. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Secure IT Inventory & accounts DB record keeping software?
I use it for my help desk and inventory software, replacing TrackIt after many years of use. It's some pretty amazing software for free. > -Original Message- > Very interesting software. Thanks ... I'll give it a try... should > make > quick work of the inventorying. > > db > > Jeff Wright wrote: > > Also give Spiceworks a look. It will audit the network, creating a > hardware > > and software inventory. But, it doesn't do password mgmt. > > > > Free! http://www.spiceworks.com/ * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Macs in business...take 2
> You will also see lots of Macs used by scientists. If you watch science > programs like Nova or the occasional/rare news report about something > scientific you will commonly see that the person who just made a > scientific breakthrough did it with a Mac. Second choice is Xnix. > > As I said before, people who get to choose their own computers to > perform > work care about will overwhelmingly choose Macs. People who use Macs > outperform those who use Windows. And in the most successful businesses, you will see Windows machines overwhelmingly. What does that prove? Right. Nothing. Actually, the most productive people are those who don't get sucked into another one of Tom's or John's silly, adolescent pissing matches, yet again. FORD! CHEVY! Lather. Rinse. Repeat. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Macs in business...take 2
> WFBs get so emotional as Microsoft slips into irrelevance. They would > play ostrich while significant changes are occurring in the computer > industry. I think it is much more useful to pay attention. This is all > so fascinating. One must argue with you to be paying attention? Oh my. This level of massive rationalization has never been observed in nature before. Think different Thomas; think for yourself, not at the whim of the Apple HypeMachine. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Firefox 3.0 bug or bad "feature"
> Oh, and someone's gotta say it: with so many logins these days, trying > to use a spreadsheet and copying/pasting is just ridiculous. If you > can't afford to buy Roboform, try some sort of freeware like Keepass. Or use the fabulous Bugmenot add-in. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] bugmenot
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but Bugmenot doesn't store your personal > logins now, does it? I use it to log in to the odd site that still > demands logins just to read a blurb, but those have mostly disappeared > in the last couple years. You are correct, but no these types of bozos haven't disappeared yet. It prevents the need to have to create yet *another* account to just look at something. Snapfish was the latest one for me; these weren't my pictures, but someone who invited me to look at theirs. You'd think by now the marketing trolls would get tired of polluted databases. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Macs in business...take 3: Fear Factor
Hmmm, I don't recall seeing that commercial. Are you sure you aren't confusing it with the Microsoft Corp in your head? On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 11:17 AM, Tom Piwowar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Steve, good point. I agree that getting someone to switch from one thing > to > >another is generally difficult. That's where Microsoft makes their money. > >Microsoft Office is a good example - I run into businesses that say they > >don't like Office that much, but they have to have it for compatibility > with > >clients, partners, etc. > > This reminds me of a post from a few weeks ago about adding software to a > Windows PC. I think it was FireFox. The poster was concerned that adding > new software would somehow make the computer stop working. > > Microsoft has been very effective at marketing by fear. Their message is > that deviating from their products will make you an outcast. Your > computer will break, nobody will be able to read your files, and > everything sent to you will be gibberish. > > > * > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** > * > * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Macs in business...take 3: Fear Factor
Or, like me, happy with what they have and see no need to go to another platform. On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Snyder, Mark (IT CIV) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There are still Windows users who actually fear anything else. > * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Macs in business...take 3: Fear Factor
> iPhone sales up by a whopping 300% year over year. And exactly how many years has the iPhone been selling? Tom has never met a 2 data point, straight line trend that he didn't like. > Not bad during a major recession. Sez who? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Will iPhone Kill Radio?
> Two free applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and another > program > that costs only $4.99, make it possible to listen to live radio on the > iPhone from anywhere, including a moving car..." No, radio (and the NAB) will kill radio. Who cares what you can listen to it on, the product is just as god-awful. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Will iPhone Kill Radio?
> Should it be my problem that some folks have no sense of humor? Should we > all be required to dial down to low level gloom to accomodate the most > morose among us? Should we be denied a good laugh at the folly of the > ultra rich? I think not! I thought the "squirting" commment was fairly droll for Tom. It made me chuckle. Give credit where credit is due! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Emotional About (Cisco) Hardware?
> I was telling someone about the story this morning and came to the same > conclusion. The city's IT dept looks to be managed by a bunch of idiots. > The netadmin was just protecting his loved ones. No question about that. But someone had to hire the idiots in charge in the first place. You'd think this guy's felony convictions would have been the tip off that he might not be an ideal candidate for employee of the month. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Unusual sound on speakers
> When I have my speakers on, I periodically get a sound, > "dum-dum-duh-duh-duh-dum-dum-duh-dum". Does anyone know what that is? > At first, I thought it is a > time signal at the start of an hour, but I hear it at other times. Nearby Nextel phone. I've gotten it with a Treo too. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Puritans at the helm...
> -Original Message- > ISP's are shutting off USENET because of Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of > State > for New York State. Ah, the proud New York tradition of electing power mad, publicity whoring, thuggish assholes as their Attorney General. (He is actually the AG, not the SoS) * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Puritans at the helm...
> As opposed to power mad, publicity whoring thuggish assholes in the > White House? No, in addition to that. Do you have trouble envisioning both, or just ones with a (D) next to their name? > or in the Alabama or Mississippi state houses? Mississippi has more problems than that. Like a state medical examiner whose incompetent (and possibly perjurous) testimony has probably sent god knows how many of innocent people to prison. http://www.reason.com/blog/show/127188.html > At least Cuomo really thinks he's doing it "for the children" while the others > are simply amassing power by whatever means they can. If you say so. I thought "the children" was everyone's favorite refuge now that patriotism is passé. > The proposed actions are ignorant and just plain lazy. No, they're politically expedient (not to mention unconstitutional). "You're against this? You don't actually *like* kiddie porn do you? You must be a sick and twisted SOB." > The problem is a general ignorance of technology, Usenet, the Internet > by public officials, not the Jeff's fantasy about Cuomo. R-i-i-i-i-ght. He's a really nice guy, who's just completely misunderstood. All the humility of Giuliani and the integrity of Spitzer, rolled into a nice suit. Nah, there's no way he could just being using a convenient (and politically unimpeachable) scapegoat to bulldoze himself into the headlines (and as a bonus, the governor's office, which he's already made one unsuccessful go at): "Comcast is no slouch in the child porn fight: it helped organize an industry-wide agreement last week with 45 attorneys general. But what was good enough for the National Association of Attorneys General was not good enough for New York; we're told that Cuomo was one of the handful of officials to withhold his signature." http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9997051-38.html My fantasy? You're projecting. Again. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Puritans at the helm...
