Jeremy Falcon wrote:

It's all a shame though, because in 300 years America will consist of fat, lazy, stupid, and greedy people and we won't be the superpower forever

Jeremy, uhm, look around, we're already there, bud.

Awfully complicated way to tell a fake... I use the more simple, tried and true: ain't no one ever legit gonna aks you for your info... ever. ever. ever ever ever ever. Done. Paul

Thank you. I'm sure it will be. Can anyone reccommend a good primer book to get started? Paul

Colin Angus Mackay wrote: what's going on???!!! !Pero, hay muchos colores!

peterchen wrote: I hope this is your sig, not your first impression of the IDE.. Uhm, well, actually, it's not my sig. But seriously... I'm just poking around. Big changes. Of course I can't find certain things, but I'm assuming that they've just moved them somewhere else. Gonna have to do a lot of reading and tinkering in the next couple of weeks. Paul

Been using VC6 for, well, forever, just got my .NET enterprise. I'm running the IDE for the first time... what's going on???!!! I feel like I'm watching Univision. It's all in Spanish!!! Paul

GISnet wrote: When every Joe and his mother can claim to build web sites, does it financially affect those of us who actually can? My opinion is that in the long run, yes it does. It should lead to more money to those who can do the more sophisticated stuff. In the short run, it might lead to overpaid underexperienced people that you had in the nineties. Script kiddies making nearly six figures a year because they learned two dozen html tags. Paul

feline_dracoform wrote: these descriptions must be very simple, yet also so complete that programmer B can write the windows version from these descriptions, without having to read any UNIX code. Well, then... forgive me if my interpretation is wrong... but basically they're just asking for top down re-write. I guess if they just asked for that straight out, then I suppose that it would be more reasonable. Paul

Virus?! Virus checking software? Updates? Wha?! Try to dumb it down a bit here-- too much high falutin' language.

Roger Wright wrote: To All, and farewell! I'm off again to the PRC for another obligatory familial visit The PRC... is that like the LBC? Paul

I've got yer magic. Merry Christmas. ;)

Steve Mayfield wrote: Looks like a variation of one of the identity theft scams going around. Same thing happens with ebay and paypal. A new variation arrived in my inbox this morning using the IE Ctrl-A defect to hide the real URL of a fake paypal registration page. They create the URL they want you to think you are going to followed by a number of Ctrl-A's and then the real URL that you are taken to My investigation of every one of these ebay/paypal id theft scams were coming out of a Korean broadband provider called Incheon Net or some such thing. I did a netcat on one of the ip's, found several open ports, each port running a page for a seperate scam, 1 for ebay, another for paypal, 1 for earthlink, etc. Paul

brianwelsch wrote: We have little tradition at work for our Christmas bonus. A little bell on a rope gets handed out with the check, and everyone has to walk around the rest of the day with their bell on their neck. It feels a little goofy, but its funny. Any traditions at your work, during holidays or any other time? Bonus? Huh? What is this... 'bonus'? It must be a good thing otherwise I suspect you wouldn't do that. Is a 'bonus' a good thing? Is this 'bonus' thing a tradition with many from your foreign land? Bonus... I like the sound of this... this... bonus. I will talk to my work comrades about this 'bonus' thing and see what they think of it. Paul

As some of you may know, Los Angeles dept. of Affirmative Action Compliance requested that 'inappropriate labels' for computer (or other) equipment be changed. Namely, master/slave designation for hard drives- as these might offend some employees of the institution. I responded to their request and sent this email to them. Helpful suggestions are welcome: As I understand it, your office is 'suggesting' that all inappropriate labels for equipment supplied by vendors be changed. Example being of 'master/slave' designation, used for years in reference to hard drives. At first, I thought that this request was ridiculous, but after some time thinking about it, I decided to provide some alternatives, instead of simply complaining about the request. Example: Instead of the 'master' label, used in identifying a primary IDE hard drive, may I suggest: Pimp Drive. For the 'slave' label, 'Ho drive' would probably suffice. Usually there are four different designations for such devices. Primary master/slave, and secondary master/slave. To further break down the labels, may I suggest: Primary master -> #1 Pimp Primary Slave -> Bottom Bitch, or #1 ho. Secondary Master -> Mac Drive Secondary Slave -> Ho. Usage follows: If a 'ho' drive is 'failing', it could be described as being 'out of pocket'. Eg. 'My ho drive be out of pocket'. If a master drive is failing, one could say that the 'pimp drive ain't down'. This could cause confusion in that 'down' is usually described as failing, so 'ain't down' could be looked at as not failing. But we feel that in the name of sensitivity and cultural awareness, that this minor contextual reversal will not have any long term effects. Another term used with computer devices is SCSI, pronounced 'Scuzzi'. In the early days a group of brilliant marketers at Apple Corp (no longer working for the company) didn't like the term 'scsi' associated with their hardware- and suggested that it be pronounced 'sexy'. This was laughed off by industry people, but your request has proved that they were far ahead of their time! To keep up with the times, may I suggest that SCSI devices be referred to as 'bitch' devices. This is especially good, because as any good computer engineer knows, the last 'scsi' device in a chain must be 'terminated'. I think you know where I'm going with this terminology. Please pass these suggestions along to the directors of your institution, which, by the way, should no longer be referred to as 'Office of Affirmative Action C

Matt Newman wrote: Stupid Spammers[^] I'm gonna avoid a potential joke about candians and cut straight to the story: HAAAAAA! I just received two emails in two days asking for my account and credit card numbers for verification of my 'paypal' account. Email linked to an obscure ip and port in South Korea. So I dutifully made a connection to that ip address and port. Lots of connections. So many, that no one else I knew could get into that paypal verification page- from anywhere. After several days of attempting to connect so I could enter my credit card info, the site went away. I wonder why? :omg: Paul

David Wulff wrote: That is seriously sick. That guy needs to seek professional help. I agree. It's sort of like hooking up the shotgun to go off if someone breaks in. If you've been broken into repeatedly, it sure becomes an attractive option. But ultimately, you're killing someone who's stealing a car stereo. Bastards though they are, I would prefer to get one of those exploding blue paint cannisters that the banks use. Fix it so it goes off in their face. That's a punishment that fits the crime. Paul

Knew a guy who hooked up a magnatron from a microwave oven under his seat which was connected to the car battery- and only deactivated by a kill switch under the dash. ONe morning his car stereo was gone and his car battery was dead. Could be a dirty car stereo stealin' theif on kidney dialisys, 1/2 a dead liver and no way to have children... who knows. Paul

Yep... know the feeling.

Chris Losinger wrote: i really don't understand people's depserate need to disparage the open source movement. what's the point? I think it comes as a reaction to the desperate need of many open source enthusiasts to disparage anything 'closed source'. It becomes a kind of knee jerk reaction. As I said earlier, most open source people are victims of their own bravado. Open source is what it is, and nothing more. Paul

C & C++. Least Favorite: BASIC and PASCAL. I can't explain why I don't like Pascal, I simply don't, and subsequently haven't programmed in it for many, many years. BASIC is an ironic choice, because it's where I've made most of my living- and I have vastly more experience in it than anything else. Because I've been 'forced' to use it, I hate the weaknesses I'm forced to work around. Paul