OT Windows 10

[Don Y]

This is an excellent analogy! I will steal it! :>

Yes -- so long as you're not buying one just to keep up with the guy down the street!

Almost everything that I use a computer for is "meatware limited". A faster computer, newer OS, etc. just means the machine waits for me, more (relatively speaking).

When I got started in this business, if you were LUCKY, you could do TWO iterations of the edit-build-test cycle in an 8 hour shift. The tools were SO slow and the technology so inflexible, that you spent a lot of time waiting for the tools *or* performing "acts of contrition" to appease the silicon gods and coerce them to honor your prayers.

So, you learned how to better "schedule" your efforts. Anticipate the next problem when solving the current one. I.e., don't just install the "fix" for the current problem but also install any stubs, etc. to let you get a headstart understanding/verifying the behavior of the NEXT thing you'll be testing.

Instead of: [fix first problem, build new system, test] "Great, that works!" [create test conditions for next step, build new system] "Hmmm, that's a problem..." [fix second problem, build new system, test] "Great, that works!" do: [fix first problem, create test conditions for next step, build, test] "Great, that works! But, there's a problem with..." [fix second problem, create test conditions for next step, build, test] "OK, that's fixed! Now there's a problem with..."

If you keep this sort of mindset, you're always a step ahead of the guy who relies on a faster machine to just keep "throwing darts" at his perceived problems: "Hmmm... that didn't work, let's TRY this..." And, less needing of the latest and greatest (speed, etc.)

"Go do something else while you're waiting for the machine" instead of: "Buy a faster machine so you're not waiting as much"

[Don Y]

Those are "previously purchased" (by retailer) licenses. And at retail prices. We pay "a handful of dollars" for a license. Because we get them from MS on a charitable basis.

Of course, some benefactor could buy those licenses for us and underwrite their cost. But, that's not something we can count on. And, why would we want to move all those "donated dollars" into OLD software when those dollars can be used for other things, as well?

[MS might cut us a deal on a license; but they will be less likely to spend those "virtual dollars" to pay for a dentist visit for a student! The monies that a donor willing to buy retail licenses spends could instead serve other needs]

You can buy a (used) Dell box and reuse your Dell XP SP3 install disk. Why bother buying XP? Building a box (and chasing down the drivers, etc.)

I avoid any problems by simply not letting the boxes talk to the outside world. If you can gain physical access to them, then chances are you won't try to HACK them but, rather, simply STEAL them (and conveniently sidestep the security that is present *in* the software).

[Don Y]

Hmmm... dunno. It's never given me problems.

OTOH, I've been moving to bigger desktops so I don't have to alternate between them as much/frequently.

[Scott Lurndal]

Not at all. Set your /etc/nsswitch.conf to point your local hosts file to the NIS server host map.

[Don Y]

They DON'T have their own DNS service -- but DO have NIS? :>

(I also assumed these were Wintel boxen)

[clare]

I'm suspicious he missed some settings.

[clare]

Not a chance I'll ever waste another minute on that piece of crap. NEVER

[clare]

I never even think of ME - it was such a non-event

[clare]

The software end user agreement calls for either "call home" authentication or manual authentication over the phone. It only needs to be done once - and after that it doesn't attempt to "call home" unless MAJOR modifications are made to the system.

[clare]

No need for a criminal record over it - I've offered that one MANY times in the past. Feel free to use it - just preface it with "a smart fellow I met on the internet said-------"

Buying a laser or mill to make round holes that you've made for decades with a drill is not buying tools, it's buying TOYS.

Now, if all your drills break or wear out and you expect to be making fancy not-round holed, PERHAPS buying a mill instead of a drill might make sense. Unless the work is too fine for a mill, buying alaser is STILL buying a toy if you don't have a clear requirement for it.

A faster machine just allows you to make more mistakes in the same period of time.

[Don Y]

How can you forget that key part of the Windows triad:

Windows Windows Windows CE ME NT

[clare]

NT actually worked!!!

[rbowman]

What I referred to were Windows boxes.

[Mayayana]

| > You mean you use something like Wix? you're | > right, there's no webpage there. It's essentially | > script-based software, served to a URL request. | > Unfortunately, that also makes security almost | > impossible. | | This is not ours and Seattle is using Bing rather thanESRI. but this is | the general idea: | |

| | | We don't do public facing web apps so security is not an issue. |

That's not Wix. I don't have a Wix link offhand, but it's actually even further removed from being a webpage than what you linked. A typical Wix page is nearly all script. The script embeds obfuscated strings that detail specs for the webpage. The webpage content is loaded from the Wix server. So without script there's actually no webpage there. And with script you have to trust that whatever eventually loads will be safe. Looking at the pre-script source code is of no value.

But the security problem is similar with the page you linked. First, it's completely broken without script. (I see the left-side menu but no content at all.) Second, the script is coming from a number of locations. On many sites those scripts will also come from advertisers and trackers. That means not only trusting script but also trusting the script of a half dozen remote URLs, and then trusting the script from the dozen URLs they link to. It's an orgy of software being loaded willy nilly into the browser, just to display a webpage. Meanwhile, one of the biggest threats these days is malware installed through script used in ads bought through big ad servers anonymously. Browsing simply cannot be made safe with script enabled, yet the script mania fad is breaking the Internet for anyone who disables it. All unnecessarily.

So the very idea of using big libraries to create pages that break without script ends up forcing people to be unsafe online. It used to be a matter of common sense and common courtesy not to use script unless absolutely necessary. Dynamic functionality by anyone other than amateurs was done with server-side PHP or ASP. Now it's all being done clientside, often with a dozen or more javascript files, and a total page load of over 1 MB in some cases. I don't mind enabling script at a site like Netflix. They do a good job with it and it really does add a lot of useful functionality. But very few sites are like that. Most have no business using any script at all.

Increasingly it's also being used to force ads and tracking. For instance, some of the Microsoft pages are now blank gray without script. When the page loads, script removes the gray block. The page is fine if I read it without style, because it never needed script in the first place! But Microsoft doesn't want you to be able to read their pages unless you let them rummage around on your system, so the deliberately block your access if you disable script. And it's not just MS. That trick is becoming common.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

For the most part, yes. It was disappointing if you were expecting a big improvement over 98.

One important little thing: it contained a driver for USB storage devices. Yes, the driver could be downloaded for 98, but it is convenient to not have to download it (and remember to download it).

ME also came on a bootable CD.

It was still the last of the DOS-based Windows versions.

[hah]

[snip]

HELP! It crashed, and it won't boot up.

[clare]

Came with 98 SE if I remember correctly.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

My 98SE CD is not bootable. 98SE could be the one where only some of the CDs were bootable.

BTW, even though the ME CD is bootable, it still requires a DOS boot to partition the disk (with at least one FAT partition). Partitioning was later added to the Windows boot disk.

Win ME still added that device driver (USB storage).

[>>>Ashton Crusher]

I was reluctant given all the horror stories put out about it but I've got it on three computers now and it seems fine. Didn't even need to do anything special to get the "win7" desktop look.