> In all this talk about the definition morality, I've always found it > interesting how groups use their own definition of it to justify their > cause. > > This might not have made the national news but > > "Perpetrators must be stopped using whatever means necessary, and the > use of force is a morally righteous tactic; furthermore, it is the most > likely tactic to be effective in halting these atrocities," he said in > an e-mail." Release the hounds! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] My Macintosh saga
>Apple's actual solution? Here is a nice, new, latest and greatest > MacBook Pro, 17 inch, 2.5 GHz, 2 gig of memory with a 250 gig hard > drive and a Super Drive for you. They are even sending my broken > machine back so that I can get data off the hard drive. An awesome > outcome is about all I can say about it. Best of all, I didn't have > to do any cajoling or arguing or anything like that. Apple simply > said, "We can't provide you with a speedy repair, so here is what we > can offer you as an alternative, if you so choose." It's not clear what happened here. They sent you a new laptop for $310, for free or you paid retail? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] My Macintosh saga
>I have to pay the $310 flat-rate repair fee as I had already > agreed to do that in order to get back into my hands a working > computer. It is just that the computer I was expected to get back > was the one that had broken down, not a brand spanking new version of > my five year old one. Apple could have probably simply put a dollar > value on my old machine and offered to take that amount off of the > cost of a new equivalent, but they clearly went the extra mile, plus > a whole lot more than they had to. That is what made an impression > on me. That is indeed a happy ending. They couldn't, however, do this for everyone, obviously. I wonder what their formula for this level of service is? With this in mind, it makes me wonder why they are being so indifferent to their early-adopting iPhone customers. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Power Antivirus 2009 rogue antispyware
> Power Antivirus rogue antispyware - A friend has it, not sure how it > got installed, but will try to remove it tomorrow. Has anyone had any > first hand experience with removing this pest? i see several programs that > claim to remove it, but i would rather use one that has best chance of > working without more damage to the computer. I haven't with this one personally, but I have removed a few like this through googled solutions. No problems with that route yet. Do your friend a favor and afterwards set his/her current account up as a limited user and unlock the admin account, if this hasn't been done already. Operating as a user, and not the admin, will defend against malware better than any program (assuming s/he doesn't infect one's self with honor). For XP: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/tune-09.html For Vista: http://www.walkernews.net/2007/11/09/how-to-enable-vista-ultimate-administra tor-account/ Of course, s/he should not run as the admin on a daily basis. Some apps may not like this set up and those should be avoided just the same, since their developers aren't coding to follow a permission model over a decade old on the Windows side. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] My Macintosh saga
> WFBs urging Apple to never lower prices or introduce exciting new > features. I guess they want Apple to act more like Microsoft. Or...maybe, just maybe, they might not gouge their loyal following to begin with. Na What's the Apple equivalent of Battered Spouse Syndrome? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] My Macintosh saga
> The iPhone is different, as are all new Mac products. There was nothing > wrong with the iPhone. It worked; it was unique, a conversation piece, > literally. A new version came out. Apple offered a $100 rebate. That's > better than most products. When you buy a new electronic toy, > guaranteed that a new, better, faster one will come out within a month, just after > the last date you're allowed to return it. It was overpriced and underpowered to begin with. Only months after releasing ver. 1.0, when they discontinued the 4 GB version and lowered the 8 GB version by $200, Apple only offered the $100 *store credit* after taking considerable heat from shafted early adopters. I'd be pissed too. > It's the price you pay for being on the leading/bleeding edge of tech. Or for laying roses on the hood of the Glorious Leader's Rolls-Royce as he drives by. Smart(er) people waited for a better deal, rather than blowing their poker face and diving at the 1st offer. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Report: Sky Not Falling
> This is not a technical article. It is an op ed by a WFB trying to spin > the issue in MS's favor. It is not worth the time to read. A waste. > > Is that the best you got? You must not be familiar with Peter B over at Ars. He recently recanted his love for Windows and documented his turn to the dark side in loving detail. http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/what-microsoft-could-learn-from-appl e.ars http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/microsoft-learn-from-apple-II.ars http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/microsoft-learn-from-apple-III.ars * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Report: Sky Not Falling
> I'm starting to think Steve Jobs needs to start calling himself Steve > Jones. For a second there, my mind inserted Tom's name instead of Steve's. Tom as a Sex Pistol? Heh. Tommy Rotten? [giggle] * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] DVD's vs. External hard drives for archiving
> Inertia is a big one. Many IT "pros" don't keep up with technology or > don't understand the reasons for using a particular technology. They > pick RAID because it is "buzzword compliant." We pros use it because of buzzwords like "mature" and "reliable" and "inexpensive." We use it for well documented reasons. Non-practitioning hecklers in the back row like to shout out rude things to make it sound like they know more than the people in the trenches. > Many still use tape for the same reason. I tried to replace my obsolete LTO-1 autoloader with swappable, archival hard drives that could be taken offsite as easily as tape and would function as simply as tape. I would to have at least tripled my costs to meet the capacity and ease of use of tape. I passed and got an LTO-3 autoloader, which backs up nearly 3 TB of data every week. Works like a charm, fire and forget bullet-proof; very, very fast and scalable. > >http://feedblog.org/2007/06/08/yes-jeremy-raid-really-is-dying/ > > Interesting, but this blog is discussing operations the size of Google > and this blog points out that even Google does not use RAID. You go right ahead and keep playing Russian roulette with your data and systems on non-fault-tolerant systems. Don't come crying to me when a server goes tits-up and your users are screaming bloody murder because they are productive as rocks. RAID has saved my bacon more times than I can count (and the users never even knew we lost a drive). I've lost a RAID controller once, on an old server that should have been retired a year earlier. Once. And yes, it was catastrophic. We have a server with ADP payroll apps and data on it. We used ADP for only one year, but by law I have to maintain the payroll data on it for another 6 years and nobody wants to *touch* ADP data, let alone try and convert it. One of the drives in RAID 1 array failed the other day. Replacing it cost me nothing. Rebuilding the server and the applications would have cost a small fortune and many man hours, since we have no support contract with ADP any longer ($$$). But, you must be onto something, since, well, if the one company with its tens of thousands of employees and the single largest market value on the planet can do things differently on such a ginormous scale, then we all should be able to do it, right? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] What we actually get for our money...
> Romania238K > Greece 132K > Latvia 65K > Hong Kong1K > Macau .025K > > All numbers are square kilometers, rounded up, total 436.025K. > > A little bigger than California and on average much denser. > > If all I had to do was give everyone in California broadband and > I had government funding they'd all be smoking along on GigE. > > If you want me to hook up a formerly second world country like, > say Georgia, that's about the size of West Virginia, well it was a > couple of weeks ago, I can do that too. Tsk, tsk Eric. Never let inconvenient things like facts get in the way of a hysterical inferiority complex by proxy. We need our national pride! Who cares about gold medals, we need high(er)-speed internet! Now pipe down and belly up to the tax-filled trough like a good, little megacorp. Maybe you need some of the good 'ol American gumption of T. Bone Pickens. Now, there's a patriot who knows how to stick it to the little guy while he laughs all the way to the bank and back. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_08/014238.php * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] the peanut gallery
> The list, perhaps because it lacks any sort of rating system, > definitely has a high ratio of hecklers around. Every time someone > brings up a good point, 3 others jump in and opine, completely > obfuscating the issue. Then there are the 3-4 people who jump into > _every_ thread as if they know all about it. Or maybe they're the > same, I dunno. > > I avoided joining this topic because it was obvious from the beginning > the OP was asking about a specific setup that I had no experience > with. But predictably, the usual suspects hopped right in and started > espousing opinions on a wide variety of things, most completely > irrelevant to the OP's setup, and many so far off topic the poor guy > has no hope of ever solving his problem. I went back and reviewed the answers again and David got his answer in the subsequent posts. But, we don't know his budget, so the specific answer isn't available. In the end, your budget is going to determine what solutions are available to you. The amount of data he is talking about is almost trivial WRT modern storage technology. <100 GB should just be left online and simply purchase a larger NAS to deal with storage issues and have a reliable backup/disaster recovery system in place to augment. I purchased this year a 5 TB NAS from Dell for about $5,000 (there are smaller and less expensive options). We also had a 700 GB file server, which was filling up rapidly. It's very simple to set up and uses SATA drives and runs on Windows Storage Server 2003. SAS would be better, but the capacity was lower and at a significantly higher cost. I was tired of the file server shuffle (we've had 3 in the past 6 years, all filling up within 2 years) and scaled out as large as we could afford. We still have 3.2 TB available. Ideally, this would be supplemented by a middle tier of disk-disk backup. I'd like to purchase a data protection server that takes hourly snapshots of all the local servers, including bare-metal backups, but that hasn't happened yet. That would allow very rapid recovery from significant data loss. The tape backup unit would then backup from the DP server to be archived off-site. WSS 2003 has a nice feature called single instance storage, which only stores one copy of duplicate files, with pointers to the file in the duplicate locations. That has shaved a couple gigs off of our storage needs. It also uses the Windows shadow copy service, which takes periodic snapshots of the data and stores the snapshots on a separate volume. The snapshots are a small fraction in size of the original files. I do these snapshots at 10 AM, 2 PM and 6 PM. Instead of IT digging through the tapes, staff can quickly recover deleted or overwritten files and folders using this. Vey nice, very simple to use and it has virtually eliminated the need to retrieve tapes from off-site to correct for the goofy-finger delete or the palm-to-the-face overwrite. I don't have to pay extra for the tapes to be delivered before they come back in on rotation and the staff doesn't have to wait days or weeks to get their files back. Oh yeah, and the NAS uses RAID 5. Gasp! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] What we actually get for our money...
