Re: Interesting trivia

From the customer side, I wrote Parsons Technology a letter asking why Tax Edge didn't have an option for Hawaii. The next year, it would fill out the form, but couldn't print it due to not being approved by the State. I did a side-by-side comparison of Tax Edge, Turbo Tax, and TaxAct (I think)

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

tta Stone and figure out what "better" means in corporate-speak. Banks are in it to win it, and they don't offer something for free unless they are saving money (cost avoidance) on the alternatives. Regards, George Toft On 7/3/2024 6:21 AM, techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote: O

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

or free unless they are saving money (cost avoidance) on the alternatives. Regards, George Toft On 7/3/2024 6:21 AM, techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote: On 2024-07-02 18:20, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: I work for a bank, and you would be amazed at how much security is baked into the conne

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

IMHO, Y'all are brave. Regards, George Toft On 7/3/2024 11:31 PM, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss wrote: Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss said on Wed, 03 Jul 2024 06:21:25 -0700 On 2024-07-02 18:20, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: I work for a bank, and you would be amazed at how

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

They won't tell you checks are bad, but they will steer you to ACH and tell you it's better. Break out the Rosetta Stone and figure out what "better" means in corporate-speak. Banks are in it to win it, and they don't offer something for free unless they are saving money (cos

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

utable and therefore bugs in the application won't result in a privilege escalation, and polkit is used to determine who is authorized which is very robust and allows for better configuration than sudo. Systemd itself then starts a new root process in a separate cgroup just as any other

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

Regards, George Toft On 7/3/2024 5:57 AM, techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote: On 2024-07-02 19:05, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: Okay, I now come begging for more information on why RH thinks sudo is bad. But first a little background... Where I work, the first thing we do is remove

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

I did say "not naming vendor." Trade secret. We don't discuss our vendors. Sorry, Mike. Regards, George Toft On 7/3/2024 4:37 AM, Michael via PLUG-discuss wrote: can you share with usw what you use instead of sudo? On Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 11:42 PM George Toft via PLUG-

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

he Rosetta Stone and figure out what "better" means in corporate-speak. Banks are in it to win it, and they don't offer something for free unless they are saving money (cost avoidance) on the alternatives. Regards, George Toft On 7/3/2024 6:21 AM, techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote:

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

Okay, I now come begging for more information on why RH thinks sudo is bad. But first a little background... Where I work, the first thing we do is remove sudo and replace it with a shell script that calls our centralized Privileged Access Management (PAM) system (not naming vendor). The use o

Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list

Agreed, but... Your comment is what I've been telling writers and filmmakers for almost a year. However, AI can jog a few thoughts loose and inspire the human to new paths of success. Regards, George Toft On 6/25/2024 10:04 PM, Eric Oyen via PLUG-discuss wrote: Yeah, right! Sorry, but AI

Re: sudo in general, and not requiring password in particular (was Re: trouble adding my user to sudoers list)

I work for a bank, and you would be amazed at how much security is baked into the connecting your browser to their web servers. Makes the NSA look like freshmen. And no, I'm not telling you who I work for. Regards, George Toft On 6/29/2024 5:19 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote: Mike,

Re: AI Tools For Article Writing

I made AutoCrit (book authoring software with GenAI analysis tools) hallucinate last week. I did an analysis on my Glossary, and it came up with a completely new story arc, new characters. I raised awareness with Support and they had it fixed in about 2 hours. Regards, George Toft On 6/23/20

Re: VERY OT, DO NOT READ THIS! (wind power, was Re: OT Humidity, was time off) Do not read, do not follow up! ;-)

Pump up the noise! Whereas megawatts of power is being removed from the kinetic energy of the wind, how much of the total is it? How wide is the wind, and how high, compared to the size of the wind farm? The windmills remove some fraction of a percent. I think this qualifies as "a gnat's fart

Re: OT Humidity, was time off

"Coming lack of water" is going to be handled by zero-waste. 100% recycling all waste water. Think about that for a minute... yes, all that water that is flushed down the sewer will be reclaimed and recycled into potable water. Unimaginable? Google: Toilet to tap. And yes, your cities are alrea

Re: Gen AI and Job Interviews

itt via PLUG-discuss wrote: George Toft via PLUG-discuss said on Mon, 6 May 2024 10:45:56 -0700 Speaking of Gen AI... we recently interviewed a candidate for our team. He used ChatGPT to answer the interview questions. Uh, that would be an instant "No!" dawg. LOLz. How did you know? S

