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Comment Slackware - Gentoo - OSX - Arch (Score 1) 867

This was 1999. My highschool friend got me interested in Linux. Gave me a RH install CD. X didn't play well with my monitor (GUI installer); so that didn't work.

Then he gave me Mandrake; similar problem with RH obviously...
Then Debian. That installer was text based and a giant nightmare. Couldn't figure it out.

So he gave me Slackware. Brilliant. It installed and worked and I started learning. Didn't know how to use it. So I would ask my buddy how to do this or that. He'd give me a yellow post-it after class with "man pppd" or "man xorg.conf" and disappear.

Then in college I got masochistic and went Gentoo all out. I had some Debian machines and CentOS too; but Gentoo was my main platform.

Then I left college; got a job and picked up a macbook; run OSX and Arch on my other systems.

Give a teenage boy slackware and a dialup connection. Nothing can stop the teenage quest for dirty pictures.

Eating dirt with slackware for 4 years was probably the best learning curve possible; for me anyways. Everybody is different.

Comment Another youngster (Score 2) 515

Yes, some of the old-hats are incapable of learning new tricks. The ones who could moved on to better pastures and the ones who couldn't... well, they're the senior tech guys now, old and wise and stuck in the '90/'80/'70s.

Just keep on learning, try not to piss off the connected old dogs and move on to better opportunities when the chance arrives.

I've found that IT teams senior-heavy are very VERY resistant to fancy new tech (windows 7!? It was better when we had to adjust the potentiometers on disk drives with a torque wrench and oscilloscope! Multicore and virtualization are stupid, just another fad like zip disks! Besides, we already moved away from mainframes! What's a blue ray?).

You've got time and money to devote to learning; they have blue pills, kids, retirement savings and cribbage at the legion that demand attention.

You and I will be there one day too.

Comment Re:I wonder if they have IPV6 support (Score 3, Interesting) 224

Everybody thinks using HTTPS within corporate walls means your traffic is encrypted. We control (Via AD) who your trusted root signers are. And if you look at who signed Google.com or paypal.com, it was us. EVERYTHING seems to be signed by the corp key. Also, the web filter appliance sees all the internet in plain text, SSL doesn't matter.

Executing a MITM SSL attack is easy when all the PCs trust your signing key.

Comment Re:BB is a business phone (Score 1) 185

Exactly - I need a device which can sync to my exchange and IMAP systems. BlackBerry can't do that. I get hundreds of emails a day, most are crap and get auto-sorted into folders other than my inbox. But every damn one hits my BB making it useless for email.

This iPhone however only sees the mail I want it to see. There's the killer feature I wanted from a smartphone. The business is happy because they can remotely integrate it into existing policies, the user is happy because... it just works, AND it can do cool things users expect a smartphone to do.

Too bad my corp bans jailbroken iFads, because a BB really is better for power users out of the box.

Comment Re:I don't know how it is in the US.... (Score 1) 911

Yes, same about brakes in north america. Also, the keys... Reasonably modern cars have a special detent thing so you can turn the engine off without engaging steering wheel lock, because you have to push a button/push the key and twist in order to engage the lockout and remove the key.

The problem is that we allow complete fucking morons behind the wheel. And we breed far FAR more idiots than you Europeans could ever hope to produce.

Comment Re:Eh? (Score 1) 911

You sir are my favorite kind of driver; Carry on.

The rest of you imbeciles please stay home and let somebody else drive.

I wish getting qualified to drive was the same process as learning to fly. You never get into a new vehicle without reading the important sections of the manual.

Comment Default Sane Behaviour? (Score 1) 911

I've been in the stuck accelerator situation before (Cobalt SS, auto). Turning left in a school zone. Suddenly engine starts revving. Not like pedal to the metal, just a linear increase in RPM.

So I pushed into neutral, turned the key to shut the engine off, restarted the engine and continued on my way without stopping/swerving. There were no deaths, fires, or collisions. Perhaps briefly I was going too fast in a school zone.

Disclaimer: I'm a geek and maybe had "special training" for emergency situations (private pilot).

But seriously, this shit should be on the test. Driving is not a right. If you can't handle yourself in the most mundane of exciting situations, please don't drive.

Comment Re:Right because I want all my devices having DMA (Score 1) 351

But can I not daisychain some TB monitors together, perhaps with their own integrated GPUs (or not, consumers choice)? And have the USB ports on the monitor too? Maybe eventually, your "PC" will be your iFad or other mobile device and how you use it will be determined by the current accessories available.

Graphics++ gaming rig? Phone? Plug it in at home to your projector, sound system and HDD array to realize your home theater.

Comment Re:This couldn't happen last week? (Score 1) 260

There are many vehicles around that can't take the old 16" rims and big cheap balloon tires. My car comes in 18" rims with 17" being the smallest that will clear the calipers. Those are expensive sets of rubber.

And as anybody with a limited slip differential can tell you, both powered tires must be the same diameter. One worn tire and a new tire are not compatible; so if you blow one tire, you have to replace both. :(

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