> The "megacorp" is bearing the cost. We expect ROI. That is basic > capitalism. We know the government isn't going to help us do this. > > We are doing this on our own. That is how America is supposed > to work. Sounds like a viable business plan to me. I hope Verizon is successful and wildly reaps the benefits of their very substantial investment. Unfortunately, for too many of our friends, qualities such as risk and reward, investment and a return on it, are a distant second to "gimmee, gimmee, gimmee," as if high-speed internet access is a national birthright. Most of the municipal wi-fi systems around the country, that were supposed to be oh-so-cheap to implement and have people fighting to get in line to get it, are languishing from low-ball cost projections, over-optimistic revenue estimates, low enrollment, mismanagement, idiotic partnerships, poor engineering and plain old city guvmint corruption. By any reasonable standard, these projects are abject failures. With all of these modern-day examples, you'd think people would get the memo about the futility of betting other people's money on for-profit ventures. Markets are very good at allocating the resources needed for products and services, when they're actually allowed to have competitors within it. Better yet, investors and businesses are only betting their own money, at least in the non-T. Bone Pickens world. When Verizon has to ask for permission from the powers that be to provide this service to areas that are locked up by monopolized systems, (think *most* of the country) thanks to local guvmints and sweetheart deals cut decades ago, it's no wonder high-speed internet access is in the state that's it's in. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] DVD's vs. External hard drives for archiving
> But RAID is a specific technology. Having multiple, redundant drives > does not require using RAID. My understanding is that Google doesn't use > RAID technology for anything but that one project (Adwords). While for > their search indices and Gmail and the like they simply store multiple copies > of the data. Then if one fails, the other copies are still there. But it does require a system of server failovers, one that is likely software based and can also fail. I suppose you could call this setup RAIS. Suffice it to say, a system of redundant servers is the ideal situation for data protection and disaster recovery, is out of the reach, both in terms of costs and complexity, for much smaller organizations. For us, RAID + backup is the way to go for fault tolerant data protection. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] iPod -> Zune
> Legally yeah she is pretty much stuck. There are ways but they violate > the DMA. Search for what M$ said about converting plays for sure to non- > DRM they told you how to do it and the same applies to iTunes. To say > anything more will make Tom nervous. > > This will teach her to buy non-DRM from amazon and other sources. The > music industry won't give lots of things as non-DRM to the iTunes store but > to others they will. I sincerely hope my music is not "stuck" in an iTunes library, which I will soon be 'forced' to use. I just (reluctantly) purchased a refurbed 30 Gb Video iPod (5G) to replace my aging Gen 1 Dell DJ. It should arrive on Monday. I rip/buy all my music as un-DRM'd MP3s to a folder on my hard drive and manage it from there through Windows Explorer and Media Monkey. I hope that iTunes doesn't screw up the perfectly usable system I have in place, tho' I've been told it won't. I remain skeptical. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] iPod -> Zune
> -Original Message- > That dell wasn't bad for it's time, but the software was > horrid...almost as bad as soundstage is for sony. It was a solid device; no scratches on it ever. I never used the awful MusicMatch that came with it. Just the Explorer plug-in. > I've been using iTunes on xp pro, vista 64 for several years and have > never had a single issue. Just don't let iTunes manage your music and all > will be well. I keep all my ripped music on an external drive and iTunes never > touches it unless I happen to change an mp3 tag once in awhile. Maybe I'm not understanding what you are saying here, but how do you get music onto the iPod if you don't use iTunes for that? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Data protection Server
> -Original Message- > You ever look into the stuff from NetApp? Yes, I have, but I thought they were little pricey. Dell actually has a less expensive series that I would like to get one of. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] DVD's vs. External hard drives for archiving
> Yes, I guess that is the point. You run less risk of losing your > backup data stored with a reliable online vendor than you do if you depend on > your own RAID/ Drobo device. If your budget can swing it, you should have the following for complete protection: 1. Shadow copies 2. Disk-disk backup 3. Disk to tape/hard drive for offsite/disaster recovery 4. Online data replication (or whatever you are using for storage) 5. Redundant/failover servers (for high availability applications) 6. Redundant sites for business continuity On the Google case cited, I remember how Google wrote their own OS for the server farms way back when. I don't know if this is still the case, but it's another example of how Google does business is not necessarily a template for the rest of the world. Likewise, my own home seems sorely lacking compared to the homes I see on "Cribs." Should I emulate rappers on how I furnish my home? I don't have enough bottles of Cristal in my fridge if that's the case. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] is it RAID?
> -Original Message- > You keep saying this, but don't give examples of what better methods > there are. Why educate when you can obfuscate? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] iPod -> Zune
That makes much more sense, which is how I will use it. Thanks. > -Original Message- > Sorry I wasn't clear. When you first run iTunes it will ask if you > want iTunes to manage your music or if you want to manage it yourself. > Letting itunes manage it, will most likely end up moving your music you wish on > your ipod to be imported into the windows music folder. If you just manage > the music yourself, the music stays wherever you have it now and then you > can tell itunes to scan a local HD for all mp3's or as I do, just drag and > drop all the music you want into iTunes. iTunes will still load your music > onto the ipod but that's all it will do. I don't use iTunes for anything > except loading music and getting podcasts, tagging, ripping playing music on > the local machine etc I do with other programs...old habits I guess. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] What we actually get for our money...
> The Internet and broadband both are the result of many years of our > government investing in science/technology R&D, giving research and > implementation grants to university and private research labs while > providing huge tax breaks to the broadband providers. Those providers > promised to get their systems up and running within a designated time, > and in return, they got help from the government, as has been necessary > for huge projects like this, and they have profited well, just not on > their own. What a wonderfully warm and fuzzy Rotary Club speech. After reading that we should be locking the doors on the labs and standing over the scientists with cattle prods and menacing looks. "Work smarter *and* harder! Damn it, we're nationally and economically insecure! There aren't any stupid questions *or* answers! And for the love of god, whatever you do, don't stop shoveling the money in the door!" Too bad none of it is even the slightest bit relevant to the topic at hand. Broadband subsidy plans don't involve R&D, unless the politicos can come up with a way to stuff the bill with almost credible sounding language to torque up the pork-slinging to their constituents and major donors. No, they're just out-and-out cash deals, not too unlike the Plexiglas cylinders on game shows where they blow the money up into the air for the contestants to grab as much of as they can before the fan turns off. Oh, and thanks to the remarkable foresight displayed above, we now have an expensive broadband oligopoly, and if you're really lucky, a nominally competitive market. Thank god you have the answer to this problem: more of the same, only bigger. Much, much bigger; it's the Ted Stevens plan. Political solutions to non-political, perceived problems. Yeah, that works every time. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] is it RAID?
> I think we should scale this back to the parameters of the original > question: given a limited budget and the need to protect about 1TB, > which of these technologies make sense? I woule go for DVDs *and* an external > hard drive, but no RAID. RAID vs. single drive boils down to the following formula: RAID: Multiple points of failure, with fault-tolerance for drive components. How much depends on the array. Single drive: 2 points of failure: the drive controller and the drive. No fault-tolerance. Not to beat a dead horse, but I've had too numerous to remember drive failures, one RAID controller failure and multiple non-RAID motherboard failures, which effectively kills the drive controller, since nearly all are integrated. RAID is a no-brainer for me; my business depends upon the low cost high-availability it gives me. Redundant fail-over servers would be very, very nice, but it breaks the bank. RAID will be around for a very long time to come. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] What we actually get for our money...
> Good to see that you admit you were sleeping in class while the > government was doing good things for the public, instead of spying on > us. The level of naiveté is rarely seen in nature, since as you approach such a fact-free vacuum, subjects usually implode. We must have both slept through different history classes. Where you awake when the instructor went over J. Edger Hoover spying on Martin Luther King and thousands of others he suspected of being unpatriotic? Congress holding hearings and smearing the reputation of anyone suspected of having communist leanings, whether it were true or not? The CIA experimenting with LSD on soldiers without their knowledge or consent? The Tuskegee syphilis experiment, where govt. scientists allowed black men unknowingly infected with the disease go untreated to see how the disease progressed? Conducting open-air biological experiments over populated areas and within public facilities? A president lying about ships being attacked in SE Asian gulfs, the US Military dumping thousands of gallons of Agent Orange in Viet Nam knowing the health effects, etc, etc. No thanks. I don't need your brand of good things. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] What we actually get for our money...
