praetorblue - Slashdot User

Large-Scale Mac Deployment? 460

Posted by kdawson on Monday September 21, 2009 @07:43PM from the rolling-'em-out dept.

UncleRage writes "I've been asked to research and ultimately recommend a deployment procedure for Macs across a rather large network. I'm not a stranger to OS X; however, the last time I worked on deployment NetRestore was still king of the mountain. Considering the current options, what methodologies do admins adhere to? Given the current selection of tools available, what would you recommend when planning, prototyping, and rolling out a robust, modular deployment scenario? For the record, I'm not asking for a spoon-fed solution; I'm more interested in a discussion concerning the current tools and what may (or may not) have worked for you. There are a lot of options available for modular system deployment... what are your opinions?"

Comment Wikis have certain features... (Score 1) 1

by praetorblue on Monday June 15, 2009 @01:52PM (#28337689) Attached to: Pre does not get US tethering either

...like viewing previous versions of pages.

Submission + - Pre does not get US tethering either (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by fermion on Monday June 15, 2009 @12:58PM

fermion writes: The Register is reporting that the Pre Dev Wiki has been sent a note asking it to stop discussing tethering. Evidently Sprint is none to eager to have users tether the game changing tetherable smart phone. The development forum is evidently eager to avoid lawsuits, so has rapidly agreed. Perhaps, like the iPhone, the Pre is going have a vigorous underground. What is interesting is that the Pre, like the iPhone(allegedly), can be tethered in the non-US domain, but even those customers are being denied apparently lawful information to satisfy the US exclusive agents.

Submission + - That next ad you click may be a virus (wsj.com)

Submitted by

Jay

on Monday June 15, 2009 @11:05AM

Jay writes: "The Wall Street Journal has an article about ad networks unintentionally selling empty space to malware loaders. "EWeek.com, a technology news site owned by Ziff Davis Enterprise, in February displayed an ad on its homepage masquerading as a promotion for LaCoste, the shirt maker. The retailer hadn't placed the ad — a hacker had, to direct users to a Web site where harmful programs would be downloaded to their computers, says Stephen Wellman, director of community and content for Ziff Davis." The labeling of the fake ad sellers as hackers is kind of funny; there's no hacking involved. Simply sign up for one of these networks, create your fake site, put up another company's creative, and you're good to go."

Comment Re:Irony is alive and well (Score 1) 232

by praetorblue on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @11:50AM (#28096101) Attached to: Canada's Conference Board Found Plagiarizing Copyright Report

like an ouroboros lawyer

Is it sad that when I read this the first thing I think of is City of Heroes?

Hope someone gets the reference.

Comment Radio would be fun to see (Score 5, Interesting) 290

by praetorblue on Monday May 18, 2009 @03:27PM (#28001657) Attached to: Hacking Our Five Senses and Building New Ones

It'd be fascinating to see radio waves, overlaid on your normal vision.

Any radio science buffs have ideas of what it would look like?

I'm guessing it'd be a constant semi-transparent haze. But since radio waves are directional, and some are limited by varying altitudes, I'd imagine there must be some gradation you could perceive.

Comment NYC (Score 1) 1137

by praetorblue on Friday May 08, 2009 @12:53PM (#27878171) Attached to: Your Commuting Costs By Car Vs. Train?

I pay exactly $81/month for a Metrocard in NYC, and can get anywhere in the city with that. So my total costs are about $972/year.

I don't own a car, or have a license.

Comment Best Kept Secret: Eve Online (Score 1) 92

by praetorblue on Tuesday April 28, 2009 @12:51PM (#27747309) Attached to: The Frontier of the MMO Genre

It's epic, highly polished, and there is no other MMO like it:

* 50k players online at the same time, on one server
* Sci-fi, not fantasy
* Real-time skill learning, not grinding
* Consequences for your actions
* The ability to take revenge for grievances
* Your own spaceship :)

Check this one out before some of the more obscure "up and coming" titles suggested here. I wish them well, but MOST new MMOs will fail. If you're just looking for something a little different, Eve Online is the way to go.

FWIW, I play many MMOs, usually a few different ones every couple months. Of all those I play, Eve Online is definitely the most unique. And no, I don't work for CCP :)

Submission + - Web Surfing Boosts Office Productivity Study Says

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Thursday April 02, 2009 @11:34AM

Hugh Pickens writes: "Dr Brent Coker, professor of Department of Management and Marketing at Melbourne University, says employees who surf the internet for leisure during working hours are more productive than those who don't. A study of 300 office workers found 70 per cent of people who use the internet at work engage in Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing (WILB). "People who do surf the internet for fun at work — within a reasonable limit of less than 20 per cent of their total time in the office — are more productive by about nine per cent than those who don't," said Coker. "People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture — after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored. It's the same in the workplace." However Coker warns that excessive time spent surfing the internet could have the reverse effect. "Approximately 14 per cent of internet users in Australia show signs of internet addiction — they don't take breaks at appropriate times, they spend more than a `normal' amount of time online, and can get irritable if they are interrupted while surfing. Those who behave with internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without.""

Comment Re:This game is certain to fail (Score 1) 60

by praetorblue on Monday February 09, 2009 @01:44PM (#26786193) Attached to: An Early Look At <em>DC Universe Online</em>

> If you want to play a good superhero game, try City of Heroes.

Agreed. The free content releases keep it fresh and exciting. I don't see anything these new super-hero MMOs are planning that CoH doesn't already have, and has already polished.

Comment This is about future profit (Score 1) 369

by praetorblue on Friday February 06, 2009 @02:53PM (#26755935) Attached to: Charter Cable Capping Usage Nationwide This Month

Cable companies see that bandwidth usage is set to explode over the next 5 years, primarily due to widespread adoption of video, and they are preparing to make a hefty profit off of tiered data transfer caps, rather than the "all you can eat" commoditized bandwidth they have now.

This has nothing to do with managing high-usage customers today, it's about positioning themselves to make a fortune from everyone in a few years.

If I asked you 10 years ago how much bandwidth you'd be using today, what would you have said? At the time, modems were all the rage, and transferring an ISO or watching HD video (what WAS that, 10 years ago? 320x240?) online was laughable. What will we use our bandwidth for in the next decade that we can't imagine yet?

Comment Reality plagiarizing fiction? (Score 2, Interesting) 238

by praetorblue on Tuesday October 28, 2008 @01:33PM (#25543915) Attached to: $125 Million Settlement In Authors Guild v. Google

When I read the summary, I thought "Hmm, that sounds VERY SIMILAR to a passage I read in the sci-fi novel 'Rainbow's End' on the subway this morning." In that book (by Vernor Vinge), libraries of books are being scanned and destroyed so that the knowledge can be moved online. So I clicked on the link in the summary, and... wth... I see the name: "Roy Blount". A key character involved in protesting the bringing-online of books in Rainbow's End is named "William Blount". What's the chance that there are two Blounts -- one real one fake -- who are both working on the same problem? This is totally bizarro.

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