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Comment Re:150: 1 is Decent.. (Score 1) 414

by cppmonkey (#30595194) Attached to: How Many Admins Per User/Computer Have You Seen?

The parent post is right on with what I've seen. 250:1 (users to admins) in the environment where it was Windows+Office+Thunderbird on the desktop and 50:1 where it was Mac+Adobe+Office+Video production+1/2 doz other highly specialized pieces of software.

What is perhaps just as important as the ratio is having a great secretary. The ability to keep moving and not have to stop and worry about signing for the Fed Ex man or the boss making "executive decisions" while you are at a users' desk is invaluable.
United States

Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned 670

Posted by samzenpus from the let-me-see-what-you-got-there dept.
schwit1 writes "The Obama administration is seeking to reverse a federal appeals court decision that dramatically narrows the government’s search-and-seizure powers in the digital age. Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Justice Department officials are asking the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its August ruling that federal prosecutors went too far when seizing 104 professional baseball players’ drug results when they had a warrant for just 10. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
Image

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."

Comment Re:It's obvious (Score 1) 502

by cppmonkey (#30153170) Attached to: Fedora 12 Lets Users Install Signed Packages, Sans Root Privileges

Huh What? OS X let's standard users install software? Sorry but looking at my 10.4 and 10.5 machines that would be a no. Having worked on a few 10.6 machines today I am confident that they are the same but I don't have one here to test. Standard (non admin users) can not "install" software except in their own home directory just like Linux (though installing to one's home directory is not for the faint of heart). Standard users can not add launch deamons or otherwise modify /Library or /Applications. This is actually how it should be. Users can do anything they want in their space so long as it does not affect other users or the system. That's actually security not this we will control what you can and can not do in infinitely fine detail. The big problem is that Linux and Windows require you to modify the SYSTEM in order to do practically anything. Want to run new/updated software then you need to drop some libraries in /usr/lib some resources in /usr/share etc. One of the ways OS X makes management so much easier is to let applications bundle their libraries inside those application bundles. Those same bundles that end users who happen to be the owner in terms of file permissions can indeed modify (unless they are a "managed" user) This enables drag and drop installs and the ability to have ~/Applications/Nifty*.app. So every user can have their own web browser and their own productivity software and it just works.

Comment Re:Yes, that's bad coding (Score 1) 660

by cppmonkey (#30118644) Attached to: If the Comments Are Ugly, the Code Is Ugly

Is it bad coding? Yes. Is this the worse coding? No. We've all been pressured to ship and all too often it sucks. But you commented the code indicating that you don't know why it works which helps your or the next person to come along to fix the problem. Points for actually commenting and saying you don't understand, shipping code you don't understand; not good. But the big question is did you go back and review the comments and try to fix the problem (ie understand your code)

Comment Good be great (Score 1) 557

by cppmonkey (#29814471) Attached to: Apple Blurs the Server Line With Mac Mini Server
Heck for a tiny little 6 person company like mine this thing could be great. Only one problem... the local telco hates the idea of competition and thus blocks low ports so as to keep small companies from cost effectively hosting in house.  Sure the D&E sales guy said he could offer me a static ip for $1200+ a month but still not allowed to host on ports 25 or 80 and hey their $25/month IIS + Exchange hosting with no uptime guarantee is such a great deal right so why don't I do that? So as much as I'd like to bring things in house I think we'll have to keep using keep using Dreamhost.

Comment Expected Date for Windows 8? (Score 2, Funny) 581

by cppmonkey (#29682787) Attached to: Microsoft Leaks Details of 128-bit Windows 8
I once read that it took us 30 years to figure out 8 bits then about 5 years to exhaust the abilities of 8 bits so we moved to 16bits which we exhausted in 10 years so we moved to 32bits which took us about 20+ years (this post written on a 32 bit machine which has thus far been far more reliable than the wife's 64 bit machines) to exhaust so following this logic it will take us 40+ years to exhaust 64bits. Does this then mean I can expect Windows 8 in about 2050?