> The public-private partnerships that created satellite communications > were necessary advancements that couldn't have been done at the time > [or now] by private corporations. Same for Arpanet and the Internet. Same > for the monopolies that exist in cable and telco broadband that allow > them to set rates based on whatever they can get away with instead of > letting the market determine rates with competition, or providing > quality broadband service [and choice] without gouging the customers, > as it is today. Man. That's some military-grade RDF. I see you still haven't connected the dots as to why there is no significant competition in broadband in the first place. Oh well. The above is completely speculative and without any grounding in fact. *Couldn't* have been done without federal funding and *wasn't* done are 2 different things. To suggest that nothing BIG can't be done without guvmint money is a view divorced from reality. And to conveniently forget to mention that a good deal of what you list was done in the interest of countering the Soviets during the cold war is shifty at best. The military-industrial complex, which I doubt you are a terrific fan of, is at the core of all of that. Many very big things are done, every day, without a drop of guvmint funds. You simply choose to ignore them, as you do the massive waste that occurs as a result of constituent fluffing, something slimy old pols such as Robert Byrd and Ted Steven like to brag about to the folks back home. I suppose the Fed-driven housing bubble was a good thing too. It's the child-like views about government you display is as to why our country is trillions of dollars in debt, and are deeply indebted to powers that I would rather not have so much leverage over us, such as China and Saudi Arabia. You show no criteria for discriminating between easily justifiable funding, such as epidemic control and infectious disease research (you know, the kind where they _don't_ kill you on purpose), and throwing tax money willy-nilly at privately-owned broadband oligopolies because your youtube videos are choppy. As long as one can make the most tenuous of arguments that it will "add to our economic security," you'd throw the treasury doors wide open. What *wouldn't* you fund? Wait! I know. Subsidized timber for church pews. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] What we actually get for our money...
> The United States has the lowest corporate tax rates in the > industrialized world. That's effectively subsidizing just about all > corporations. You are sadly mistaken if think that there is really any such thing as a corporate tax. Go ahead, raise the corporate tax to 80%. Let us know how much that loaf of bread costs then. > Never mind. You don't get it. Yes, non-believers usually don't. Don't forget to avert thine eyes! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcastic Broadband!
> Responding to the FCC's scolding, Comcasts' new regime will impose a > 250GB cap, throttling of high-consumption users, usage-based billing, > and increased DMCA enforcement. This is what happens when you get a complete train-wreck like Kevin Martin and a witless ideologue like Michael Copps in the same room. Unintended comcastiquences. Enjoy the fruits of your government in action. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcastic Broadband!
> >Enjoy the fruits of your government in action. > > "inaction" Don't expect any sympathy from me on either account. You voted for the guys promising you a free pony, so suck it up. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcastic Broadband!
> Yep they should have kicked Comcast in the cojones with a couple of > hundred million dollar fine. In essence, this is what the FCC is doing. This is price controls by proxy. Comcast is determined to shape the traffic on its network, for whatever the reason, and the FCC is only too happy to oblige with the ham-fists. So, if they (Comcast) can't get the desired outcome one way, they're going to get it another. It could also just be a poison pill to spark widespread ire at the FCC, but I doubt it will work out that way. Many people have managed to convince themselves that the transport media that private companies have laid out, at the cost of billions of dollars of investment, somehow belongs to them. I lease my service from them. If I want to own some of Comcast, I'll buy stock. > The faster FIOS spreads the sooner this dinosaur can go away. Yes, fortunately there is an alternative for some people. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast Internet Cap
> 250gb/mo is at least realistic. The local phone company (Frontiernet) > is talking about 5gb/mo. That is a fairly decent limit, I doubt I would ever blow through it, but I'm still strongly considering FIOS. I'm paying $133/month just for cable and Internet! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] really bad references
> National security?? So little jonny can download more movies? Let's just call it for what it is: IMD. Internets of Mass Destruction. If you don't support the fight against it, then you must hate your country. "Keep throwing things! We have to see what sticks!" * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast Internet Cap
> Following up on the national security angle, please read... > "Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the US" > nytimes.com/2008/08/30/business/30pipes.html Oh no! The CIA will have to start outsourcing their spies! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] RAIDs ad nauseaum
> I see you are behind the times on this too. > > The ST31500341AS Barracuda SATA drive (1.5TB for $290) has a sustained > data transfer rate of 960Mbps, well over the 746Mbps threshold. The bus transfer rate is meaningless if the drive itself can't fill the pipe. IIRC, the actual throughput for conventional 7200 SATA II drive is about 120Mbs, usually less. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] miserable was: Re: [CGUYS] Chrome Reflects A Desktop In Decline
> This is what scares me about Vista. Of the half-dozen people I know > who are running it, every one of them are having problems. Most of them > are having trouble running Eudora on Vista. This is Eudora's fault, not MS'. It's beholden on them to make sure their software works on the OS. God knows they had enough lead time with all of the RCs and betas. > They're also having trouble with AVG/Vista. I run AVG on Vista Business. Zero problems. > I have a realtor friend whose "lock box" won't update nightly as it did on her XP machine. Without knowing what exactly this is, who knows why? But, the permission model on Vista is different from XP. Microsoft announced this loudly and often to the development community during the beta testing period. Why didn't the mfr of the lock box update their software? > I finally had the opportunity to actually sit in front of a Vista > machine last night. I was trying to help someone move some files from an XP > machine via a memory stick. The only "instruction manual" she got with > the new Vista machine was a huge fold-out "how to hook up" type of thing. 1. Plug into a USB port. 2. Use it. Seriously, what is the issue here, other than user error or ignorance? > I've advised her to go buy "Vista For Dummies"--there must BE one I'm sure there is. I bought the Missing Mac manual a few years ago. > I think MS figures everyone who buys this OS is too dumb to want to > transfer anything. They've dumbed it down to the point where I can't > even find where they've hidden everything. That is your first legitimate complaint. Unfortunately, this is not limited to Vista. Too many companies dumb down the interface, or gunk it up with bogus choices, to the point where you can't get at the guts to fix what went wrong with their crappy software (or do what you want to do -- "Thanks, but I've got it from here."). > We are not ALL computer geeks. We've mostly come along with the > various OS's since Win95. Now we're facing a huge learning curve, unlike any > other that MS has hit us with before. I don't think there is a HUGE learning curve, but there are changes. Some make sense, some don't. I'm used to it now for the most part, but for something I don't do all that often I have to dig into the memory heap for a minute. And the changes from 3.1 to 95 and from 98 to XP were ginormous compared to XP to Vista. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
Mike--Don't sweat it. Tom is the grasshopper to the rest of us ants. When, not if, our drives fail, the hive will reward us for our forward thinking and employing fault tolerance for the hardware. Tom, OTOH, will be sitting outside and crying into his thorax, cursing the exaggerated claims of theoretical failures by marketing departments. We won't even talk about his not understanding the meaning of the word "mean," at least as far as it goes to statistics. > -Original Message- > I'm putting the argument in the parameters you set. > As to if you are acting or not, I won't guess. I'm still waiting for > the solution that improves on the old RAID technology..now we sit and wait > for you to tell us which HD's you were talking about when you claimed > anyone with a failed drive must have bought it at Toys R Us. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
> But what the admins are really looking at is having the same data > replicated on multiple NAS. You can do a lot of that with a good SAN, but > interoperability issues and expense can limit you there. Also, hardly > any> server runs its own local database. There are dedicated database > machines, some with Oracle, some with MySQL, and they are all replicated to other > machines on the network. John--What you are talking about is great, if you are for-profit company (or an extremely large non-profit like yours) with far greater resources at your disposal than many companies have. You have almost 3 times the servers in your one lab than I do on our entire network. I have a 5 TB NAS, but only one. The least expensive SAN solution that would have met our needs was triple the cost, so our databases run locally, which works out fine. Server and SAN replication is a wonderful thing and I wish I could do that, but comes at a cost that is astronomical compared to RAID. Tom reminds me of the yacht club president sniffing over port and brie about the terrible conditions that he is forced to endure on the water with all the riff-raff commercial fishing boats about. Why can't they be more like him? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] miserable was: Re: [CGUYS] Chrome Reflects A Desktop In Decline
> So, I search the same as I did in DOS, right? Isn't Vista supposed to > eliminate the need for command-line? In Windows 3.1 I could search any > file on the computer for content, and find exactly what I wanted--but > not Vista. My husband downloads things, forgets where he puts them and > asks me to find them. Searches [from menu bar] by date and size usually > don't find anything. Pathetic. I'm not asking for something > complicated, only a search function that works in the GUI. I just clicked on the Windows (formerly start) button, typed in a word to search in the search box immediately above the Windows button for and viola! I get results above the search box instantly. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
> Vista is hardware agnostic- if the hardware meets the specs. > > MAC OSX is pickier but yields a more consistent experience given the > limited number of platforms it runs on. Going MAC eliminates some of the > weirder PC problems even if you only run Vista on it. This illustrates a very fundamental difference in culture between the 2 platforms: choice vs. dictates. I'll take choice every time. (I'd say that Linux falls solidly on the choice side.). Ironically, from what I have read and heard about the 2 companies' internal cultures, it's the polar opposite of their market cultures. Tom loves to crow about iPhone sales, but never mentions how Windows Mobile phones consistently outsell the iPhone by several factors. Again, this is a result of choice, choice among devices and carriers. You could almost frame this as a free market (Windows) vs. command economy (Mac), which considering the characters around here and where they fall on that spectrum, isn't all that surprising where they line up with their computers. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
