That does not sound familiar, but this was over 30 years ago...

ecalkin

I worked at a computer dealership from 1988 to 1994.

First, we had a tool to connect to IBM systems to order parts for PCs (and other stuff from IBM). This software worked under windows (and DOS maybe). It didn't work under OS/2. After a couple of months I asked our rep when OS/2 would be coming around and he said "we have no plans to support this on OS/2". Reminding him that OS/2 was an IBM project didn't really seem to matter.

Secondly, IBM had some diagnostics that you could run to to test various parts of a pc, such as memory. Well, it appeared that OS/2 exercised memory more vigorously than other software. Memory that 'passed' diags would fail while running OS/2, and if passed diags you couldn't make a warranty claim. The only reason that this got addressed was some important companies started spec'ing in the quote products that the hardware had to run OS/2 before it would be considered good.

Wow. What a mess

ecalkin

a round sewer lid (sitting on a lip that is smaller than the lid) can't fall into the sewer hole.

e

A large part of the Chinese population spent a large part of their lives in horrible air pollution, including lots of large particulate stuff. I would tend to believe it makes them more susceptible to getting it *and* having worse outcomes.

On classic IOS, somewhat...

there is no default username and/or password. you have to have a serial connection (don't forget physical site security) to enable ports and assign ips. The only plug and play on their big devices is switches will switch as soon as you power them on, but you don't have management until you console in and activate systems and assign an address.

if you remote into an IOS switch/router via telnet/ssh, you can't get to privileged mode if you haven't put an enable password on the remote system.

there are a few other places where they give you a good starting point. if you want to do SNMP, you can be more secure with v3 or less secure with v1/v2. your choice. etc etc.

one of my favorite security options is 'no service password-recovery', which is designed to protect your configuration if physical security is compromised.

having said that, wow, there are a lot of newer cisco products (that seem to have been purchased from other companies) that have the horrible default username/passwords/ip stuff going on. i keep hoping that they clean that up at some point.

microsoft is a company sitting on 25 billion dollars. they apparently sold $3-4 billion in bonds? they are *raising* prices during some of the worst economic times that a lot of people of have seen.

    it's like they have a pressing need for more than $30 billion?

    for a company that needs to sell operating systems to maintain their future, it doesn't make sense.

e

several years ago 'neural nets' were the big thing and they were thinking that they could make them 'learn' and do useful things.

i always thought that traffic control would be an interesting application. if a computer could look at video of an intersection (and streets leading to the intersection) and figure out where cars were and weren't, you could make traffic lights a lot less annoying.

so our CAPTCHA might be a picture/video of cars and a request to count them?

eric

if you want fantasy to become science fiction (or science?), read "there will be dragons" by john ringo.

this is an amazing book (start of a series) if you have ever played d&d.

e

you should watch some mythbusters!

i think they managed 12 or 13 folds.

of course they started with a sheet of paper the size of a house and made the last fold with the help of heavy machinery!

eric