Comment Re:Whats the issue Apple have with Flash? (Score 2, Interesting) 154

by cppmonkey (#29655693) Attached to: Flash CS5 Will Export iPhone Apps
Just because Flash is single threaded and thus can only choke one core of a dual core machine at a time doesn't mean it can't bring a 2.8 Ghz machine to it's knees. Just try watching one hulu movie in Safari in one window and load some particularly crappy flash game in firefox. Your machine is now unusable.

Adobe treats mac users as second class citizens thus treating many of their power users like dirt. If you think like Steve Jobs, this is an insult to Apple since they went and did want industry members like Adobe have long demanded of them and built a better OS than Windows (much better) and built really solid hardware, the iPod Touch/iPhone anyways, and then been plagued with monopolists like Adobe/Microsoft shutting them out. If history is a lesson, (think iWork) Apple will soon deliver a native version of Inkscape and dump resources into Pixelmator, and start bundling them with Final Cut studio and new iMacs (well a trial version in Pixelmator's case). Apple somewhat reasonably demands more, Adobe and Microsoft refuse to/can't deliver so Apple just raises the bar... this is capitalism at its best; even if the Google Voice fiasco is capitalism at its worst.

Comment What's important is the reading (Score 1) 1021

by cppmonkey (#29651263) Attached to: What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class?
I want to plug Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, Diamond Age and Snow Crash, Asimov's Foundation, Cory Doctrow's Little Brother and Anda's Game but I'll curb my pitch. I think rather than just titles you need to get them reading and keep them reading the rest will happen with just a few well timed questions. Choose a few core books from the list on this page and give them the rest of the list as choices for books to read unguided. Make sure they get a mix of novels and short stories (hint my senior level high school history class involved reading at least one short story a week multiple documents and about six novels in the course of the year). You also want to get them to compare science fiction to non fiction. Have them read Thomas Paine and then reread one of the libertarian authors. Finally remember to have fun with it. Science fiction is as much about enjoying what you read as it is politics, envisioning the future man's place in the universe etc.

Comment Re:FTP should be going away for just this reason (Score 1) 359

by cppmonkey (#28680607) Attached to: R.I.P. FTP
Have you tried tunneling ftp with it's bizarre two port usage? Tunneling is harder than the average bear can comprehend to begin with but tunneling two ports is silly. sftp which is not just a tunnel is a better way of handling file transfers kinda like a prius is better than a K car.

Comment Closed Source Cat (Score 1) 674

by cppmonkey (#26808735) Attached to: How To Argue That Open Source Software Is Secure?
I propose a thought experiment: Have the client envision a box into which you place a kitten. Which method of keeping the kitten "safe" is better? The windows methodology is to tape the box shut while the linux methodology is to leave the box open. Now ask the client to envision placing the kitten/box system in a college dorm representing the hostile world. I predict that in the Windows world the box gets ignored or worse kicked down the stairs whereas in the Linux world the kitten defends itself and or finds a compatible human slave to care for it.

Much is the same in the computer world, a closed box does not make something "secure" it just limits what the kitten or your application can do, while an open box can encourage people to foster your kitten. Security comes from the provision of the necessities of life (warm building, food, water, clean litter, string and blanket) and five pointy ends for the kitten and while for software it is testing and an uncompromised (audited) host.

Comment Re:How about "Not Much"? (Score 1) 1026

by cppmonkey (#26529479) Attached to: What will Obama change most in the first 100 days?
In all honesty, he did let Hillary flitter away her time dropping the ball in NYC rather than telling her to get her butt to Israel to inform them that come Jan 20 no only would there would be a new sheriff in town but if they cut the BS off now things might go better for them. Condi & Bush weren't doing their jobs so there is no reason that Obama could not have picked up the slack internationally as well as domestically (he did pretty well at calming things down just by giving the media access). So yeah, Bloody Slacker!

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