@Stuart Elliott (was: Re: Want to "save the chilllllldddddrrren"?)

What has pre-teens got to do with it?

Is that a serious question?

"Last month, a 6-year old in New Jersey accidentally shot and killed a 4-year old child. Accidents like this are not as rare as we want to believe, and they are preventable," said Congressman Tierney

This idiot congresscritter seems to think that "personalizing" guns will somehow stop kids from getting killed, despite the obvious fact that tools don't automagically kill people, even if they are capable of killing people.

It wasn't an accident, either. Somewhere, there is an adult who is guilty of allowing a 6 year-old to access a firearm and kill a 4 year-old. The adult should be on trial for manslaughter, IMO ...

@auburnman (was: Re: Only computers?)

I had many un-networked computers before tehintrawebtubes existed.

Made sense to connect them ... so I did.

I learned lots. And helped to build tehintrawebtubes.

Free network access to tehintrawebtubes didn't exist as we built it. It was spendy. But we persisted.

And today, auburnman. you gripe if a computer can't run TCP/IP & connect to the Internet right from the git-go in a learning situation? ... You seem to be completely clueless. Hint: You can't run before you can walk.

Your car simile is bogus ... there is no licensing with computers (alas).

Re: As a testimonial ... and a touch of perspective.

They have to teach "it takes this long to do your homework, so inter curricular sports might not be a good idea this quarter/semester" as a post-grad physics course?

If so, we're all well and truly fucked as a species ...

@Nicho (was: Re: @Nicho (was: "Have your users managed to force iOS devices on you?"))

Nicho, I actually STARTED this commentard conversation. You're the one who dropped "porn is an A-OK use of corporate infrastructure" into the equation. I disagreed, because I get paid to keep the lawyers out the expenditures bottom-line. I'm not passionate about it, other than the fact that I'm in it for the money.

"Girls Gone Wild" is hardly a Fortune 1,500, and never will be. Not enough 14 year old boys on the entire planet for that to ever happen.

I didn't say the story was boring. Nor imply it. I simply gave my opinion on the subject matter.

Nor did I moralize. I'm on record here on ElReg that I don't give a rat's ass about porn. It's been around as long as humanity, and isn't going to go away any time soon. I do, however, care an awful lot about not losing my source of income, which is protecting my client's corporate computing resources from prats like you.

As for "Give it a rest. No one cares."

You sure seem to. Think about it.

"KCCO"

Awwww. Aren't you hip. How cute :-)

@AC 0949 (was: Re: On the rare occasion that I use Explorer ...)

Who is "we", Kemosabe?

@JDX (was: Re: I can't be arsed to knock up a greasemonkey script just to blot out your comments)

"So why not use the built-in "ignore commentard" functionality on the site then?"

Eh? It ain't exactly rocket science ... It's because we aren't all "gold" commentards, the only commantards who have the option to "ignore commentard" outside of the world-wide offices of ElReg. Are you really that ignorant about how ElReg works? And you're a "gold commentard"? More proof that "icons", "badges" and "thumbs" are bloody fucking useless as currently implemented.

Not that I'd ignore a commentard, mind. Wetware works much better than code.

As a side-note ... one wonders why ElReg's elite "gold" commentards feel a need to run away & hide from the commentardary of us lowly blue-collar commentards. Sad, in a way, don't you think?

@Velv

I'm not God. I'm the Chief Cook & Bottle Washer. Not even God uses an iFad/Fandroid/Crackberry/etc. on my networks. It's in the contract. If it's broken, the warranty is void and the maintenance contract itself is null and void, with no loss of income to myself.

If you don't like it, don't ask me to build you a corporate data center.

Harsh? Only if you prefer playing/porn at work to actually ...uh ... working.

@Nich0 (was: Re: "Have your users managed to force iOS devices on you?")

If there is one thing that around 40 years of corporate computing has taught me, it's that "the easy answer" always leads to tears.

Front line "customer service" staff (read: minimum-wage phone-bank staff cuboids) need wireless, much less cellular telephones for corporate use? What the FUCK is your company thinking?

