Now I've heard everything

Cross of Valour - Constable Chris Garret

David Totzke — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:52:37 GMT

Chris Garret was murdered in the line of duty in 2004. He was nominated for the Cross of Valour but denied it because the trial of his killer held up the application until the 2-yr time limit lapsed.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=125262

That such a callous and automatous application of the rules is even possible leaves me dumbstruck.

There is an online petition to correct this:

http://www.petitiononline.com/05142004/petition.html

Please take a moment to sign.

Dave
Just because I can...

You'll Never Guess

David Totzke — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:49:00 GMT

Ed Bott over on ZDNet was installing a new OS. Being an experienced techno-wonk he used the following steps to ensure a smooth installation:

I made sure I had a CD containing the latest released version, placed that CD in the drive, and restarted. The system detected the CD, launched the boot files, and allowed me to create a new partition to install the OS files.
I answered a few questions and then let the installation proceed automatically. After everything completed (well under an hour), I created a new user account and password and logged on.
The very first thing I saw was a pop-up balloon warning me that there were updates available. When I clicked that icon, the screen dimmed and a password dialog box appeared. I couldn’t continue or perform any other task until I entered the administrator password.
Even though I had installed the very latest version, I saw that there were 98 separate updates available, designed to “correct errors, eliminate security vulnerabilities and provide new features.” It took approximately a half-hour to download and install everything over my high-speed connection.
After the updates completed, I was warned that I had to restart the computer before all of the updates would be effective. So I did.
When I reached the desktop, I noticed that the system clock was off. I tried to adjust it and was greeted once again with the dimmed-out login screen where I was prompted to enter the administrator password.
I noticed that the display resolution was set to 1024x768, but when I tried to change it to my monitor’s actual resolution of 1280x1024, I discovered that the settings dialog box didn’t offer that option and there was no obvious way to tweak it.

So how many of you are screaming “F***ing Microsoft”, “F***ing Vista!!” I thought as much.

Click here for the full article and the shocking truth!

Dave
Just because I can...

You Will Give Me Your Username And Password

David Totzke — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:39:00 GMT

And these are not the droids you're looking for...

Is it just me or is this really bad?

Warning: main(http://ezpolls.superstats.com/pollresults.html?u=**********&p=*******): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! XCÙ in /hsphere/local/home/************/********************com/resources/PrevPolls.php4 on line 109

The asterisks are where I've removed identifying information but suffice to say that this was on a commercial website that is using the ezpolls stuff. And no, it's not credit card info at risk here. Or so it would seem but who can say?

Suffice it to say that the error message gave me the username and the password that was being used!!

u=the_actual_username&p=the_actual_password

You know, you dream that one day you will see this. Now, if only I knew what to do with the information to become rich. Knowing me, I'll just alert the folks as to what happened.

I'm such a goodie-two-shoes.

Dave
Just because I can...

Microsoft Doesn't Get Security??

David Totzke — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:22:00 GMT

Oh come on!

I haven't gone postal on anyone for a while and then this caught my eye.

Look Don, just because some first level extranet help desk person suggests that maybe you use some kind of memonic for your complex passwords does not mean that they are advocating poor security practices.

You gave an example of a password you wanted to use as “qKa5$KucX#lD”. Correct me if I am mistaken but I'm almost certain you don't memorize a password like that. And if you're even remotely similar to the rest of us, you probably have many usernames and passwords which makes it even more likely that you don't memorize them all. That means you record them somewhere which is arguably worse that having a weak password.

Nothing anyone does is ever fully secure. I mean, take a look at the problem they're having in France right now involving the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg.

Just pray that nothing you've ever written comes under the level of scrutiny as do Microsoft's products.

Get a friggin' life already.

Dave
Just because I can...

A Sad Day For Open Source - NDoc is NDone

David Totzke — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:40:00 GMT

You may or may not have seen this:

http://weblogs.asp.net/bhouse/archive/2006/07/26/NDoc-2.0-_2D00_-R.I.P.aspx

Kevin Downs, the creator and sole developer (I believe) of NDoc has thrown in the towel. Some of his reasons:

The development and release of NDoc 1.3 was a huge amount of work, and by all accounts widely appreciated. Unfortunately, despite the almost ubiquitous use of NDoc, there has been no support for the project from the .Net developer community either financially or by development contributions. Since 1.3 was released, there have been the grand total of eleven donations to the project. In fact, were it not for Oleg Tkachenko’s kind donation of a Microsoft MVP MSDN subscription, I would not even have a copy of VS2005 to work with!

Ouch! Looks like open source software that is “free” as in beer is only good for the people using it and not the person(s) developing it.

