September 7, 2012 at 11:38 am
mbrooks (9/7/2012)
My employer allowed me to specifiy my own machine, as long as I bought it myself! (We're a small nonprofit association with only one developer -- me.)I went through a couple of others before settling on a 15" MacBook Pro (2011 model). It has plenty of oomph to run both OS X (for me) and Windows 7 (for work), using VMWare Fusion.
I buy my own machines as well. I don't like cheap computers.
Cheers
September 7, 2012 at 11:39 am
Luis Cazares (9/7/2012)
For those running windows under Apple products.How do you right click?
The same way as when using OS X, by right-clicking. Most mice have at least two buttons (and I wouldn't have one that didn't). Trackpads (either built-in or external) use a two-finger tap for right-click.
September 7, 2012 at 11:42 am
Nadrek (9/7/2012)
Eric M Russell (9/7/2012)
I don't know ...P.S. Eric, high end machines do indeed substitude for a space heater when they're highly active... which is very nice in the cold, since many companies prohibit space heaters for safety reasons.
My MacBook Pro only doubles as a space heater when Windows 7 is running. 🙂
September 7, 2012 at 11:43 am
Nadrek (9/7/2012)
Eric M Russell (9/7/2012)
I don't know why someone would care to have a high end graphics card in their work PC... unless they are playing Modern Combat 2 or watching movies on NetFlix while waiting for their long running SQL queries to complete.Doing a password audit at 3.7 billion guesses per second Hashcat[/url] is a solid reason for a high end graphics card in a work PC.
P.S. Eric, high end machines do indeed substitude for a space heater when they're highly active... which is very nice in the cold, since many companies prohibit space heaters for safety reasons.
If cracking encypted data is what one does for a living, then I could see a need for a high end graphics card. However, most employees, even most in IT, couldn't persuade their employer it's a legitimate part of their job description.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
September 7, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Eric M Russell (9/7/2012)
If cracking encypted data is what one does for a living, then I could see a need for a high end graphics card. However, most employees, even most in IT, couldn't persuade their employer it's a legitimate part of their job description.
You'd be astounded by some of the passwords people (and 3rd party products) have chosen for their SQL Server accounts.
September 7, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Nadrek (9/7/2012)
Eric M Russell (9/7/2012)
If cracking encypted data is what one does for a living, then I could see a need for a high end graphics card. However, most employees, even most in IT, couldn't persuade their employer it's a legitimate part of their job description.You'd be astounded by some of the passwords people (and 3rd party products) have chosen for their SQL Server accounts.
The sysadmin can always reset the password for a user for service account; why would one user ever need to "crack" another user's SQL Server account password in the process of performing their job?
Are you talking about certificates on an encrypted database?
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
September 7, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (9/7/2012)
Todd.Everett (9/7/2012)
Now suddenly we have two key uses for our laptops - social media and cloud storage - that we can't live without. Many employers block both....
I now use producteev for task management, evernote for note taking, dropbox for cloud storage, and AWS to play with cloud instances of SQL Server and Oracle. My employer blocks every one of these as well as my facebook page, my twitter feed, and so on. ...
Thanks Steve for the very timely editorial (I continue to be amazed at how you find something interesting and timely to write each day in SQL Server Central.com) and the space for us in the community to write back!
Does your employer block those for some security issue or just they think it improves productivity?
I think they block them primarily due to security risks and not necessarily because they think it improves productivity. They are concerned about "data leakage" when it comes to cloud storage and about virus/worms getting into the network from social media. I know next to nothing about security but it seems to me there ought to be ways to address the security issues while allowing these kinds of tools. So maybe it is an underlying fear of productivity loss 😉
September 7, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Eric M Russell (9/7/2012)
The sysadmin can always reset the password for a user for service account; why would one user ever need to "crack" another user's SQL Server account password in the process of performing their job?Are you talking about certificates on an encrypted database?
To A) verify that password policies are actually being followed, and B) to find passwords which are putting the company, data, and/or database at risk because they are out of compliance with corporate, industry, regulatory, legal, or classification level requirements despite passing Microsoft's rather primitive implementation, for instance 'P@$$w0rd' is an eight character password with upper case, lower case, symbols, and numbers - and yet it is one of the weakest passwords in the world. 'P@$$w0rd123' is the same, but is fully 11 characters long.
Microsoft using only a single SHA1 (SHA256 in 2012) hash pass only makes weak passwords that much more vulnerable.
Note that for the cloud storage/use, for some industries there are serious legal and regulatory security requirements.
September 8, 2012 at 9:50 am
Luis Cazares (9/7/2012)
For those running windows under Apple products.How do you right click?
Two finger click on the trackpad.
September 10, 2012 at 4:40 am
Alex Gay (9/7/2012)
I've got to that age where as long as it works, reliably and consistently I'm happy.
Same with me. At work we have recent Lenovo equipment which works quite well.
For my private use I got a used ThinkPad T61 15' with Intel Graphics (Nvidia are not reliable on this type of ThinkPad). I bought it at a fair price and upgraded it a bit and purchased some of the rare accessories (e. g. Parallel and Serial Port bay adapter, AC/DC power supply which can also be used in cars, airplanes). I like the IBM / Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manuals which makes it easy to disassemble the whole thing if it needs.
Last weekend I was happy to find a VGA port at the machine as I had to hold a presentation and the beamer had nothing else but VGA and adapters were not there.
I like reliable computers with good keyboards and a clear and contrast rich screen. RAM and HDD should not be too short, but I do not need the latest and greatest.
One monitor is enough for me but if on a desktop I like one bigger than 19'
brgds
Philipp Post
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