Posts by stalker

hhhmmmm

been running vista at home, and testing for use here in a production environment, and I have to say it won me over. Yeah, I know, theres still a lot of bugs and glitches to iron out, many of them I suspect more due to user error than anything else. Most of the problems I've had has been either driver-related (in the early days) or having to upgrade hardware to get the best out of it.

I can understand everyones comments regarding this new SP release, but lets be realistic, its public beta testing. The SP is an RC, not a final release, and the whole point is to get it ready for release. Kudos to M$ for fleecing us and using us for free testing, but remember, before you install the final release you WILL HAVE TO UNINSTALL the beta. If you don't like it then wait.

I also find it quite telling that there are two camps here: The "oh no I never will" camp, and the "actually we have and its been fine, really" camp.

For everyone thats bashing vista (for whatever reason) why oh why don't you evaluate it before you write it off? a lot of guys here are IT pro's, yet throwing away a lot of good features by not even bothering to evaluate it...the changes to group policy alone are enough to make me think about introducing to my LAN environment.

:) Flame away.

mines the silver all-in-one asbestos suit btw

mwahahaha

from here we claim back our god-given rights, our manifest destiny!

say YES to smoking on buses

say YES to the smoking carriage on trains

say YES to smoking in pubs and clubs

On a more serious note, I smoke, like a chimney, but I try to be respectful of others (even when I have friends visiting my home I ask if its ok to smoke..in my own house!) as I appreciate its not the most pleasant habit.

Still get tarred as a "dirty ignorant smoker" though. sheesh, yes, how mature am I, eh?

I for one think that the "no-smoking" bit is just a touch OTT. What is wrong with having smoking clubs and pubs? give the customers choice. If you can manage it at work, a "smoking outhouse" isn't a bad idea, either. We still smoke at work (round the back, hidden out of sight) because when they started with a full-on smoking ban everyone went outside the front, in full view of customers, ublic etc, and when we got moved away (down the street) it took everyone 30 mins to have a 5 min smoke break. Now its just come full-circle and we're back to smoking were we were when we started.

am i the only one...

Who really liked this film? I thought it was well shot, well acted and very enjoyable...a classic? no, but an enjoyable boxing day movie :-) I'm not getting into the whys and wherefores, but I hate to say it...I liked the book, but the only way it could ever be made for screen faithfully would be to make it a ghey vampire movie. so there.

On the subject of films, all the posters featured in the times square are flicks which have either been green-lit and dropped, or in production at some point, although none of them are slated for "real" release dates.

athankyou.

@anonymous coward

"Why are all these firms using Symantec? No wonder they're technically incompetent."

To be fair, we use Symantec on each of the LAN's i manage (currently four, plus our own) and its always been good to use. Symantec Corp Ed 10.x has been a really good AV system, as long as its configured properly, and the service and support from them have always impressed me....in fact, I would go so far as to say its one of the few areas of my management I have to worry about the least.

It hasn't caused any issues in and of itself, never brought any of my boxes down, and its done its job with the minimum of fuss. My systems are virus- and malware-free, resource usage is at a minimum, and overall TCO is fair enough for what we get, in both monetary value and man hours.

Technically incompetent? or just using misconfigured software? you decide!

</rant>

@Natecar

Hum.....

"They also like having their aircraft so close to the front that the pilots sleep in a foxhole"

Not sure how much tactical sense this makes, to be honest. Pilots (and planes) are multi-million dollar assets, having them that close to the front line seems like a...dumb?.....idea.

I'm ex-army (british) and have to say that whilst the marines are fantastic guys, and very capable at what they do, their doctrine and training focuses on very different areas from ours. An example: We once did an exchange, and sent our recce platoon over to the states for a "swap", before a gang of jar heads came over to us. Some comments passed by them (not verbatim, but you get the idea)

on fighting: "jesus did you see that? He hit him with his face!"

on setting off for a 12 mile march and shoot competition:

"waddya mean we have to walk? Wheres the freakin' humvees? A truck? you gotta be shittin' me!"

on losing said competition:

"how the f**k do you guys walk so fast with all that shit on your backs?"

on losing out on a girl to an engineer:

"yeah man, i'm gonna bust your face!"

5 secs later

"shit man, let him get up! stop hittin' him! you brits are crazy!"

on getting up in a morning:

"semper fi! do or die! gung ho! gung ho! gung ho!"

