Hyperic is a GPLed monitoring solution sorta akin to Nagios. I use it to give me my monitoring for my Linux & Windows servers, but also it runs queries against our data vendor's database to ensure that the database is responsive.

I inherited it, which was the first time I ran across it, but after using it I'm a big convert. I recommend taking a serious look at it.

As to the takeover, well, I doubt it'll affect me one way or the other.

No bloody way.

I *hate* ACL's. It's way too fidgity and complicated with too much possibility of making a mistake along the way. We're much better off with the permission system as it exists now. If you want ACL's, then go ahead and implement them on your own system. By default it should stay as it is. Why does this keep coming up over and over again?

I swear, the problem isn't a lack of critical thinking. The problem is the damn noobies don't RTFM. Now get off my lawn!

Proper attire very well may mean a tee-shirt and shorts. What is proper is not defined by your occupation, your role, your sector in the economy or your position within your company.

One of the best bosses I worked for frequently came to work in shorts and tee-shirt. Never on days when he'd have to go to a client site to provide operational support. I usually dress "business casual" since I never know what kind of interaction I'll have from day to day. Sure, I may be crawling under a desk runnin cat5 in slacks, but I may be dealing with a CxO. Hopefully not in that order.

"Proper" is defined by your circumstance and the people with which you interact. Thankfully, it does not involve suits for the lot of us.

So has Slashdot has been seeding dupes for years to cash in on this $300 advertising phenomenon?

Diabolical! When do the bad dupes get moved down?

Sure, but you also get a chance to grab data off the drive before you wipe. It's really nice to at least have the opportunity to do that - particularly in worst-case scenarios where you're waiting for the system to be responsive.

Now, granted, most of the time I'm throwing in Knoppix or some such LiveCD and yanking the data that way, but I happen to live in that lovely subset of the population that tends to frequent Slashdot and at least knows what Knoppix, Insert, Backtrack, or nUbuntu are.

My immediate brand of hell is someone who took their computer into the shop, they wiped it without telling her, and she steamed for two years over them not saving pictures of her trip to Maui with her late husband. Sometimes that 4+ hours is worth the time, even if there's no money in it.

The "4.7" is a rate per 10,000 individuals. Study's sample size was 30,000. The "six" you quote was from the entire sample size, or 2 per 10,000 individuals.

That is where the 6.7 came from.

6.7 + (2 * 6.7) gives us the estimated rate of 20.1 per 10,000.

That remains less than the "low-end" estimate. Interesting numbers, AC...

Our girlfriends and wives won't let us.

Holy shit, she's really a GIRL?

We have elephants. Pink ones. No one talks about them, though.

That'll be GREAT.

Finally I'll be able to use the voices in my head that drown out everything else for the forces of GOOD, not EVIL.

Anecdotally, no I consider it quite normal. It's rare that I hear of people who don't have some sort of pain after being in this industry a while unless they took precautions all along.

My point is specifically what you reference: I've stuck with the same keyboard (more or less) for the past 20 years, but these days I switch between several different models of mice. It's not typical for people to have five very different mice sitting on their desk, most will do with one or two. Even most people who get an ergonomic mouse get just the one and stick with it.

Getting a suitable mouse is personal and, as TFA more or less points out, there isn't a single perfect mouse out there. It costs a lot to develop the different shapes, sizes and textures of the shells themselves. Then the electronics and switches have to be developed to fit inside the shells. That's going to cost a bundle to make and test. And there aren't going to be a lot of units sold at the end of it, because that market is fragmented and personal and most people won't go out and buy five different $100 mice.

I haven't been keyboard shopping lately. I don't look at extra buttons or grips or textures on the keycaps as features, I look for tactile feedback and durability. I happily spent my $100 at pckeyboards to get my USB-flavoured Model M remix for the same reasons I'll spend on a good mouse.

If it's comfortable and keeps me productive, it's worth it.

I'm 40. I've been using a mouse for 20 years now.

I've noticeably developed pain in my right wrist, arm and shoulder over the past ten years. It's only my mousing arm, I rarely get pains on the keyboard, but mousing causes huge grief. Most of my pain seems to relate to the act of clicking a mouse button with my fingers.

I prefer my Model M for typing, but for mice I rotate through them. My favourite is the 3m Ergonomic (especially when I click with my thumb and not my fingers). I'm dissatisfied with it on my Mac, though, and primarily use a Mighty Mouse with it. I plugged in a cheap-o Logitech RX300 that came bundled with a new system we got because it feels comfortable to use for a while.

ANYTHING that keeps me productive for a few extra years is worth it. I doubled my salary when I started working professionally in IT - you're damned right that $100 on a mouse is worth it to me.

At the risk of actually answering seriously:

Yes, loud clicky noises can be good - for some of us. Particularly when we're typing in "the buffer zone" where you don't see the frickin' letters on the frickin' screen. Some of us like the extra feedback, others don't. If you find it too annoying, don't bother.

Now, if you want to look past the point that I only like the clickity-click noise to give myself undeserved BoFH status, it's all about the feel of the keys and not the noise at all.

If you prefer a square keyboard, you type relatively quickly and if you use the sculpted keys to help your fingers strike the Model M is an absolute dream. A lot of my fellow devotees share my claw-hammer fingers - it's a very big plus to be able to feel the exact point where the keystroke is triggered. I don't care about pressing down too hard, I'll mash the keys anyways. Having that tactile feedback lets me lighten up and move onto the next keystroke. That reduces the pounding on the keys and means more comfortable typing longer.

If you want the thinner style keys and not the sculpted tops and you find the clicking too much, you'll probably never entirely be happy with a Model M regardless of how well it meets your other requirements. I'm to be counted with those who will be buried with a Model M clenched firmly in my grasp.

May I make a slight correction?

Actually, volcanoes eject less CO2 than human activity. Considerably less than 1 percent of anthropogenic CO2 levels. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has actual numbers posted http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/2007/07_02_15.html

Volcanic activity also puts out a whole bunch of pollutants such as SO2 that cause localized effects but may or may not influence global climate change.

It's a bit nit-picky, though, and shouldn't take away from your point. You are completely correct that volcanic CO2 has been variable in the past and has not demonstrated the climate fluctuations we're seeing now.