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  1. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    The SHA-1 values represent a completely valid compromise simply because Rainbow Tables for values of up to X arbitrary digits have already been calculated. Since SpammedIn isn't storing the original password anyway, all bad guys really need is a collision between the hash value and an entry in...
  2. Mercutio

    Apache OpenOffice vs LibreOffice

    Much like branches of Protestantism, once there's a schism, there does not tend to be a reunification. We now have Orthodox OpenOffice and Reformed OpenOffice and I'm sure someone or other can explain in great detail why the people on the other side are heretics and they'd rather die or use MS...
  3. Mercutio

    Anyone using M-Disks?

    I don't really believe there's such a thing as a long term digital format.
  4. Mercutio

    Macbook Pro first impressions

    I figure that I can either do the work myself or I'd rather have a depot tech with every part in the freaking universe at his fingertips doing it. U Apparently my MBP will be back Friday. So that's something. I guess.
  5. Mercutio

    Windows 8

    There are a couple different issues that can keep Chrome, Picasa and the GChat desktop client from installing on Server 2008. One of them is a group policy change and the other is IIRC something to do with the uber-restrictive IE defaults on Windows Servers. At different times I've found...
  6. Mercutio

    Firefox 11.0 is out.

    Everyplace I've worked that had an issue with third-party equipment on-site, the issues were more about data access (don't bring in things that store data or access the internal network) and liability for disposal than about loss prevention. I always etch my name somewhere on my portable...
  7. Mercutio

    Firefox 11.0 is out.

    I'd probably just bring in my own stuff from home were I in your situation. Companies sometimes get pissy about that too, but it might be easier to stick a personal asset tag on it and make the case that it makes it easier to do your job than just suffer.
  8. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    Given that I only see maybe a half dozen unwanted messages in a typical week, it's a rather significant portion of the total.
  9. Mercutio

    Firefox 11.0 is out.

    It could be worse: I have an acquaintance who is an auditor for the IRS. He has a US Government-provided Compaq laptop that is so old it has a Windows ME sticker on it.
  10. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    I don't want to belong to a social networking site. At all. Ever. It's not about "more useful", it's about my disinclination to participate in the first place. I get two or three messages that make it through my filters every week. That's two or three messages I do not want. There does not...
  11. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    The problem with Linkedin is that they Will. Not. Stop. Spamming. Apparently the only way to make yourself unavailable to linkedin crap is to belong to linkedin and turn it off. I've had invitations@linkedin.com blocked as a sender for ages, but I still get invited to join. I can't just block it...
  12. Mercutio

    Firefox 11.0 is out.

    Restoring dozens of open tabs is a perfectly valid reason to want an SSD or at least a Hybrid drive in your PC. It's not like EMC can't afford it. ;)
  13. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    Linkedin is somewhere on my corporate death penalty list along with WD and nvidia anyway.
  14. Mercutio

    Third Party Batteries

    I have a pair of T61s that I'd like to continue to use in at least some capacity. Now I'm trying to decide if it's worth $100 - $150 to get new batteries for them or just let them go quietly into that good night with batteries that only maintain 50ish% of their original charge. I suspect that a...
  15. Mercutio

    Firefox 11.0 is out.

    The new start page maybe? It's the only thing I noticed.
  16. Mercutio

    New phone time

    I really want to see something in a next-generation screen before I really commit to buying a phone. 1280x720 in a Galaxy S3 certainly is impressive, but I wonder how much better off we'll be from one or two more rounds of product launches.
  17. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I wish.
  18. Mercutio

    Something Random

    So I need to noise proof my office. The building I'm in now used to be a bank. The acoustics are such that the person in the office in the opposite corner of the building can hear my laptop speakers at about 40% volume; I can hear our receptionist chewing right now, with the door to my office...
  19. Mercutio

    Windows 8

    Probably not. They'll just tell us to do everything with Powershell.
  20. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    As I said, no one is paying me so I don't care all that much. I think the issue is more that people are so used to getting huge game-changing functionality from web services for free and then get sticker shock when they want to use them to do real work. These are the same sorts of people who...
  21. Mercutio

    Mobile Networks

    I understand it just fine. I just prefer the greater precision of degrees F.
  22. Mercutio

    Mobile Networks

    You presumably had real science classes in high school and college. Why would you have to learn anything at this point?
  23. Mercutio

    Mobile Networks

    The only metric scale I dislike is temperature.
  24. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    The fact that the smallest category of users/devices the Zenprise people offer is 1 - 200 suggests that they're not going to be anything like reasonable or sane for pricing on a 15-user workgroup.
  25. Mercutio

    Windows 8

    If there is one issue we might point to in all this, it's that Microsoft is being moronic any time it decides to "shift focus to consumers."
  26. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    Today's iCrap conundrum: I have been asked to help find a secure data sharing solution for a small group of people. They're about 70% OSX in their office with a Server 2003 machine. They need remote access to a relatively large store of data, around 80GB. The data is mixed-format, not all...
  27. Mercutio