> A study by http://www.canalys.com/ said that in Q3 2007 and Q4 2007, > iphone > outsold all windows mobile in the US. Outside the US, Windows mobile > was > 12% followed by Apple at 7%. > > Mike > > http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/12/17/against-odds- > iphone-overtakes-windows-mobile-sales-in-q3 > > One of the articles you can hit if you google. 9 month old sales figures on an Apple-oriented site as evidence? C'mon... I've seen on several sites that I've looked at tonight that some of these numbers don't include corporate sales, while others do. The devil is in the details... 1Q 2008 WM outsells iPhone: http://wirelessfederation.com/news/windows-mobile-drove-handheld-computer-sa les-in-1q/ Of course, Blackberry has half the market today: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVuhfzESeiI9bSWgmizp9ftoG8KwD932QK9G0 And Symbian spanks the market globally in terms of OS share: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVuhfzESeiI9bSWgmizp9ftoG8KwD932QK9G0 * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] miserable was: Re: [CGUYS] Chrome Reflects A Deskto
> I'm starting to agree with Tom. If I have to buy new software every > time MS decides it's time for a change, I might as well tackle the learning > curve from Mac. If most businesses are refusing to use Vista, it's not > a very good recommend for those of us out here who just want a computer > that works. You don't. Most of the software that I use on Vista, I also use on XP. In fact, I can't think of one off the top of my head that doesn't work on both. But, if you deal with vendors that don't try all that hard, you can't blame the OS for their lack of effort with their product. You also can't blame the OS for software developers who *still* don't code for the Windows NT permission model that came out in 1996 and still insist that their app be run with admin permissions. I have an ID card system running on an old Windows 2000 system. The person using it is complaining about its slowness on a 9 year old computer. Can't say I blame him. I want to upgrade it to XP and a newer PC, but the card printer the system uses doesn't have drivers certified by the vendor to work with XP. They won't test it even though the printer came out at the same time as XP did. Basically, I'm on my own and SOL if it doesn't work. I'm recommending that we scrap the system and go with a better vendor, one that gives a crap about its customers. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
> You do realize that you don't have to buy a dedicated NAS, but can > build one yourself out of any old computer that can run Linux. Same for a > MySQL server. Yes, of course. That however, is not a mistake I plan on repeating. I have about 5 servers I built myself out of Intel OEM parts, built to spec. They work fine for the most part, but they tend to be quirky. One failed suddenly earlier this year and one freezes every couple weeks or so. The worst part is that *I* am the warranty and dealing with Intel tech support is some bizarre, hell-like punishment. Never again. When I buy a Dell server, I know that I have their engineering expertise in designing the product and, most importantly, they are the warranty. I suppose if you have a staff filled with minions who have the spare time to deal with the problems from old or custom hardware, then this could be a workable solution. I don't have that kind of time nor the staff. Please try and keep some perspective on what it's like to run a small enterprise. I say enterprise and not business for a reason. A small business, say 20 people or so, can get by with POP email or an SBS server. We can't. We have the needs of a larger company, but on a much smaller scale and without *any* of the resources. You do what you can do with what you have. > After all, you want to protect against not just disk drive failure, but > also computer failure. Of course, but that is a luxury we can't afford. When you are poor(er), you learn to tolerate risk at a much higher level and deal with the consequences, knowing the risks. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
> That is the point that most people are dealing with today, and that Tom > keeps emphasizing. > > If the likelihood of a computer failure is close to the likelihood of a disk > drive failure, how do you minimize the risk? That's the thing. In my experience, the system will fail many, many times less often than will a hard drive. All Tom has are throertetical numbers from drive mfrs to back up his claim. My real world experience shows a very different result. And you minimize the risk with backups, at least at the most basic level. > It used to be that disk drives failed ten or a hundred times more often than > computer systems. But now they are roughly equivalent - hard to determine > which is more likely in general. No, they aren't. Hard drives win the failure contest. Hands down. > So spending even $200 on a RAID controller and the same on extra disks just > for RAID, is probably not the best way to minimize risk to the small > business today. Who keeps extra drives around? I have 5 year warranties on my Dell servers and they have the parts. If I keep a system past the warranty, it's a non-mission critical system and there are scads of spare parts available. Again, this is balancing risk vs. cost vs. priorities. It's not a simple equation and every business is different, not to mention, every system. But you keep arguing with me as if I think replicated servers are a bad thing. I've made it very clear that they aren't, in fact they are quite valuable and I wish I had them. But, they are also very, very costly compared to a RAID array. What will give me a middle ground is a data replication system that will also have bare-metal images of servers that can be restored to a virtual machine if needed, with real-time data snapshots for critical systems. That still is $$$, but nothing close to the cost aand complexity of a replicated server environment. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
> I'm seeing power supply, motherboard, and memory failures at about the > same rate as I'm seeing drive failures. I would suggest, then, that you stop buying your hardware from Toys R Us. At least upgrade to FAO Schwartz. > Again, you are working with out of date ideas. Hardware costs are way > down and performance is way up. Dedicated applicances can often lower > costs further, decrease maintenance, and increase reliability. For > example, I'm running one server here using s $69 linux-based appliance > and 2 $100 drives and it is positively a joy. Too funny. Now you know why the big boys won't let you play with them. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
> Not being argumentative ;) but I didn't post articles from mac > specific > sites on purpose...ars is a apple site? What about canalys? I know, I wouldn't suggest otherwise. But, the site that Ars linked to with the story on the canalys figures was a Mac site. I poked around a little and found the usual shrill, arm-waving MacZealot site attitude. Not one that lends a lot to credibility. > BTW, that article you posted was Q1 2007... Crap, you are correct. It seems I pulled a Bloomberg (read about United Airlines this AM for the reference). I have seen numbers quoted for 1Q 2008 of WM sales a 4.5 million and iPhone sales of 1.8 million. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
> You would have me spend $10,000 to serve a 5-person office? That would > be an example of bad judgement. No, that would be stupid, but I also wouldn't advise someone to get a SOHO device for a 250 person network. Talk about bad judgment. I would look at hosted solutions for a 5 person office and not waste their money on expensive server hardware. > That $69 server was bought on a lark, with the expectation that it > would not be very capable. The surprise was that it works as well as my > AppleShare server and my Small Business Server, but it is so much > easier to manage. > > So go call yourself a "big boy." I know how to do something right and > you don't. Your problem is one of a lack of vision. You see Google doing something and therefore, everyone should be able to do it. Never mind the cost and complexity, if you don't do it, then you're a poopy-head, and a stinky one at that. Your Linksys example is prime example of that very limited perspective. Big boys look at the complete picture and recommend a workable solution with budgets and resources in mind, rather than fake it and condescend to those not implementing the latest thing you read about in magazine. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
> What is wrong with these people? Even I'm embarassed for them. O-h-h-h-h-h, that's right, if it's not smarmy and smug and taking cheap shots, then it Just. Isn't. Funny. I thought it was rather amusing. I'm looking forward to the next one. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] LHC
You asked this question a week ago. And the week before that...and the week before that...Come to think about it, the weeks have all seemed very similar. Am I the only one who remembers this? > -Original Message- > So in a little over seven hours the Large Hadron Collider will be > switched on...any takers on if we'll all survive? I've set up a google alert to > my cell phone for the big event. The question is if all goes wrong, will > I get the msg before or after? > > http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/ * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer if backing up on external driv
> Did you read any of the references that John so thoughtfully provided > you? No, because I don't use MySql. I can do native SQL replication with SQL Server 2005, which I have to use, but there is still that pesky issue of vendors not wanting to give away their hardware for free. Funny that. I can see that you're stuck in the consultant's my-one-solution-fits-all template, and that you really just don't get it, so I'll stop bothering with you now. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
> Everyone is scratching their heads about it, except for Gates who is scratching his butt. It was the Zune of broadcast > advertising. Everyone? As in, "How could Nixon win, since everyone I know voted for McGovern?" I'm not scratching my head, but then I'm not stuck in the creepy, minimalist THX-1138 white design paradigm either. My condolences that you have killed your imaginative spark and can't see any way outside of the box. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] myEarthLink News Article - Pearl Flip is first BlackBerry that folds up
I don't care for the Pearl much, I prefer the full qwerty keyboard, but this is a good idea. The OS is rock-solid, *never* crashing, as is the hardware. On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Stewart Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Personal Message: > > RIM keeps on rolling along. They think and anticipate and get into the right > items. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
> There are dozens of WM smart phones, compared to Apple's iPhone. Which was exactly my original point. You seemed to have missed that. You can either enjoy choice or being told what to do. I promise to act surprised as to what decision you make. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Replication (was Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer i
> Possible, but there is no good reason to do that. RAID is just a buzz > word to impress rubes. It would be more impressive to tell them you have > an LHC in the basement. There's no possible, it is. I suppose someone would run their SAN/NAS as a JBOD (just a bunch of disks), but all that does is give you a little extra storage at the cost of fault tolerance for the drives. Better to have the best of both worlds, if you can swing it. The bottom line is that having server replication on top of RAID is a damn nice thing to have, but as with all things there are costs, overheads and trade offs that have to be balanced against everything else. It's not free, plug and play nor a silver bullet, something our good Herr Doctor seems incapable of grokking. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] All Hail Lord Steve!
