I offer an important caveat to an otherwise spot-on perspective: You must offer what the customer wants... at a price they ARE WILLING TO PAY.

And what do you think the SUSClientID is based on, which causes it to be a duplicate in the WSUS database in the first place? It's the SID. The SUSClientID registry value doesn't exist until a computer is pointed at WSUS and made a WSUS client. WSUS bases the uniqueness of clients on the SID, because what else could it use, and why else would you ever have duplicate SUSClientID's if it weren't basing the initial database entry on the SID? Ipso facto, duplicate SIDs are the root cause of clients not appearing uniquely in WSUS.

But yes... for anyone who's taking their IT advice from /. posts... in a scenario in which two or more computers have identical SID's, even after you change those SIDs, if you've already introduced those computers to WSUS, you will still need to delete the SUSClientID and then run wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow, and all will be well. Also, if you are one of these sysadmins who follows or has already followed the above steps, I applaud you for seeking to address the root cause of the problem, rather than just working around it. You will likely go far in your career with this approach. In fact, you're probably working a lot harder than some of your co-workers, and should talk to your boss about a raise. :)

Sysprep and NewSID are very different tools, which ultimately lead to very different conclusions for the machine(s) either are applied to. I've never used sysprep when NewSID would suffice.

I think retiring NewSID is shortsighted. As folks here have already indicated, WSUS is the prime example I can immediately point to. I'm sure there are others. Perhaps Russinovich has never worked with load-balanced servers built from the same clone/image/template, which end up in different WSUS groups (Night A versus Night B, and so on). But in the absence of NewSID or a replacement, the task of separating one from the other becomes a lot more of a challenge than it has to be. What a shame.

In future posts, I will work on my sarcasm, which can apparently be so sarcastic as to appear not to be sarcastic at all. :)

Google will solve all your problems. Anything Microsoft can get you to pay for, Google does better, and for free. Don't believe me? Try to pay Google for gmail. You can't, huh? They won't take your money! It's no good here!! Imagine that!!!

I mean, it's so obvious.

However, Minix continues to maintain its girlish figure.

This is one of the more interesting aspects of the coming pay vs. free online news content issue. On the web, is it ethical for a newspaper to charge for reposted/reprinted AP and Reuters articles, while those original sources continue to offer their articles for free? Because at that point, are you paying the newspaper for the content, or the hosting of the content?

Another aspect is advertising. Since - despite all appearances to the contrary - newspapers are still in business to make money, are they going to expect paying online subscribers to click-through and suffer with various ads, and justify it by saying that they have ads in their print editions as well, and that it "keeps costs down"?

We keep hearing that the papers can't survive on web ads. Yet they persist, and grow more annoying and absurd in their iterations. Perhaps it's the papers' plan is for us to pay them just to make the ads go away. :)

Bottom line, though, I think the papers are going to want to have it both ways.

I bet the sister in "Twilight Zone: The Movie", for one, would've been able to appreciate having both a mouth and an unlimited text and data plan on her 3G iPhone. Kids today really do take everything for granted.

That's the thing with California community colleges, many of them are part of the larger public education system. In LA, at least, they just RAISED the tuition fee to $26/unit.

Thus, in comparison, $99/mo is no bargain for Californians. Plus, the idea of being able to take as many classes as you want may sound great, but students can quickly get themselves into trouble with their GPA's (not to mention their jobs and even their personal lives) by overextending themselves with their course loads. There's a reason why most CC's cap enrollment at 15 units, and why students have to get special permission to take any more. I think 18 units is the maximum I've heard among fellow students... And by the end of the semester, their heads looked like they were about to explode.

I look forward to seeing your future post, in which you include all of the "non-slanted" investigative reports you're basing your own comments on, which show that the majority (meaning >= 50.1%) of factory farms do NOT actually employ horrific and inhumane practices. Like I said, facts are stubborn...

Facts, they are stubborn things...

All of the investigative reporting on factory farming in the last several years would indicate the exact opposite of this assertion. The comfort of the animals in farms across the United States is dead-last in priority, behind profit, common sense and even the humanity of those involved.

Where are all these dairy farms in which they play music for the cows? Do the cows spontaneously break into dance, too?

Is a visit to the dentist really that much better because they pipe in muzak during the root canal procedure? Or can we agree it's still pretty freaking uncomfortable? Now imagine getting a root canal every day of your life, for a couple of years, until the last day, in which the dentist shows up with a blade. This may sound a little extreme, but it's probably not actually all that far off from the average factory farm animal's perspective and experience.

Bottom line, factory farming is still cruel, with or without the soundtrack.

A robot hand being able to bounce a ping pong ball doesn't make me worry.

However, if and when a robot learns to play Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption", then I'll worry.

Analysts keep suggesting that the mouse is nearing obsolescence, and that in less than five years, it'll look about as natural in your hand as a buggy whip. However, I remain unconvinced.

That said, if and when Toyota or anybody else figures out how to port their brain-controlled wheelchair tech to the PC, the mouse may indeed become one of those things your future grandkids will see in photos and ask, "Did you really ever use one of those things?! It's so weird looking!!!"

Until then, a laser mouse that can be used on transparent glass surfaces still has a certain wow factor.