    Mobile Networks

    You don't see value in universal acceptance of a standard system of measurement that can be derived from fundamental, observable principles?
  28. Mercutio

    New phone time

    ... and the S3 will still be awesome-r.
  29. Mercutio

    New phone time

    You can temporarily lord your phone superiority over the rest of us. Especially ddrueding. ;)
  30. Mercutio

    Windows 8

    The final preview is available now. Apparently it's buggy as all hell and they're still dicking around with the start screen.
  31. Mercutio

    Macbook Pro first impressions

    In my experience, Lenovo sends a DHL van that brings me a box to put the impacted notebook in. The van arrives within a couple hours of the support call unless I tell them to wait on it. The DHL van takes away the notebook. Three to five business days later, the repaired notebook is back...
  32. Mercutio

    iPhone syndrome

    Cricket Wireless to undercut everybody on iCraps.
  33. Mercutio

    Macbook Pro first impressions

    Oh but they said if I just drove two hours to the nearest Apple store I'd just have to wait in line for someone to work on it! I always wanted to set fire to a NeXT machine. But that's cause they had Magnesium chassis.
  34. Mercutio

    Macbook Pro first impressions

    Apparently I'll have a return box tomorrow and they're saying a week to two weeks to get it back. The troubleshooting and RMA process involved speaking to four different people and took about 45 minutes. I'm not terribly impressed.
  35. Mercutio

    8 drives in 1 system - what's the cheapest way?

    The Perc and IBM controllers are both some form of rebranded LSI controller. They're generally not used so much as pulled from systems and replaced with other controllers for one reason or other. "New system pull" is a very common condition to find them, anyway.
  36. Mercutio

    Macbook Pro first impressions

    Powered on the MBP this morning for the first time in a couple months... and the screen didn't. It's fine on an external display and that's lovely and everything, but the laptop is basically seven months old and has barely been moved or used in most of that time. Now I'm on hold with Apple. Huzzah.
  37. Mercutio

    Mobile Networks

    Basically the whole rest of the world has one standard. Just not the USA.
  38. Mercutio

    Tool utilizing BITS

    I'm trying to think of a place where I would use that. Nothing is immediately coming to mind. Maybe it could be used to move backup files from one system to another over a VPN or something.
  39. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I just switched my office to Vocalocity's VOIP service. We're using various Cisco phones now, or I can swap in a software based phone that runs on Windows. I can manage all my phone numbers and extensions from the web or from a tool that runs on Android and iOS. I can configure calls to ring...
  40. Mercutio

    New phone time

    Last time I picked up my ipad, iOS was still a POS that seemed to exist entirely to get in the way of me and my data, and there is no way to fix that problem. Conversely, I don't really think Android versions matter all that much to end users. I have Gingerbread and Honeycomb and ICS devices...
  41. Mercutio

    8 drives in 1 system - what's the cheapest way?

    The IBM M1015 supports modern (larger than 2TB) drives, unlike a Perc5/6. It also supports Expanders so you can plug in to one of those cheap 4-bay SiL things or an HP SAS expander. There's a firmware hack that essentially disables all the RAID features of the card. That is useful since most...
  42. Mercutio

    Are there any Issues with Lenovo B560?

    It's getting on toward winter down there. It wouldn't surprise me if the chimp pops in again once Tony has climbed out of the bush and taken a weed whacker to his beard.
  43. Mercutio

    Drive drops?

    Putting aside my well justified thirst for justice with regard to WD, it's been my observation that neither WD nor Seagate "green" drives work all that will for anything other than single drive bulk storage. Why is your drive a dynamic disk? Is it part of a softRAID or something? I've observed...
  44. Mercutio

    Off the wall question

    I feel sorry for those cursed with the burden of improper hand preference. As with so many things, the majority is simply wrong.
  45. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    I did say "with an AMD GPU", not "AMD card." To the best of my knowledge, there have never been straight-up nVidia consumer-class video cards. Which is fine. Because they would probably catch fire and molest puppies. Which would make the puppies catch fire and die. Which is actually a blessing...
  46. Mercutio

    I need a mouse

    I had a closet full of them, but I've deployed them all. I should probably buy five or ten more but I don't want to pay $80 apiece for them and I've not has good experiences with the wireless version. I spend ~15 hours a day on computers and these things are the best and most comfortable pointer...
  47. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    You probably lack the particular cultural literacy to properly digest the awesome that I have linked to, but for everybody else, this is the radio play version of Star Wars as read at a comic book convention by Pinky and the Brain, Zapp Brannigan, Yakko and Wakko Warner, Batman, Yosemite Sam...
  48. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    Have an hour and a half to kill? Watch or listen to this, because it's awesome.
  49. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Kinky.
  50. Mercutio

    Something Random

    When I take days off I wind up spending tons of time on the phone or responding to emails because someone doesn't know how to do something and that invariably leads to some kind of emergency. Besides, there really isn't any place I want to go or anything I really feel like I should do other than...
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