I think you're correct on most of your points. I would only disagree with Dropbox as it stores local copies on every computer connected to the application. In the even the service is down, all of your files are in tact. Aside from that, you're spot on.

No, I don't think you're too old to "get" it at all. Your summation of how those services should be used is accurate. It's a paper trail without the paper.

I have heard of temp agencies where I'm from doing exactly this. Particularly the ones that deal with law offices, doctors offices or high-end manufacturing. And you're right -- it definitely weeds down the applicants.

Another company I used to work for would require you give them an email address so HR could send them an email and ask some questions that required longer answers to see how articulate they would be. Seemed to work well for their needs.

I agree with you. I work for a sub-contractor to a school district. They can't keep their own communication straight let alone with us. They hold us to contracts so tightly that when things are said it absolutely has to be documented. It can mean the difference of millions of dollars long-term if you get an unscrupulous administrator playing the He Said, She Said game. You'll never win without written backup.

We do have other clients that prefer other mediums but we always ask to record the conversation if in voice so we can archive it. When we get back to it later, someone will write-up a summary to keep things trackable.

Xserv

There is some testament there to stability! That OS died in 1996 or so. I saw them in service through about 2001 or so but haven't seen one since. I think the last one I deployed was right around the end of life as a Warp 4...

I have a feeling I've shared the same diatribe myself. Good for you. I, like you, am one of those guys who have more work than I have time. I regularly turn down jobs and forward them on to reliable, and in many cases, like-minded techs in my area. The ones that need hand holding go to company A and the others go to techs that can get the job done like me. Sometimes those guys appreciate the referral and give me a kickback -- I don't ask for it but I would do the same for them. I also don't overstate my abilities and have no qualms telling people, "that's not really within my expertise but I know [this person/this company] that can do it for you more cost effectively." I don't advertise as word of mouth is really my only "advertising". My clients are basically "no bullshit" people who know that when they call me they can expect the job will get done quickly and on budget.

Someone attacked your work ethic but I disagree with their summation. Big universities teach people that IT is "all customer service" but that's not entirely true. Customer service is always important and hell, I'm a pretty nice guy but if I can't do the job being the ultra nice guy only gets the customer to yell at me a little less when I screw it up. I'd rather not screw it up. I worked the amusement park business for the better part of 15 years both in IT and out so I pretty well got the customer service part down. I've worked in big corporate and small guy shops and, in the companies that really matter, guys like us make the difference.

*awaiting flamers*

xserv

Well, technically, they can. They can build a profile using Third Party Cookies. There's a site I saw awhile back about how to block them in multiple browsers (http://www.bobulous.org.uk/misc/third-party-cookies.html) which handles most of your advertisers out there.

For the technically inclined, by loading the javascript through an iframe which runs it natively from the remote server, also borking any browser warnings you might get, you have the ability to set the cookie as itself and read it across multiple sites who share the same information. Facebook does it this way if I'm not mistaken.

You can set a P3P header with:
response.setHeader("P3P","CP='IDC DSP COR ADM DEVi TAIi PSA PSD IVAi IVDi CONi HIS OUR IND CNT'")

This is known as a "Compact Privacy Policy" and allows IE to handle the cookie which it would normally block. You can read about p3p policies here: http://www.p3ptoolbox.org/guide/

Once you do that, you can set the cookie using whatever language you want as normal. You can also read those cookies through the same method.

Good point.

But what do you want really? They were planning ahead by putting "Forever" in the name. The general public just didn't get the memo.

I think I just peed in my pants. My cubemates (who we lovingly refer to each other as cellmates) poked their heads around walls wondering what I thought was so funny. Bravo!

Thanks for the pictures. I had seen them on TV but every damn news agency has to put their scroller, logos and whatever other "Breaking News" horseshit they have so you get only a small piece of it on the screen at any one time.... And the slider is pretty nifty. I will admit to a little "Ooo, ahh" affect.

Xserv

This reeks of Jay-Z's H to the Izzo! Fo' shizzle my nizzle used to steal code from tha' Son-ay...

...Ok, so it was a stretch....

Angry Birds? What?

Good try... I'm rather partial to: "In Soviet Russia, the meat grows you."

WWIVnet was similar to your one-to-many scenario. The protocol did have routing tables but were fairly fault tolerant as I remember them. If a node was down, it was still transmit to the other notes in a mesh type style. ... unless of course, the node that was down was the hop that called several other systems to update the message queue. But, with enough nodes, and network correctly defined callouts, all sites would eventually get the update and the down node would be caught up to current. At least that's how I remember it. I haven't run a WWIVnet system since 1996 though...

Similar scenario for me. I was home sick from school with my mom and my dad was on deployment in the Mediterranean Sea. I remember there was a lot of talk at school about it since there was a teacher on board. I, too, was a shocked child that day and knew phrases like "SRB separation" and knew what "SRB" stood for.

It was a very sad day for us and the space program.