I mean, seriously, your IT department thinks of corporate users as "customers" who "get what they ask for"? What company do you work for? Are you publicly traded? I'd love to short sell you!

@Nicho (was: Re: "Have your users managed to force iOS devices on you?")

Porn (gaming sites, so-called "social" media, other non-work-related time wasters, etc.) is blocked at the border routers. These are corporate computers, not toys. They are for doing work, not playing. There is a reason they are called "Workstations" instead of "Wankstations".

Yes, I've turned more than one CEO into The Board for attempting to get around the filters to view porn at work. No, I don't review the logs, silly. The scripts do.

It's my JOB to spec what tools are used in/on the corporate network. Your iFad/Fandroid/Crackberry/etc. need not apply. I have never seen a single business case that makes sense for these devices. They are a toy & a distraction, not a business tool.

Supposedly, I am a fun guy (or so my friends tell me ... a couple of my younger nephews call me "evil meanie poo-poo-head" behind my back, and they are right, but they are all still alive and have all their digits). I am dead fucking serious about my job, though.

Re: Now ask me why ...

No bunker in Montana (I voted for Obama[1], so that lot would probably crucify me) ... No vacation, either, not since 1998 or thereabouts. Running a multi-property ranch spread out over four States is our 24/7/365.25 retirement option ...

Why restore old cars? Because I can, and enjoy it. Think meditation. Besides, if it breaks down when on the road, I can usually patch it up enough to get home with little more than a multitool, ductape, bailingwire & chewing gum. This hasn't needed to be an option in over 20 years, though.

[1] Best option of a bad couple choices, at least if you're capable of thinking for yourself.

@druck (was: Re: Question.)

Projection is an ugly thing ... See the post you made prior to the one I'm replying to:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/1825484

Have a nice day :-)

@Rukario (was: Re: The OSI model)

The first trouble with your scenario is that the "OSI model" only has 7 layers. The second is that the layers start at level 1, with the physical layer ("wire's wire" as one of my old mentors used to say). The third is I was referencing an actual textbook I was "taught" out of called something like "Networking for Management" that put everything below Layer 6 ("Presentation") in the "cloud". As an already degreed Network Engineer, working on my MBA at the time, I constantly corrected the obviously clueless idiot "teaching" the class, until the Dean called me aside & asked me to grit my teeth & stop correcting "one of my best Professors".

The school? Stanford University.

@Spoonsinger (was: Re: I look back lovingly on the days,)

Indeed. Or, as I first wrote here: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/1452371

I have a double-handful of clients with usable corporate computer systems spread across most of the continents on this dampish, muddy rock that we call "The Earth". Several are Fortune 500s.

Not a single one of my solutions contains the word "cloud".

"Distributed", yes. "Cluster", yes. "Grid", yes (one legacy system). "Centralized", yes. Even "Peer-peer" and "stand alone workstation with network availability on demand". Etc. But no "cloud", not anywhere.

IMO, "Cloud" is a reference to the old ISO OSI-model textbooks that used a "cloud" image to try to hide the actual networking layers below the so-called "presentation layer".

Enough non-technically-inclined managers "took a course" with outdated textbooks that this "cloud" nonsense entered the corporate vernacular when said managers moved into marketing (hint: If your school is teaching the OSI model, you're obsolete before you paid the course fee).

@AC11:31 (was: Re: manoeuvres)

"Is on of the correct spellings"

If you say so. Ta :-)

@AC:1032 (was: Re: @AC 09:19 (was: Trouble is ...))

"3D is usually read* as real vector space which does not include time"

So you park yourself in one position in your conveyance of choice? Perhaps you should purchase a tent instead of a vehicle. We were discussing aircraft in the RealWorld[tm], weren't we?

@Intractable Potsherd (was: Re: @Not That Andrew (was: @ AC Trouble is ...))

I choose to not drink for 48 hours before I go flying. Most of the pilots I know use "24 hours between bottle & throttle". Most of the alcohol might be gone in 24 hours, but the fusels, esters, aldehydes, tannins & other bits & pieces of the chemical soup that makes up fermented beverages seem to hang out quite a bit longer.