Re: I Tried AI for Programming and Article Writing

Feel free - I made that statement in my video at the First AI FilmFest last year. Regards, George Toft On 5/6/2024 10:30 AM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote: On 2024-05-06 09:33, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: Part 2 ... The film I submitted to the AIFilmFest, I stopped in the

Gen AI and Job Interviews

Speaking of Gen AI... we recently interviewed a candidate for our team. He used ChatGPT to answer the interview questions. Uh, that would be an instant "No!" dawg. LOLz. Thanks for blazing the path to the new method of interviews - you will be on camera in all future interviews :) -- Regards

Re: I Tried AI for Programming and Article Writing

Part 2 ... The film I submitted to the AIFilmFest, I stopped in the middle, looked at the camera, and asked the question: If Gen AI replaces junior people, and still needs senior people to review/correct their work, who's going to replace the senior people as they age out since the juniors are

Re: I Tried AI for Programming and Article Writing

Hi Keith, Gen AI definitely has a place. Think of Gen AI as a meat grinder - stuff goes in (training data) in various amounts (prompts), different stuff comes out based on the blades and crank (more prompts). Maybe it's good, maybe not. I created a film using Gen AI. Human-recorded video. AI

Re: Forbes : 10 Highest-Paying Tech Jobs In The U.S.

Very insightful.  I think you could probably write a paper on this topic. Regards, George Toft On 12/11/2023 1:40 PM, David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss wrote: On Dec 11, 2023, at 6:09 AM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote: I see AI being a windfall in the near term.  Example would be an a

Re: Forbes : 10 Highest-Paying Tech Jobs In The U.S.

On 12/11/2023 6:09 AM, techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote: On 2023-12-10 16:30, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: Read two articles this week that claimed AI will reduce human work to 3.5 or 4 days per week. I recall this same prediction with the micro computer in the 80's.  Did not wor

Re: Forbes : 10 Highest-Paying Tech Jobs In The U.S.

nt, fulfilling lives, and the rest of us live in Darfur. c) Skynet suffers no primates to live. On Sat, Dec 2, 2023 at 2:35 PM George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: Thanks for posting. IMHO, the future is not in tech, as this article defined it, but closely related: Ident

Re: Linux Basics

Yes.  :) Regards, George Toft On 12/5/2023 9:35 AM, techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote: Are you saying you replaced Gentoo with CentOS? On 2023-12-01 09:32, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: I had the glorious opportunity to "fix" a Gentoo installation for a local company.  Th

Re: Forbes : 10 Highest-Paying Tech Jobs In The U.S.

Thanks for posting. IMHO, the future is not in tech, as this article defined it, but closely related: Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM), Mainframe operations (yes, mainframes are still here), Red Team (h - sexy :) ), and Data Analytics and Machine

Re: What to know : Just Linux

I would add read, understand and apply each step of the Linux Security Benchmarks from the Center for Internet Security.  Each step has a discussion as to why you should do it. Regards, George Toft On 11/30/2023 7:39 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote: That's Great!!  Thanks!! On 2023-

Re: Linux Basics

I had the glorious opportunity to "fix" a Gentoo installation for a local company.  The business chose Gentoo because that's what the owner's 18 year old son knew, then the son didn't want to be daddy's tech support any more.  I inserted the CentOS installation DVD and fixed it. Regards, Geo

Re: cheap co-lo in Phx area?

Wouldn't a Virtual Private Server (VPS) meet your needs?  Lots to be had for a few dollars/month. https://www.hostingadvice.com/how-to/best-hosting-with-root-access/ BTW - I use Hostinger (#5 on the list) for web hosting (not VPS) and I'm happy with them. Regards, George Toft On 11/20/2023

Re: Parsing/compiler/interpreter discussions now on the GoLUG mailing list

I wrote an article on this some time ago.  It predates the public Internet, so there's no article link to provide.  Yes, BNF figured into this prominently, but so many people don't seem to think in those terms any more. Write your own command.com * *Author:* * George Toft

Re: Server CPU

Be very careful with ESX.  I know someone who bought a random server and ESX7 was not supported.  It used to run on anything, now, not so much.  Check the support matrix before you buy. Regards, George Toft On 7/20/2023 1:12 PM, greg zegan via PLUG-discuss wrote: Hello,   I appreciate this t

Re: I read chip maker TSMC is a sweatshop

etition. On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 2:29 PM George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: The only shortage that exists is technical people with Bachelors Degrees willing to work for minimum wage. Case in point.  My employer is required to post HR crap in the public spaces (break ro

Re: OT: Need pro help upload to youtube ...