>>You can either enjoy choice or being told what to do. I promise to >>act surprised as to what decision you make. > > God, what a nasty person. I didn't think I was being nasty at all; far less than Herr Doctor usually is. It was a poke at Betty and what I know of her predilections as to computers. If you're not going to come to the meetings, you'll have to keep up some other way. I also know that she prefers Nokia phones, so it really had nothing to do with phones choices per se. Nokia just signed on with Microsoft, so that may change: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10037506-94.html Do you actually have something to contribute to the conversation, or are you just heckling? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Smart phone OS [was: All Hail Lord Steve!]
> How many of those WM phones are the ones purchased by a company for > employees [telling them what to use], and what do those employees purchase > for their personal use? Betty--It's a very simple concept I was commenting on: Microsoft gives you a wide choice of devices and carriers from which to choose. Apple does not. Choice vs. dictates, and for now, in this scenario, choice is ahead. That's it. Nothing about other mfrs or who buys what for whom is needed here, unless you want the choice paradigm to be an even stronger argument against the supposed hegemony of the iPhone. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Replication (was Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer i
> RAID has some possible uses nowadays. Sure. Let's see if we can recap. > > 1. Those with just a little money or those with a lot of money generally > find that the risk associated with "hardware RAID" is not worth the > expense. The small benefit from a possible disk drive failure is far > outweighed by the huge risk from a RAID controller failure or any related > hardware failure that makes the RAID disks useless. (Just try taking the > RAID disk drives out of one machine and putting them in a new one.) Sorry, but my direct experience is the exact opposite. Enormous benefit from RAID controllers: low risk from controller failure, much higher for drive failure. > 2. New computers spec'ed to just act as a NAS or database server are pretty > darn inexpensive. You don't need lots of RAM or fast CPU as a rule (as > always, YMMV). Because of this, in most cases it makes more sense today to > duplicate storage on multiple disks and computers - not just multiple disks > in one computer. Again, if you do the cost-benefit analysis, you have > started moving away from RAID in one machine. Cost-to-benefit analysis? Do I just start throwing away servers? How much sunk cost do you abandon to satisfy a supposed best practice (according to whom?)? Do you know of any business that is able to implement best practices in every environment? I don't disagree with the theory, but I believe you are vastly oversimplifying the implementation and the resources needed. You are also neglecting to take into account the difference in the space (and hardware) needed to house the equivalent number of computers that would replace one file or db server. Let's assume a conservative 3-1 ratio for replacing servers with smaller computers. I know I don't have the capacity for 90+ computers in my small-ish server room. I suspect the BTU output would be significantly higher as well, requiring more cooling. Then there are the resources need for the care and feeding of at least 3 times the numbers of machines. Sleep is over-rated anyway. > 3. Large installations, like Google Ad-Sense, go ahead and use > software-RAID (for increased reliability and portability) on the distributed > computers. Yes, Google. 'Nuf said. John, I really think that you've been at Mitre for so long that you don't have any idea of what conditions are like for smaller organizations, especially in non-profits. I'm lucky to get the money to replace desktops right now. We're going to have to just agree to disagree on RAID. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Replication (was Re: [CGUYS] Back ups on computer i
> I like John's postings... he's rational, and where his solution might > not work for everyone, he usually acknowledges that. We must be reading different posts. John insists that anyone should be able to do server replication, without knowing anything about their internal environment or business situation. So, it's rational to assume that all things are equal and that everyone has the same needs and resources that you do, but not rational to say, with intimate knowledge of your own conditions and resources, that it's not do-able and that another solution is more reasonable? Riight. Goodness, the hallelujah choir is busy on this subject. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Recycling
> Maybe Jeff will want to take advantage of this. I have far more than 2 cartons worth of stuff to get rid of. The thought of doing on Apple's dime, however, does warm the cockles of my heart. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> If you want the market to rule you can't allow oligopoly to rule. Pushing > both simultaneously is "crazy talk." Yes, when reality is right there in > front of you and you keep preaching fantasy-land politics instead on > well-established economics that is "crazy talk." You and your ilk created the damaged situation by supporting politicians that allowed decades of local monopoly control of cable and phones and and now you don't like the results? Too bad. Stop voting for people who promise you free ponies. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> Are these monopoly schemes that are "enforced" by the government actually > hatched by the corporation to whom the government has capitulated? In other > words, in the county where I live, Cox has the monopoly. Was the concept of > providing a monopoly to some entity solely the idea of my local government, > or were corporations pushing the concept upon the government through their > lobbyists and political donations, with Cox managing to come out on top? Who knows which came first, but the scmucks at the local level bought into the flawed idea that only way anyone could get cable is if they gave the cableco a monpoly to recoup the costs of laying the cable. The infrastructure has long been installed and costs long ago recovered, but even now, as in the case in Monkey County MD, you can sell cable services only if the powers that be magnanimously deign to allow you to do so, as was the case with Verizon. And Comcast fought them every step of the way to maintain their stranglehold. (Which led to one corrupt and/or dunderheaded council member in to pronounce that "competition doesn't work" a whole *3 months* (!) after Verizon was granted permission to compete, because Verizon only managed to wire a couple thousand homes in that time.) * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> That was realistically true back in 1970. But as recently covered in our > RAID discussion, times change, technology advances, and behavior should > change accordingly. Except that ther powers that be thinking hasn't changed. If you have to ask for permission to compete then you don't have a free market and you shouldn't be too surprised with the results. Maybe you should be expecting more from your legislators instead of trying to micromanange an industry so that the results are just right. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> Is pursuing a murderer or a thief micromananging? How about those > meddlers in the fire department? Should we not let fires rage free? Oh my. Being a half-assed govt created and approved monopoly is now the equivalent to that of a violent criminal? Has Comcast actually committed a *crime*? You must be a pip at your neighborhood watch meetings. "I saw you not come to a complete and full stop at the stop sign the other morning and YOU, you, your hedges are exactly 1 inch over the height allowed by association rules! Guards! GUARDS!" * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> Once they become "King of the Mountain," most > companies will make every attempt to prevent any challenge to their > exclusive arrangement. Corporations in such a position have no > interest in "free market" principles. The "free market" is for > wannabes. This is very true and in no way am I defending that scenario. I'm merely pointing out for Tom's benefit that instead of grinning uncomfortably every day, he might want to suggest to the emperor that he get a new wardrobe. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> The United States keeps getting further behind other countries that act > like broadband is important to their economies--it is. Broadband > companies are suffering from old ways of thinking. They can't/won't > solve problems that aren't particularly complicated because it will cut > into the profits that monopolies have allowed and enabled. They needed > monopolies to develop the networks, but that system was supposed to > expire--just not where I live, and not where Paula lives either. And it was stupid to bow and scrape towards the technocrats solution to begin with. You'd think that little central Asian communal farm experiment in the 20th century might have been the tip off about putting an entire industry's eggs in one basket (no pun). Some people never learn. Powerful and entrenched entities don't like to give up or share power once they have it, even when you ask them really nicely. Whodathunkit? Better to not let them get into that position to begin with. Competition has a way of focusing one's efforts a bit and bringing a bit more imagination to the table than does omnipotence. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Comcast puts on the brakes
