Posts by b shubin

Albanians swipe Bush's wristwatch

Theft, lies and videotape

look, it's really easy to tell when this Administration lies.

their lips move (check out any recent footage of the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales).

seriously, the minority that still thinks this bunch of neocons is telling the truth is the same 30% of the US population who believe that God talks to George. it is unlikely that any amount of evidence will convince them to rethink their unquestioning support for this guy.

as for George, he still says Alberto is the best AG this country has ever had (this is known as faith-based employment practices, and worked really well for the Katrina recovery, the reconstruction of Iraq, the Justice Department, the FDA, the EPA, the CIA...).

save your indignation for something worthwhile, this is not it.

good for a chuckle, though.

Wobbly G8 Sarkozy delights YouTubers

Toasting tradition

a thought for your next pub visit:

traditionally, the toast is "za vashe zdorovye" (to your health).

in the States, they rarely ask how to offer a toast in Russian. most people here ask me to teach them scatology or obscenities (once they get over the shock when they find out that i am a naturalized citizen).

as for drinking habits, Mr. Putin may choose abstinence for now (political necessity, i'm sure), but he likely has the elephantine tolerance bestowed by our common gene pool. if he decided to take a little toot, it is unlikely that anyone would notice a change in his behavior.

Mr. Sarkozy, on the other hand, would likely suffer the doom of the severely repressed (waking up naked in some public place, with one hand clutching an empty bottle and the other hand wrapped protectively around one's generative equipment).

better off with Evian, i should think.

Google acquires 'sandbox' technology for secure browsing

history of MS security

whatever improvements Vista offers for IE, it seems imprudent to depend on MS security alone, considering the company's history of issues and bugs. Even now, 80% of all MS problems are remotely exploitable (i.e. do not require physical access to system).

it is also worth noting that the One Care service potentially provides additional income to MS. this is effectively an incentive to provide poor-quality software, and charge additional subscription fees to fix the bugs in the future ("pay me to fix the broken widget i sold you"...what a great racket that is...). it is a small, but no doubt growing source of recurring revenue.

it is also a conflict of interest. this contradiction may serve to explain why "One Care" sounds suspiciously like "wanker" to some of us (a great joke from someone else's Reg letter).

from this perspective, any additional source of browser security from a reputable third party is a good idea.

Oz cops cuff Darth Vader on his 30th birthday

unregistered blaster?

err...really?

if that blaster were functional, the guy would have vanished quite some time ago.

all the world's intelligence agencies would compete to bury the owner of next-gen destructive technology (without necessarily killing him first, they're not that picky), and grab the goods.

dealing with police would be the least of his problems.

this is an absurd, ignorant overreaction by law enforcement. as a US resident (many such silly twits here too), i am very impressed (unfavorably). as a Soviet expatriate, i am, again, very impressed (again, unfavorably).

is it possible to live in the English-speaking West and not recognize the iconic figure of Darth Vader ("please return forthwith to underside of rock you have recently vacated...")? is it reasonable to believe that a Star Wars blaster is a functional energy weapon, or a firearm, while still retaining sanity and sense? i have read that recent studies indicate a significantly higher statistical incidence of dementia and psychotic episodes among professional law enforcement, but this is a bit much.

when they do this sort of thing, they "protect and serve" whom, exactly?

IBM markets up-beat service under legacy brand

very reliable

actually, the latest Notes platform due to come out is quite well done.

at my last gig, we ran Domino on the iSeries (used to be known as the AS/400) that we also used for operations. no downtime, no issues, no dedicated administrator required. it just worked, for 4 years.

most users are unwilling to learn another interface, so anything different than Outlook is regarded as inferior. since they have no idea what Notes/Domino does (groupware/collaboration, database, development platform, etc), when judging this platform, they are ignorant at best (lazy and stubborn at worst).

the company provides its employees with software to send email, and mantain calendars and address books. to moan about the different interface is just sentimental crap. if it works well, that is all the business cares about (or rather, a mature organization would work that way).

to those whiny users, i would like to say:

you're here to work, not to get a warm fuzzy.

How did we all end up with Windows?

differentiation done right enhances competitiveness

if you do what everyone else does, you get what everyone else has.

if you have an IT department that's good at finding truly great solutions before your competitors do, and willing to risk its credibility by not playing it safe (let's not say "CYA"), you can gain a very real (and sometimes overwhelming) competitive advantage by using technology more effectively than others do.

if you follow the crowd ("no one gets fired for buying IBM/Microsoft/Oracle/insert-dominant-player-here"), you get short-to-medium-term job security and thoroughly ordinary results.

as a network manager, i decided to not use Cisco equipment in the last datacenter created under my management. we used Dell switches (quite good, Intel generic hardware, very good support), ImageStream router/firewall/VPN/DSU (T1/T3) embedded Linux boxes (very affordable, no licensing fees, amazing support), and Airespace wireless (again embedded Linux, great service and tech, but later bought out by Cisco, much to my chagrin).

we saved 90% on deployment and administration costs, and got better service.

if i could convince the management to switch to thin clients, we would have gotten even better value from IT.

i risked my job to recommend what i thought was the best solution. the result was clear competitive advantage: improvements in speed, accuracy, efficiency, transparency, and timeliness, and excellent uptime.

if you follow the crowd, you get outsourced, as outsource providers can recommmend conventional solutions as easily as you can.

if you don't deliver compelling value through differentiation (or unless you're on very good terms with some top-level executive who can guarantee your job security), be prepared to transition out of this profession.

Blu-Ray disks hacked by sweet talking teenagers

cry me a river

oh dear, those poor sensitive souls...

-invade a country under false pretenses, bomb extensively, occupy the place for years, fail to rebuild effectively

-fail to provide basics like electricity, sanitation, safety and security

-spend well over 300 billion US dollars and counting

-openly engage in war profiteering, graft, cronyism and corruption

this is all good.

-voice an unflattering opinion of a US foreign policy, a policy based on fear-driven aggression and blind conservative ideology

this is bad.

please continue printing news and opinions about things that impact the lives of all people in technology-related activities. according to the 10/80/10 principle, whatever you do, 10% of the readers will love it, 10% will hate it, and 80% will just play along (the exact numbers may vary, but the trend is constant).

whiners deserve abuse.