Tag Archives: information technology

Slashdot on productivity

| Friday, 24 February, 2006

Another cluefull comment: I hate to sound like a fogey, but I’m in my mid-thirties, I grew up using computers, and trust me, it won’t help. The problem is not familiarity with computers. It’s an overload of tasks. Productivity is expected to rise on a regular basis (heck, we measure the growth of our economy […]

So you solve problems?

| Friday, 17 February, 2006

Just heard on the Radio, during one of those bugging dj-interviews-dude-on-the-phone games: – So, what do you do for a living? – I work in IT – Oh. I see. So you solve computer problems? Is that really all that people can think of IT workers? Only seeing the work when there are problems. No […]

Netwerkbeheerder/Boekhouder gevraagd

| Wednesday, 25 January, 2006

Wij hebben 2 kl*** jobs die we niet kunnen invullen, dus beperken we ons om 1 persoon te vinden die zo zot is. Netwerkbeheerder/Boekhouder gevraagd Ik versta toch niet waar sommige bedrijven mee bezig zijn. Alsof netwerkbeheerder in zo’n firma op zich al geen ondankbare job zou zijn. Hopelijk zoeken ze geen schoenmaker ook. Of […]

Ubuntu On The Business Desktop

| Thursday, 17 November, 2005

I work as a consultant in a Windows-centric work-place and we remotely administer Windows servers. We trouble-shoot Windows clients. We keep spammers out of our Exchange servers. We defrag. We update. We install antivirus programs. We eliminate spyware. I suppose it would be fair to say that Microsoft keeps us in business.

How a company policy begins

| Wednesday, 9 November, 2005

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana
on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will
go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he
touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

Sony DRM Installs a Rootkit

| Tuesday, 1 November, 2005

For whom still thinks DRM ain’t no problem, slashdot reports how Sony DRM Installs a Rootkit: SysInternals.com guru Mark Russinovich has a detailed investigation of a rootkit from Sony Music. It’s installed with a DRM-encumbered music CD, Van Zant’s “Get Right with the Man”. (Mmmm, delicious irony!) The rootkit introduces several security holes into the […]

On the problems of information archiving

| Thursday, 20 October, 2005

Everybody watching CNN uses a lot of technologies first developed for, and as a result of, space exploration. The scientific data and engineering know-how collected in those first space missions are extremely valuable knowledge that should remain available forever.

Unfortunately, storing valuable data inside computers is no guarantee of its availability. Did you know that scientists “couldn’t read magnetic tapes from the 1976 Viking landings on Mars?… With the data in an unknown format, they had to track down printouts and hire students to retype everything.” That was quite a waste of money, wasn’t it? This situation occurred less than 30 years ago, and it was able to be fixed because paper copies were available, a format everybody could read.