> The solution may be as simple as to void all exclusive franchises and > any legislation that keeps communities from entering the market to correct > market inefficiencies that may cause them to get bypassed. By God, there's hope for you yet. Maybe the idiot king of the FCC, Kevin Martin, can abuse his powers for good for a change and do just that. It would probably fall apart in the first court case, but waiting for counties and municipalities to give up their fat franchise fees, well, Godot, would get there first. Take 'em kicking and screaming out of the 1950's, I say. > Another solution would be to enforce universal service to eliminate cherry > picking and to set minimum service standards (network neutrality, no > caps, no throttling, etc.). Oo, so close. So much for hope. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> Really. And when exactly was that? The current Zune has a better > feature set than the current iPod Classic by any rational measure, which is all I > said, and which you are apparently unable to contest sine you continue to > dance around it. It doesn't matter what Apple is doing with the classic in > the future. It doesn't matter what Touch can do. It doesn't matter how > popular iPods are or what you thought of the original Zune. None of that has > any bearing on my point whatsoever. And Apple ripped off Sansa for the Nano's "shake" feature by aping Sansa's low end player, the Shaker, which has been out for over a year. Of course, the press predictably falls all over itself to fawn at Apple for such an "innovative" feature. Wait until everyone finds out that what we think is Steve Jobs is actually the Hypno-toad. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> Very few people buy a Windows computer because they want to. It is not a > free choice in a free market. I've heard that if you repeat a lie enough times, even you start to believe it yourself. (Pssst, it's OK to eat pop rocks and drink soda at the same time. No worries.) Don't give up the dream, Thomas. You make delusional fun for the rest of us. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] 9500gt 512 vs 9600GSO-T2D OC 768 MB
I have a XFX GeForce 8600GT (oc'd by XFX) 256 MB that I bought last year, and it's a nice card for the money. Noisy fan though. I replaced the stock fan with a Zalman copper cooler, which is virtually silent. I'm seeing them for under $80 at Newegg (it was $110 after rebate when I got mine). I use it to play UT3 and I get respectable graphics and frame rates. However, I'm looking to upgrade to an 8800GT/9800GT 512 MB, a much better card, which are running around $125. EVGA has one model with a nice cooler (Akimbo) which run a little more, but are much quieter. > -Original Message- > My 7950 went out recently and I have a choice between the two cards > above for cost reasons. The 9500gt is 85 bux, I have it now in my box and it > seems to run just fine...but I've been considering returning it because > the 9600 is about 20 bux more. Would I notice any real difference? I > don't care about eeking out every bit of framerate I can in the newest game, > I just would like to be able to pop a game in once in awhile without > problems. Any feedback on this would be appreciated. I'm not a serious gamer > by any means but I'll play UT3 once in awhile and some crysis. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] 9500gt 512 vs 9600GSO-T2D OC 768 MB
Oops, I turned your 9's into 8's. The 9600GT is a nice card from everything that I've read. Tom's Hardware put it's overall performance only 12% under the 8800GT, despite having only half the stream processors. Google it a bit, but I would wave off the 9500 for only 20 bucks. Zipzoomfly has an 512MB EVGA 9600GT for $70 after rebate. > -Original Message- > My 7950 went out recently and I have a choice between the two cards > above for cost reasons. The 9500gt is 85 bux, I have it now in my box and it > seems to run just fine...but I've been considering returning it because > the 9600 is about 20 bux more. Would I notice any real difference? I > don't care about eeking out every bit of framerate I can in the newest game, > I just would like to be able to pop a game in once in awhile without > problems. > Any feedback on this would be appreciated. I'm not a serious gamer > by any means but I'll play UT3 once in awhile and some crysis. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> If people make a decision based on coercion and fear it is not a free market. You seem to have a wholly invalid understanding of the word 'coercion.' It is loaded down with meaningless and subjective criteria, antiquated ideology and adolescent prejudice; sufficient for a scribbled protest sign on a college campus, but hardly the basis for an intelligent, adult conversation. Please have a 2,000 word paper on the objective definition of coercion on my desk by the end of the week. Be sure to completely cite your information and use a minimum of 5 accredited sources. Good luck. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> It's really, really hard to take seriously anyone who espouses such a > ridiculous point of view. You expect to have a serious and honest discussion with someone who's the epistemological equivalent of the Ministry of Silly Walks? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Another RAID data point
> Got the explanation for why Leo Laporte's web site was down. Too bad > his outsourced people aren't up to speed on the perils of RAID. > > The Website Is Down Submitted by Leo Laporte on Sun, 2008-09-21 14:41. > > On Friday evening we had a catastrophic failure of the web server that > hosts TWiT Live, the TWiT Army Canteen, Leoville.com, and this site. The RAID > 5 controller died, and when it did it marked all the disks unusable. > Support personnel at Softlayer, our hosting company, weren't able to recover > the disks, so they did the only thing they could do: replaced the > controller and reinstalled the operating system. We're in the process of restoring all > the sites. Was Leo paying for high availability or did he go with the budget plan? Server replication isn't free. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> I also think that waterboarding is torture. You TOO!? I thought it was just me. > Silly, silly me. Yes, well...that's the point in all of this, now isn't it? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] 9500gt 512 vs 9600GSO-T2D OC 768 MB
I ended up getting an Asus GeForce 9800GT card from Newegg, that has a Zalman-like cooler on it. After rebate, it was only $10 more ($109) than the oc'd Asus 9600GT card and came with free shipping, unlike the 9600, so that made it a no-brainer for me. The GSO cards are in a weird zone. They aren't true 9600 cards and I've read that they're re-marked 8800GS cards, which didn't sell too well. More stream processors, but lower freqs than the 9600GT. I had ordered the $70 (+$10 shipping) 9600GT from Zipzoomfly, but ended up cancelling it as I wasn't sure if the 2-slot cooler would fit and I wasn't too sure about how quiet it was. It's a big card. The Asus card got good reviews on noise, which is important to me. I can't stand the fan whine of the stock coolers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121268 The 9800GT is just a re-vamped 8800GT with some minor improvements, which is considered to be the king budget card right now. But, I'm seeing the 9800 for less than the 8800. In the end, though, almost anything you get today will be an improvement over the 7950. > -Original Message- > Oops, I turned your 9's into 8's. > > The 9600GT is a nice card from everything that I've read. Tom's > Hardware put its overall performance only 12% under the 8800GT, despite having > only half the stream processors. Google it a bit, but I would wave off > the 9500 for only 20 bucks. Zipzoomfly has an 512MB EVGA 9600GT for > $70 after rebate. > > > -Original Message- > > My 7950 went out recently and I have a choice between the two cards > > above for cost reasons. The 9500gt is 85 bux, I have it now in my > > box and it seems to run just fine...but I've been considering returning it > > because the 9600 is about 20 bux more. Would I notice any real difference? > > I don't care about eeking out every bit of framerate I can in the > > newest game, I just would like to be able to pop a game in once in awhile without > > problems. Any feedback on this would be appreciated. I'm not a serious gamer > > by any means but I'll play UT3 once in awhile and some crysis. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> > Deny, deny, deny, blow smoke, obfuscate, question every fact, make > > personal attacks, ridicule, mock, scoff, sneer, jeer, obscure, etc., > etc. Tom! Did you really mean to forward your playbook to the list? Were you getting jealous about all the attention Palin was getting with her hacked Yahoo account? * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Why Small business's and Non_profits buy PC's and Windows