Hi Joe, Did you figure it out?  Still need help? Regards, George Toft On 7/7/2023 3:44 PM, joe--- via PLUG-discuss wrote: I need professional help with trying to make and upload videos to youtube. Any of you good plug friends experts? Or can you recommend someone? Youtube online help is too

Re: I read chip maker TSMC is a sweatshop

The only shortage that exists is technical people with Bachelors Degrees willing to work for minimum wage. Case in point.  My employer is required to post HR crap in the public spaces (break rooms).  One of the posts showed Tata Consultancy was providing a DBA for $66K/year.  Tata takes 1/3 (t

Re: I read chip maker TSMC is a sweatshop

My younger son worked at the local 3rd Party MVD.  He was talking to one of the TSMC Managers who came in to register a vehicle about the local jobs TSMC will create.  She assured him that was not the case - most of the workers will come from Taiwan. This may very well be the case if an Americ

Re: McDonald's unveils first automated location

oduct. McDonald's has to be careful here. To quote an old McDonald's CFO... "We are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell 15-cent hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants ca

Re: McDonald's unveils first automated location

You won't be replaced by a machine.  You will be replaced by someone willing to do your job for $20-25 per hour. I've seen postings in a large company that stated they were paying Tata Consultancy $66K for H1B DBA's.  Tata takes 33%, which means the H1B Visa worker gets $44K, or $22/hr. Rega

Re: dBase

I made a mistake in an application by using SQLite3.  I read about SQLite's advantages over MySQL in that it has no network stack, so it's faster.  My testing showed that was kinda true - it was faster mostly, until multiple tasks started accessing the database concurrently.  I applied some fix

Re: McDonald's unveils first automated location

I'll pass on this for the same reason I don't go to Sonic and I won't use self-checkout at Albertson's/Walmart/Home Depot. Regards, George Toft On 12/28/2022 7:22 AM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote: Thought you might find this interesting. https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/mcdonal

Re: Skills for the future

Part 2 on your 35% comment: with higher prices come higher wages and the gov't gets more taxes.  After a few years, Congress will adjust the tax code, meanwhile the really low income folks who weren't paying much, pay quite a bit. Regards, George Toft On 12/2/2022 7:19 AM, Keith Smith via P

Re: Skills for the future

I'm inclined to disagree with the nay-sayers. Been watching a youtube channel called "Mark Moss" who does a pretty good analysis of trends, and I just saw a Bloomberg Markets and Finances video where the Federal Reserve's Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin stated the Fed will do whatever it

Re: Dot Local Domains

to configure a home server in the future.  The first time it was so I could say I did it.  The second time (future) I hope to learn a lot more and I would like to have the bragging rights. Keith On 2022-11-06 07:29, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: Short answer to all of your questions is

Re: T-Mobile Home Internet followup

I tried it for about a month.  Worked great for work.  But then the Earth got hit with a Solar Storm and the service went to crap for a couple days.  And that ended my T-Mobile 5G Home Internet relationship. Regards, George Toft On 10/30/2022 3:43 PM, Daniel Stasinski via PLUG-discuss wrote:

Re: software to edit dvds

What I do in the privacy of my own home is none of the Government's business.  It's in the Constitution.  Not that the Government cares much about that, either. Regards, George Toft On 11/3/2022 9:16 PM, Harold Hartley via PLUG-discuss wrote: Altering a dvd for any reason is against federal

Re: software to edit dvds

If I had this task, I would rip the DVD then use an editor to cut out the ads.  If I were really adventurous, I might even upscale the DVD rip to HD.  The more I work with 4K, the more I believe it has its place, but not as an everyday replacement to HD. Regards, George Toft On 11/3/2022 8:0

Re: Dot Local Domains

Short answer to all of your questions is yes, you can do this.  I did it for several years, and it came in really handy when I wanted to control the Internet usage of my pubescent children. I set up DNS locally - I used georgetoft.com and had it split - outside my house (public) only had the s

Re: Gimp

Awesome! Thanks. Regards, George Toft On 9/22/2022 10:53 PM, Brian Cluff via PLUG-discuss wrote: On 9/22/22 12:53, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss wrote: Another Gimp problem is that its toolbox of tiny icons is actively hostile to those of us with lesser visual accuities Edit -> Preferences In

Re: Why am I not receiving any messages frrom plug?

