Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment AMANDA and Windows Backup (Score 2) 304

I have two systems I use.

For my servers, I use AMANDA with encrypted virtual tapes to do nightly backups. Shortly after the backups run, cron calls a shell script in order to copy the virtual tapes to an offsite location via rsync.

For my desktop PC, I don't need to back up as often, so I do a weekly backup via Windows Backup to a TrueCrypt volume on an external hard drive. When it's not being used to back up my PC, I keep the external hard drive at my office. I figure if something happens where both my office and home are destroyed, then at that moment I've got bigger problems to worry about than my data. :-)

Just my $.02...

Comment Re:you can track your laptops (Score 1) 514

During my time at my last job (several years), we had several laptops stolen. Most were recovered using LoJack.

The only two off the top of my head that weren't recovered were one that was taken out of the country and were as such outside LoJack's ability to recover, and another that was never recovered because the people responsible claimed they never had it. (Which was complete BS, as LoJack had gotten screenshots of the laptop in use, specifically when the son who was using it was logged into his Facebook and university web accounts...)

Just my $.02...

Comment Re:Human civilization fail (Score 5, Informative) 283

It gets worse when you consider that (if I recall correctly), the patent was held by Creative Labs, and they waited until a month or two before the game was to be released to inform id of the patent. They essentially blackmailed id into putting EAX-specific features to avoid a lawsuit and delay the game's release.

Comment Re:How much of this is Netflix vs.content makers? (Score 1) 722

I think you hit the nail on the head. There was a story on CNN the day before the price increase where analysts were predicting that Netflix's streaming content license fees were going to go from $180 million in 2010 to $1.98 billion in 2012.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/08/technology/netflix_starz_contract/index.htm

Comment Re:Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don' (Score 1) 655

In that case, if I was to start with a Ninth Doctor episode, I'd probably start with "Dalek". While "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" is a better story and has a much creepier premise, "Dalek" establishes the Daleks of the new series, reveals the basis of what happened between the old series and the new series... ... and most importantly, shows just WHY the Daleks are so feared in the Whoniverse when the common conception from non-Who fans was that they were oversized dustbins with a screeching voice that couldn't handle stairs.

Comment Re:Beginning not an option (Score 1) 655

Several still do exist, actually. In fact, the first three serials (including "The Daleks") are available in a box set called "The Beginning".

My only advice, though, is to remember two things: 1) "The Daleks" is rather slow and is best watched over multiple nights, and 2) the Doctor is not a very nice person in his first incarnation. It took a while for him to lose his arrogance and low regard for other people.

Comment Re:They've got a point (Score 1) 129

Actually, MKvDCU aimed for a hard T rating from the get-go, thanks to a decree from DC Comics.

The game sold decently but it wasn't as big as this new MK. I put it down to two reasons: 1) it didn't have much outside the short story mode and arcade modes, and 2) the fans didn't really buy into the crossover. It didn't help that plans for DLC (Quan Chi and Harley Quinn as playable characters) were scrapped by Midway's bankruptcy.

Comment Re:Joystix (Score 1) 177

I'll also agree with the wonders of Joystix. My girlfriend and I go there with friends every few months or so. :-)

The two caveats I would make are that A) as it is a showroom and it is very popular, it gets pretty damn crowded in there after 9:30 PM or so, and B) they do repair/resell, so not everything is going to be working. Most of it is, but last time I went two of my favorite pinball machines (Bram Stoker's Dracula and Doctor Who) kept resetting themselves after a minute of play.

Still, like he says, there's a LOT of games there, including games I hadn't seen in ages. Time Traveler , anyone?

Comment Mortal Kombat for PC. (Score 1) 1115

I happen to be the webmaster (really, sysadmin, but why quibble) of a popular Mortal Kombat fansite.

In the first "generation" of Mortal Kombat (MK 1-4), every one of the fighting games made their way to PC. As soon as the first of the second "generation" games was announced (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance), we were bombarded with people asking about a PC version, because only console versions had been mentioned. We asked reps from Midway (including a head of marketing) at E3, and the reps told us they had no plans to make a PC version, as they had never made any money on the PC versions.

Between E3 and the game's actual release, the questions regarding the availability of a PC version only intensified, and many folks were irate that there were no PC versions. Then we got to thinking about it... we knew a lot of people had PC versions, but there was no money made on it? We knew the games had no DRM, so it wasn't hard for us to believe that a good chunk of the people who had gotten the PC version before (and were asking for it now) were pirates. In fact, one of our staff members actually caught out someone demanding a PC version admitting he pirated other game software...

So, yeah, I can say that the entire lack of MK for PC now is due to piracy. The earlier games got pirated all to hell and they never made money off those ports, so why bother porting if it's not worth the money?

Comment Re:Hyperspace (Score 1) 193

Just keep in mind that it's not the original recording. Buckner & Garcia weren't allowed access to the master recordings so they re-recorded it. It's not any worse than the original... just slightly different in parts. The song "Mousetrap" is the most glaring example, as they didn't have access to a Mousetrap machine so they used stock sounds of a dog, cat, and bird...

Hope this helps...

Comment Re:iPhones work beautifully with Exchange. (Score 1) 366

I have 7 iPhones and over 30 Blackberrys at my workplace. The iPhones work with Exchange for 3 days then fail. The blackberrys never fail. When I reconfigure the iPhones they work for another 3 days and fail again. I had to switch them to POP3. I find the iPhone touch interface unresponsive and frustrating as the Blackberry interface is easy to use and very responsive (Tour, Storm, and Bold). I only have 2 users with Windows mobile phones, but I have had no issues with those either. Am I the only one experiencing this?

I'm actually on the opposite side of the spectrum from you. We have 10+ iPhones in my company (mostly in IT) and about the same number of Blackberry devices as you (maybe more), plus more WM devices than either, and one Android user. We haven't had a single problem with the iPhones and Exchange. What very few problems we've had were Exchange related and affected all ActiveSync devices (aka, all but Blackberry). My own iPhone has been synced up with Exchange flawlessly without a wipe/reload since I got it in mid-to-late 2008. As for the Blackberry interface, I'll grant the Bold as being relatively easy to use and never have used the Tour, but I HATED working on the Storm whenever I had to set one up for a user. The one Android user had a Storm previously; she hated it and was glad to migrate. We both found it clunky and unresponsive. Personally, I've no plans to migrate from iPhone as it's been the best smartphone I've ever used.

I won't say that you're the only one experiencing your problems, but I'd say you might want to look a little deeper and see if it might be something weird on your Exchange or a known issue. Otherwise... *shrug* like I said, I've got my iPhone connected to an Exchange server and it's been working without incident for a year and a half now.

Slashdot Top Deals

The use of money is all the advantage there is to having money. -- B. Franklin

Working...