> 3. Non-Profits can purchase software and hardware thru TechSoup, > which MS sells their XP pro for around $8 a copy. And MS Office pro > for about the same. Tech Soup rocks. Gifts in kind is good too, but not as broad an offering. > Of course the Non-Profit that I volunteer for has around 120 > workstations and 8 windows 2003 servers. No Apple products were > available for them to purchase at a cheap price like Intel PC's and > MS products. They did get a really good price break from Dell on > their servers and switch's. These are all very valid points, which Tom will promptly ignore. Thanks for taking the time to write that up anyway, Rich. Another factor to consider is Apple's near-vacuum in enterprise support. Sure, if you slip them enough dough for what they call enterprise support, you might actually get an Apple tech on-site. Otherwise, get with the schleppin' to the mall to the nearest Apple store, or possibly even Delaware, as Betty has advised us. I call Dell and they are there, on-site that day or the next with the part, depending on what I call them about. They don't try and shake me down for more cash so that they'll actually show up. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Another RAID data point
> High availability plan. Unfortunately, the hosting company thought > hardware RAID helped with availability. It does, very often; my users never know when a server has thrown a drive. RAID helps greatly, but no, it isn't high availability in and of itself. It's only part of the formula. However, if this is his host's idea of HA, then he should be looking for one that actually has HA. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Why Small business's and Non_profits buy PC's and W
> An organization that has to depend on second-hand donations and vendor > give aways is clearly not operating in a free market. Just like someone > sleeping on a park bench on a cold Winter night is not exercising a free > market preference for cold and hard beds. I believe it's a 15 yard penalty and loss of down to keep moving the goal posts during the game. You're going to get the Amateur Astronomers Association mad at you if the glow from your RDF keeps interfering with the observations at night. Pot it down Tom, pot it down. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] COMPUTERGUYS-L Digest - 21 Sep 2008 to 22 Sep 2008 - Special issue (#2008-629)
> Situation: We're *probably* going to go with Dell laptops for both girls > BUT I don't want Vista on them because I want seamless integration with > all of their previous work that was created in XP, plus all of their > school work (e.g., they start the work in their respective schools - > that are NOT running Vista, believe me - and then are expected to > complete the work at home). There won't be any issue with creating files on XP and working on them in Vista and vice versa. It's just data and the OS doesn't matter. That said, what will matter is the software they created the file on. Obviously, you will need it on both computers. Office 2007 is very nice and can save back to 2003 and prior format. Office 2003 can open 2007 files, which are XML-based, with an MS converter. Office 2007 Student Ed can be had for under $100. Open Office is free. :-) > Further complication is that I want an > operating system that will get said high schooler & laptop through next > four years of college - will Microsoft support XP through 2013??). Are > colleges & universities running Vista? XP is supported through 2012 (I want to say 2014, but I'm not 100% sure). Windows 7 is slated to come out in 2010, but don't hold your breath on that timeline and all indications now is that it will be Vista 2nd Edition. > Now I know that the platform is becoming less and less relevant, and I > can't wait for that day because then the whole family is migrating BACK > to Macs (desktops & notebooks). But we're not there yet, and I need some > advice so "Santa" knows what to order for these two kids, and where to > take the presents to get Vista OFF and get XP (or something) ON. The Dell Business Outlet has many inexpensive, refurbed laptops with XP pre-installed. Filter on "Genuine Windows XP Pro with Vista Business license": http://www.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb There is also the Dell Mini, which can come with XP Home on them, as well as Ubuntu, a Linux variation: http://tinyurl.com/5pjoyk > P.S. - While you're at it, I'm thinking of installing a wireless hub (is > that the correct term?) in my home so that these two laptops can > wirelessly communicate with our DSL (through Verizon) and our printer. > Any suggestions on an inexpensive, SECURE way to set this up & > run/maintain it? Any Wireless AP or router out now should have a minimum of WPA encryption as a standard feature. WPA2 is better. Avoid WEP-only encryption like the plague as it is hardly better than nothing. The wireless NIC will also have to support WPA/WPA2. The printer may need it's own device, or you can just share it out on the computer it's installed onto. I prefer Netgear over Linksys. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Why Small business's and Non_profits buy PC's and W
> But overall, for many of us, seeing people use Windows is like seeing them > spend money on lottery tickets. Often the ones who are doing either one can > afford it the least. "Gosh, I can't wait to try out those systems those smug and condescending fellows were talking about!" * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> I would not belabor the point except for the days of attacks, > disinformation, name calling, rude language, and other abuse heaped on > me. Instead of responding with facts and logic the response of many > (but not all) was just a bald assertion repeated over and over that I was > wrong. Acting badly instead of getting the facts right and making a > logical case for one's contrary opinion is disrespectful of all the > list members. You poor, poor thing. Yes, I can see now that you are the victim in all of this. I believe De Niro as Capone made a similar speech in "The Untouchables." > Yes, I make my points strongly. Yes, I may be snarky about it. But I am > careful to get my facts straight and to provide explainations and > supporting examples. Forgetting the fact that your premise was false and flawed on its face and you simply de- and re-constructed the language so that your facts would fit your conclusion. You presented no logic; only demagoguery. SOP. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Zune [was: iTunes 8 causing BSOD]
> So, my point is that comparing the latest Zune, the most advanced > product from MS, to the classic is pointless. Apple designed it 6-7 > years ago. The only updates to it are basically drive capacity. It is > a product near its end of life and Apple won't have it around a whole > lot longer. I mean, I'd be embarrassed to make that kind of > comparison. You'd be embarrassed to not pay a $100-$180 price premium for what amounts to an interface and far less storage? That's a might low, and strange, threshold. Status quo for snobbery, I suppose. I want space to store all of my music, which currently is hovering around the 30 GB mark and growing. I don't want to play the "which do I listen to today?" shuffle so I can squeeze part of it onto a flash player. The hard disk is the best option for me, today. If flash players expand to fill that need at a competitive price, that's fine by me. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Incoming CGUYS messages sometimes marked as spam
> I think we covered this before, but about 1/3 of the CGUYS messages are being > marked with a Spam prefix in my Inbox. Why is this? tia. That depends on what is being used for your spam filtering, but something, text or something else, is triggering your filter. Is your spam filter at the server or desktop? If the desktop, you'll either need to tweak some settings or add the CGUYS to your whitelist. If on a server, you would need to contact your sysadmin. Spam filtering is more art than science. I've lost track of just how many filters our product, Xwall, uses, but it's designed for a multi-filter approach, as what one will miss, another will catch. It's false positive rate is <1%, but it's a balancing act as to how aggressive to be when filtering spam. Too aggressive and there are too many false positives, not aggressive enough and too much spam slips through. Comcast started using a filtering service that was terrible and blocked about a 1/3 of CGUYS messages. There was no notice nor any way to retrieve the blocked messages. That's a piss-poor and amateurish way of filtering spam. I moved by CGUYS sub to Gmail and the problem is solved. I give everyone my gmail address now. I don't plan on using the Comcast address for anything important. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] 9500gt 512 vs 9600GSO-T2D OC 768 MB
> Thanks for the replies, I found a OC version of the 9600gso...768 memory. > It seems to work pretty good, got UT3 running at full res now. Woot! Cool! I just got my 9800 today. It's a big mother! I can't wait to get home and try it out. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] 9500gt 512 vs 9600GSO-T2D OC 768 MB
> BTW, not sure if you mentioned it or I did...the 9600 can be OC to be > basically the same card as the 8800gt. I checked the memory chips that are on my card, which are by Samsung, and can be taken up to 1000 Mhz, up from the stock 900 Mhz spec. Yes, the 9600 GT is performs almost as well as the 8800 Gt, but I was able to get a 9800 for basically the same price. > This card takes up two slots, getting to the point that even mid range video > cards like mine are half the size of the motherboard. Tell me about it. I may have to move a hard drive to get this to fit and I have a full Antec tower! * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