Silly me, I thought this group died because of the lack of emails.  Then I looked and there were hundreds of unread emails. Regards, George Toft On 10/20/2022 6:54 PM, joe--- via PLUG-discuss wrote: Why am I not receiving any messages frrom plug? For several weeks, I have not received any em

Re: Anyone interested in this...http://www.hercules-390.eu/

I installed it about 10 years ago.  Great, so now I have a mainframe, but no OS - to get z/OS required a license and a dongle (license key), but I wasn't going to pay for it. And that is why Linux won the OS wars - it's no-cost and runs on almost everything, so everyone can use it and learn ab

Re: 5G

2022, 2:00 PM George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: I tested T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet.  It suffers from jitter, which is fine for email, web browsing, and streaming services. However, the recent sunspots/CME's wrecked havoc and dumped our VPN (to work) several

Re: 5G

I tested T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet.  It suffers from jitter, which is fine for email, web browsing, and streaming services. However, the recent sunspots/CME's wrecked havoc and dumped our VPN (to work) several times.  I've determined it is unsuitable for dedicated work at home. Granted, the

Re: Legacy Networking Gear available

Link to pic of the gear ... https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/0UJIfadvTD2z-izu1tDsrw.dlN1PGel_zucl3WSWH8PLD Regards, George Toft On 3/13/2022 7:44 PM, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: Wireless routers, 100+ feet of Cat5, cable testers, terminators, maybe a switch, etc.  I haven't

Legacy Networking Gear available

Wireless routers, 100+ feet of Cat5, cable testers, terminators, maybe a switch, etc.  I haven't used the stuff in 9+ years (because that's how long I've lived in this house).  It was all good when I packed it.  Cost is my standard request of a case of Guinness. -- Regards, George Toft -

Re: localhost

Chances are you are not running Apache, so what you observed is normal behavior. Regards, George Toft On 10/9/2021 4:54 PM, Michael via PLUG-discuss wrote: thanks guys. I don't apach or something like that running on my system. I am learning so much! On Sat, Oct 9, 2021 at 7:17 PM Michael B

Re: localhost

Do you have a web server running on your local system? Regards, George Toft On 10/9/2021 12:24 PM, Michael via PLUG-discuss wrote: the browser shows the error as: The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.     If you are unable to load any pages, check

Side Gig Available

I have a project and need some help.  Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way and I need someone with PXE Boot and UEFI knowledge. History: I created a PXE Boot server for the customer that delivers an image to the net booted client based on the Linux Terminal Server Project.  The client, on

Re: Cheap DDR3 memory

Prefer cans :) taking conversation offline... Regards, George Toft On 3/5/2021 5:07 PM, Matt Graham via PLUG-discuss wrote: On 2021-03-04 21:05, George Toft via PLUG-discuss wrote: I have 12 pieces of 4GB DDR3. Can it find a home?  Will trade for Guinness. I could use 2 pieces of 4G DDR3

Re: Cheap DDR3 memory

4GB DDR3 1333 REG ECC Regards, George Toft On 3/5/2021 6:56 AM, Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss wrote: Just ddr3 no reg/ecc? On Thu, Mar 4, 2021, 9:26 PM George Toft via PLUG-discuss <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote: I have 12 pieces of 4GB DDR3 and 4 piec

Cheap DDR3 memory

I have 12 pieces of 4GB DDR3 and 4 pieces of 2GB DDR3.  Stripped out of a Penguin Computing box. Can it find a home?  Will trade for Guinness. -- Regards, George Toft --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe,

Re: OT: Off topic ... Hi from an old timer ... plus, a Question

I've had CenturyLink and now have Cox.  I would still have CenturyLink if they would have given me a discount when my promotion was up - they refused, so I switched to cox.  When I called up to cancel the service and return equipment, they suddenly found a 50% off for 2 years discount code.  To

Re: Free Parts

PM Stephen Partington mailto:cryptwo...@gmail.com>> wrote: I am at 60 and Mill ave. The most middle point is Glendale Rd and the 51 or 17. On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 8:59 PM George Toft via PLUG-discuss mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote: Thanks for the

Re: Free Parts

gton mailto:cryptwo...@gmail.com>> wrote: Yes please! On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 10:18 AM George Toft via PLUG-discuss mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote: Free to good home.  Or will accept Guinness. CPU's #1: Xeon E5-2619 - two

For sale - Dell T430

Dell T430 Went out of warranty March 2019. PROC 2x Xeon E5-2623 v3.0 Procs (2 proc x 4 core x 8 threads = 64 vCPU) RAM 128GB DDR4 RAM Storage 4x 1.2TB 10K SAS drives 4x 3TB 7.2K SATA drives Onboard RAID controller Power 2x 750W hot-pluggable power supplies The Server Monkey price

Free Parts

Free to good home.  Or will accept Guinness. CPU's #1: Xeon E5-2619 - two each - https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/64588/intel-xeon-processor-e5-2609-10m-cache-2-40-ghz-6-40-gt-s-intel-qpi.html #2: Xeon E5-2680 - two each - https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/prod