Kevin continues:

To put this into perspective, if only roughly 1-in-10 of the those who downloaded NDoc had donated the minimum allowable amount of $5 then I could have worked on NDoc 2.0 full-time and it could have been released months ago!

I can't say I disagree with Kevin. NDoc is pretty much the only thing out there for this purpose and just about everybody uses or reccommends it.

As some of you are aware, there are some in the community who believe that a .Net 2.0 compatible release was theirs by-right and that I should be moving faster – despite the fact that I am but one man working in his spare time...

Yup. Who didn't see that coming? When something like this becomes popular and is used and depended upon by people, they start to act like they paid for it and it is their “right” to receive updates and fixes. Wrong. The whole point of open source is that you get the code too. You can do it yourself. It is seldom that easy for even a moderately complex code-base. Companies simply cannot afford to pay their developers to learn how to modify somebody else's code.

The camel and the straw:

This came to head in the last week; I have been subjected to an automated mail-bomb attack on both my public mail addresses and the ndoc2 mailing list address. These mails have been extremely offensive and resulted in my ISP temporarily suspending my account because of the traffic volume. This incident has been reported to the local authorities, although I am highly doubtful they will be able to do anything about it.

Yikes! That is absolutely reprehensible. While I hope that they do catch whoever did this, I suspect that Kevin is right and that little can be done.

I really feel for Kevin. He built something wonderful and it has completely gone to shit.

Microsoft is coming out with something codenamed SandCastle and already people are not liking it. If they were smart, they'd buy NDoc and hire Kevin to continue its development.

If they were smart...

Dave
Just because I can...

Can You Say "Stooopid"?

David Totzke — Sun, 28 May 2006 17:30:00 GMT

Teens arrested in alleged MySpace extortion scam.

Normally I'd have something pithy to say but..

I got nothin'...

Dave
Just because I can...

See. That's How They Get You

David Totzke — Sun, 28 May 2006 12:08:00 GMT

The Spanish American War lasted for about four months back in 1898. The US government imposed a 3% tax on telephone service to help pay for it. It was essentially a tax on the wealthy as the telephone was definitely a luxury item affordable only by the well-to-do. One hundred and eight years later, they figure it's time to stop collecting.

I smell refund!

Dave
Just because I can...

SPAMMERS - They Wouldn't Bother Me So Much If...

David Totzke — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 12:32:00 GMT

...they weren't so frackin' lazy.

-----Original Message-----
From: [%from_name%] [mailto:[%from_email%]]
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 4:27 AM
To: [%to%]
Subject: Need S0ftware?

And I'll bet business is booming despite it.

Dave
Just because I can...

Did Somebody Misplace A Decimal Point?

David Totzke — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:33:00 GMT

Aparently not. Via Paul Mooney's blog. US Congress has just raised the national debt limit to nine trillion dollars. Don't you wish you could just raise your credit limit when you run out of available funds?

Only five years ago, the National Debt Clock was actually going backwards. It was turned off when the national debt stood at about $5,676,989,904,887.00 USD as many felt that it would send the wrong message and lead to complacency. The outstanding public debt as of 18 Mar 2006 at 07:03:24 AM MST was about $8,275,625,836,297.80 USD.

Maybe G. Dubya needs to get himself a willing intern to relieve his tensions so he can focus on reducing the national debt. It seemed to work for Clinton. :)

Dave
Just because I can...(Proudly Canadian)

GPS Technology Gone Wrong

David Totzke — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 18:48:00 GMT

Or are we too quick to blame GPS and the mapping service? Blindly following the path the computer has laid before you is not entirely a wise thing to do. This is proved true by a couple on holiday in New Zealand when the GPS system in their rental car led them on a 10 hour journey through a mountain pass barely suitable for goats.

Rainbow Station manager David McEwen said the road could best be described as "a shingle goat track". "To say they're following their GPS quite frankly doesn't wash with me. They've gone past signs that said `Road Closed' that are 6ft high and 3ft wide and are illuminated."

Ya. Maybe the problem isn't GPS after all.

Dave
Just because I can...

Now I've heard everything

Cross of Valour - Constable Chris Garret

You'll Never Guess

You Will Give Me Your Username And Password

Microsoft Doesn't *Get* Security??

A Sad Day For Open Source - NDoc is NDone

Can You Say "Stooopid"?

See. That's How They Get You

SPAMMERS - They Wouldn't Bother Me So Much If...

Did Somebody Misplace A Decimal Point?

GPS Technology Gone Wrong

Microsoft Doesn't Get Security??