This last i feel sums up the main differences between them and us...they are more (openly) aggresive, arguably better equipped, and theres more of them. They ARE that hard because they throw men and resources at the job until it gets done, whilst our soldiers have to work with the bare minimum of resources and support. compare your average US marine with pvt. charlie bottle from manchester, weighing in at 90lbs and doing the self same job, you realise that they may be as hard as they think, but we are a damn sight harder. we just don't tell everyone about it :)

Caveat Emptor

I've bought three motorbikes and two cars off of ebay, and aside from the usual stuff you take your chances with (ehxaust starting to blow three days after I bought it, damn!) never had any problems...

However (and heres the kicker) I always take steps to protect myself:

1. I always run a HPI check to make sure its not a ringer

2. I insisted on seeing it BEFORE I bid

3. If I can't see it, I won't pay a penny till I get to look at it (even if I win) and if its not as stated in the ad, I'll walk away (I have done this before, but to be sure it was not immaculate, as stated...unless you like rusty wheel arches lol)

4. If I have seen it and then bid I will pay a deposit, via paypal, so I'm covered, and only a nominal amount (enough to say yeah, I'm coming, but not enough that I'd be devastated if I lost it).

No way would I send that amount of money through the post for something I hadn't seen or couldn't go collect myself, cash in hand. I really feel for these people being duped out of so much money, and yes, ebay etc should be doing more to help, but in the meantime...be careful!

@ Ex Pat

don't knock inter-species erotica :D or are you jealous of my poochy love?

BTW its a 4 year old german shephard, so i'd like to see anyone try to stick their tongue in his mouth :P

I have a cunning plan....

Silicon wafers + tesco value brillo pads + brasso = £££££

Anyone fancy taking it to the dragons den?

/anyone seen my coat?

@ non-upgrading users

guys, really....

why do people always insist on telling everyone that they "never" patch their OS? I work in a production environment, 6 servers and 150+ desktops, patch tuesday comes around, and duly my patches are TESTED and then APPLIED, most of the time the problems we have are hardware/software incompatibility issues.

perhaps if you patched your systems once in a while (and backed them up first..I mean come on, flatten and reinstall the OS every six months? my box at home ahs been up for THREE YEARS!) then a) the OS would be safer as there wouldn't be so many vulnerable systems out there and b) your OS might not need reinstalling every six months when it falls over (because you are still running XP SP1 with no firewall/AV/Anti-malware and glaring security holes all over your system)

Flame away, I won't be checking back :-)

Coat/Door

erm....

My LAN is configured to use WSUS to download and install only crticical security patches, which is what is essential on the LAN to plug the holes (for the user who wanted an OS that didn't need patching, does that mean he wants the hackers to quit finding exploits and M$ to stop developing components and applications to hopefully improve them?)

Yes M$ are bad people, yes they have the monopoly on OS's, but at the end of the day 90% of my failures/problems are either user error or hardware failure. The other 10% tend to be application based, rather than OS based. I like windows, its a good OS for the most part, it does have its limitations, true, but it keeps me in a job and lets me play my games/steal movies/watch porn/share my inner ramblings with teh world at home.

we use Linux at work for our DB servers, and W2K3 for file/print/mail/web serving and desktops. Our workshop has a broad range of IT experience, from Linux specialists, Cisco gurus and the humble M$ MCP's, but at the end of the day the glue that holds it all together is my desktop machine, running windows XP Pro and office 2003...its where I spend my days sitting and working, and in the two years I've been here I can't crib it tbh.

Surely the moral of the story shouldn't be that M$ are evil, its that LAN admins should test their downloads, configure WSUS/patching correctly, and do their jobs better, rather than blaming M$ because a patch slipped through their system?????

man this so makes me feel....

like i'm 12 again, and all hiding under the duvet at my mates house watching banned video nasties. BBFC Ban it...I sooooooo want to play it now!!!!!

as always....

its the IT guys who suffer first, as noone can "physically" see what we provide...they seem to think that the servers/mail/file/print/desktops will run themselves, and we are only here to fix it when it goes wrong rather than keeping everything balanced on the knife edge of production/failure that the users force us into daily :-/

How long before the MOD start a massive recruitment drive/bidding war for contract IT services??

wonder what....

they'd make of the contents of my hard drive....does havin a healthy interest in *ahem* european health videos constitute a crime? especially when hidden from the wife in my c:\windows\system32bc\forms\programming\dontuse\pr0n folder............ :D