Please feel free to prove Evolution then.. We'll wait..

So all those shows we have mocked, like 24, csi, etc, because their tech "hacks the firewall" in 15 seconds were actually accurate? Crap. That changes some things..

We have some expensive pitney bowes mailing systems. We inquired about a newer computer, NOT running xp. Turns out they changed the entire print assembly for the version that runs Windows 7. Its a $20k upgrade. (also need a new controller box, old one doesn't work with WIndows 7 software (mainly the hardware dongle, apparently)..

Our brand new pitney bowes mailing system has a windows 7 computer. The techs that installed it told our senior management to never run windows update, or install antivirus on it, or it would cause problems and make the machine not work. Boy did they get pissy when I put it on its own vlan, with only access to one server, and one port on that server, to get its updated files.

I remember taking out a 21" apollo monitor with some friends for a night of shooting. (We wanted some fun stuff to blow up). That freaking monster took a 9mm at 15 yards... took several other smaller/slower calibers too. The 357 finally pierced the glass. I think they were so expensive because they were made of transparent aluminium. (Originally designed to hold large volumes of water in space ships)

hate to tell you, but the AWS servers In Oregon are right near a very, very large river, (The columbia I think is second to only the mississippi) Right near several volcanoes, In an area that commonly gets lots of freezing rain and high winds. Its also a few miles from a major chemical weapons depot. (I guess the servers wouldn't care, but nobody would go onsite to replace failed equipment) and not very far from Hanford, where there is tons of nuclear waste.

Taser makes a similar device, that is made for police to record everything: http://www.taser.com/products/on-officer-video/axon-flex-on-officer-video

Looked into this once before for a big rollout.. Very hard to get actual info on. All the BIOS chip does, is re-install the software automatically and silently in windows. (they have some sort of special encryption key or something)..

if you ever feel the need to steal a laptop, install linux, freeBSD, or make it a hackintosh, and the computrace is worthless..

I liked it as well, until the last update. Little things started killing my productivity. Like when I would get a new chat message in Pidgin. I would go up to the indicator area, click on the envelope, then see a list of several chats I had, many that were quite old, I would click on hte newest one, and it woudl blink, and the indicator would go off.. But that was it. It wouldn't actually load up the pidgin window to the chat. If I went directly to pidgin, it wouldn't turn off the indicator envelope. Thunderbird had some similar bugs, which is even more disappointing than the Pidgin one, since thunderbird is the default mail client. There are actually quite a few other things, but they are all just little things that have added to to being a waste of time.

I hate to tell you, but the incumbent providers can cherry pick too, and have for quite some time. My neighborhood has no cable as an option, but its a mile in any direction. And good luck even trying to figure out who at ATT you can talk to about getting a remote DSLAM in your neighborhood so you can get decent internet speeds.

In my state, they "supported" a lot of legislators, and franchising of telecom is now handled by the state. Less candidates to "support" that way, I guess.

Thats not just a federal thing.. How often do hear about the state police cutting back on managers and desk jockeys? its always patrol officers. (the ones that are most visible, and that respond if you need help). How often do schools lay off the coordinators, directors, etc? Its always the teachers, so that the parents scream to the politicians.

Its just kind of annoying now.. I guess I'm numb to it.

There is some ways to recompile ssh to lookup using ldap, but I really wish that it would be baked in. I would love to just put a list of authorized keys, which host and user they go to, like we can with sudo in ldap.

Remember that, when your farmers all move. Or lumberjacks, or fisherman. Its kind of easy to live in the city, since everyone out in the country ships stuff to you. Moving is not a choice for many people, especially in rural areas, where you might have to move dozens (or even hundreds) of miles to get somewhere with internet. HUGE swaths of the US have no real internet. Its kind of like electricity and roads before WW1.

Hell, I live 5 miles from a major city, and have only rural wireless ISP. I was lucky to find them, and their 1Mb/s for $65/month. ATT can't even tell me who to talk to about what it would take to get my 100 house subdivision hooked up with DSL. There are DSLAM's 1 mile in either direction, and their call centers can't tell me anything, because they are all clueless.

In most states, the sales tax is not paid by the company. The state is taxing YOU. It just mandates that companies that want to sell to you have to collect the tax and submit it.

I'm actually kind of surprised the states haven't started issuing subpoena to the large online retailers, to get names and addresses of people that have ordered over a certain amount. and then go after them. (In pretty much every state with sales tax, you are required by law to include those purchase totals on your taxes, but nobody enforces it)