Wait a minute. When did Canada become part of the European Union? Did Europe finally remove the whole World Geography section from their textbooks?

Now that he's finished the game, he'll have to start playing World of Reality -- and start meeting and interacting with some actual people. There are far more quests and achievements out here to earn.

On a Mac, use the Active Screen Corners feature of Exposé in System Preferences. Set one corner to start the screensaver. Then, go to the Security page and hit the checkbox next to "Require password..."

That part's easy.

Then you have to train your users to move the mouse over and park in the chosen corner of the screen.

That part's hard.

The human element will always be the weakest link in the security chain.

Frankly, I'm ignoring the majority of comments on /. about this because, well, the few that I did see seem to be leaning towards the Apple is Overpriced/Evil/Worthless/NotAsGoodAsSomeOtherOS angle, which doesn't seem to be too helpful.

So, here's a real-world solution that's worked for me so far:

I started by subscribing to the Leopard Server Quick Tour podcast ( http://tinyurl.com/ccwqup ) -- It's only highlights and a bit of detail to get going, but worth watching.

Then I started collecting some of the OSX Server Admin manuals from Apple ( http://tinyurl.com/l336ux but there are others ). The most helpful so far have been Server_Administration_v10.5.pdf and Open_Directory_Admin_v10.5_3rd_Ed.pdf

I wasn't given a budget to go directly to a live Enterprise deployment and take advantage of Apple's fee-based solutions specialists. Instead, it's a learn as I go development first then staged deployment. So, I started with a refurbished Mac Mini ($450) and a 10-user license of OSX 10.5 Leopard Server found on Amazon for $250 -- the upgrade to unlimited users (which we'll need eventually) is only $250 more at the moment.

I'm currently getting my Macs working with the OSX Open Directory server then I'll get Open Directory to talk with Active Directory. Once that's sorted out, it's on to the Apple NetBoot for remote deployments of new machines and users.

Naturally, YMMV.

If you can't turn it off, I'm sure a pair of wire cutters will solve the problem: high-tech annoyance, meet low-tech solution.

As if my Karma could get any lower...

Yes, it looks like a real firearm. Very nicely done, actually.

No, it does not look like an AK of any design -- more like the Barrett 50 as somebody else said.

Most reasonable-thinking people probably wouldn't care if it were slung over a shoulder. But if the person transporting it were, for example, at the low ready with it, then people would start getting nervous. If while at the low ready, they happen to sweep it in the direction of somebody who also happened to have an actual, legally-possessed, legally-concealed firearm then, well, somebody's not going to walk away.

That said, in typical /. fashion, I haven't read the entire post, so don't know the particulars of how this thing was being transported.

I use GOTO regularly while debugging and even in some production-level stuff. I've cultured the good|bad habit of leaving 'on error goto errortrap' in code. Predictable errors are one thing. It's those unpredictable ones I usually need to have the whole thing stop without causing problems. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and absolutely never, ever 'on error resume next'.

There was some code that another sysadmin wrote long ago at work that was doing something like sifting through a huge file tree, checking the files' attributes and content, then deleting the file if certain criteria had been met. Something happened with one of the checks where instead of bailing out, it just started deleting files... all 2.5 million of them.

Thankfully, we have hourly backups.

Reviewing the problem, the first line of their code was 'on error resume next'. They didn't know why it was there, but that's "just the way we've always done it"... which is obviously a warning flag. I changed it to a GOTO -- explained the whole error trap thing to them in painful detail -- then ran it again. The GOTO and error trap did exactly what was expected so we could fix the problem with the object tests... without risk of destroying live data.

Sure, there are better things than the GOTO out there, but to borrow the analogy from hairyfeet, once in a while, you still need a chainsaw to cut down a tree.

Scan Obama's brain for that abnormality. You might find it there.

Here's the miniskirt. Here's the coffee. If you're looking for something else sometimes provided by secretaries, you'll have to look elsewhere.

It's not the customer's job to know the technical details of a complex computer system and its software. That's what the support tech is for. It's your job as a tech to listen to the customer's needs, interpret them, devise a solution, and drag them kicking and screaming to that solution. Irritating? Sure. But that's why they pay you. Can you educate them? Maybe. Most people just want to click the mouse and see the expected result. Or press the pedal on the floor to make the car go forward. Or push the green Send button and hear a ring. Not everyone wants to learn the details of how things work.

It's about time Macs were brought into the fray of malicious software. As a Mac Fanboy, I'm tired of feeling left out.

"...scientists fitted a harmless suction cup to the dolphin's head..." Okay, harmless is good... "... when the pings reached 203 decibels and were repeated, the neurological data showed the mammal had become deaf..." Hmm... not so harmless. 203db would to some pretty significant and permanent damage to human ears and ours aren't even as sensitive as dolphins'. How is this surprising?

Don't care what naysayers are spouting. I want one. And I'm nowhere near super rich (lower middle class, actually). Sure, I'd need a pilot's license -- they don't just give those things away like they do with driver's licenses.

Sure, the price tag is a bit steep -- about twice the cost of a Cessna 162 (a two-seat light sport plane) yet only 2/3 the cost of a Cessna 172 (4-seat personal aircraft).

It comes down to desire and value.

If you desire something and that thing has value to you, then it's worth having and you work towards it.

Apparently, enough people have the desire and perceive value in it to justify its production.

This is just another example of a true-life story that is so mind-numbingly stupid that you would almost think it came from the front page of The Onion. These tools can suck one.

In traditional /. fashion, I didn't even bother to RTFA... but I can just envision the folks at Open U saying, "We know you aren't using your brain, so, please, donate your brain to medical research today!" I know some people I'd like to volunteer for the program. That lemon who made the lane change across all six lanes of the expressway at the last possible second this afternoon, for example. Or maybe the fact that he did it was evidence that he'd already donated his brain to medical research.