@Neil Charles (was: Re: Trouble is ...)

Fortunately for me (and you!), my aircraft are never actually in that kind of airspace. Why? Because there is no point. Similar for actual gliders (I got my ticket off of Sutton Bank in the early 1970s, and am still a member of The Yorkshire Gliding Club, despite being a native Californian.

@AC 09:19 (was: Re: Trouble is ...)

"Yeah, those 4D manoeuvres are a bugger. One slip and your back in 1989"

X, Y, Z, and time. 4D. The fact that you don't grok that should worry your nearest & dearest.

BTW, that's "maneuvers" ...

@Matthew 3 (was: Re: Trouble is ...)

"When you're on the ground do you drive an Audi by any chance?"

Nope. Most of mine are pre-1970 frame-up restorations.

@Oninoshiko was: Re: Let me get this straight ...)

Dumb terminals? I've heard of those. I even use them. I'm typing this on an IBM Model M attached to a 3152 plugged into a serial port.

But seriously ..."The Network Is The Computer"? ... Or was that 3270LUs? Whatever. We've moved on. Unless you're planning on running Procomm on your iFad/Fandroid ...

Re: Try to remember, kiddies ...

No, Eddy, what I am saying is that we continue to learn about how the universe works, at a higher & higher resolution.

This is a good thing.

Re: Get off our land!

Who cares? It's worth sweet rock-all.

(Was that The Goon Show? Or somebody else from that era?)

Re: Must ask

Sort, and then rinse the beans three times. Salt the soaking water (make it taste like the sea, just like pasta). Soak overnight, or at least 10 hours, then rinse three more times. Bring up to a simmer, with just enough water to cover (can use any unsalted stock or broth, if you wish). Season to taste as they come up to heat. I use my "house" bean spice consisting of 1 part each Ancho, Chipolte and Cumin powder, and 0.5 parts each fresh cracked Tellicherry pepper and Mexican Oregano.

For two pounds of dried beans, I use about 1 large onion, grated (box grater, large holes), six large cloves of garlic, microplaned, a third of a cup of the above mix, and six or seven large fresh-picked Epazote leaves (about an ounce if dried) (4 or five dried or fresh bay/myrtle/laural works, too, but it's not carminative). Sometimes I'll spike 'em with "some" habanero powder. If I'm not feeding grazers (vegans ... this is California, after all), I'll throw in a couple of unsalted smoked wild turkey wings or wild boar hocks. Top up the water with boiling water as needed, to keep the beans barely submerged. Slow simmer at a low heat with the lid well cracked, about 50 minutes, then add salt to taste. Start checking for doneness after another ~20 minutes. Drain immediately, and allow to cool lid-off. Use as you would any other cooked bean. Makes for wonderful black-bean refritos.

Save (freeze) the drained simmering water. Makes for good soup-base. Some people make rice or bread with it, but I always find that the added protein makes for a scorched product. For soup, mix 50/50 with any un-salted stock/broth/water that suits your fancy. Bring to a fast simmer, add veggies of choice, longer cooking bits first. When the veg is nearly done to taste, add pre-cooked protein of choice (meat, beans, tofu, mix&match, leave out the added protein, whatever), then check for seasoning, adjusting as needed.. Ladle the soup over cooked noodles or rice, serve with homemade bread. Can easily make a healthy lunch for under US$0.15/head.

Apparently, the salt in the bean soaking water replaces some of the potassium & magnesium from the seed coat, replacing it with sodium and allowing easier/faster rehydration during simmering. The salt later in cooking is for seasoning. Sounds weird, but try it.

Gut feeling, judging by the smell when pouring off the soaking liquid, the salt also encourages the fermentation of the sugars in the seed coat, thus cutting back on the flatulence issue ... perhaps because it makes it more permeable because of the chemical reaction with the potassium & magnesium? Dunno. As a brewer, winemaker & baker, that amount of salt should be an anathema to fermentation ... I'm sticking with the Epazote ... besides, I like the flavo(u)r ;-)