So I got fed up with my network connections dropping 80% of the way through copying 25-megabyte files halfway across the world. I’ve been using Robocopy, but without any command line options, it just starts over again.
I did a little digging and found the /z switch, which is supposed to make it pick up where it left off. It introduces a little overhead, but I can live with that. It’s better than copying the files 1 1/2 times.
Finding out about it was the amusing part.After stumbling upon the /z switch, I punched that into Google to see what other people were saying about it. That’s where I learned about the increased overhead. Fine. But one of the links I clicked on was blocked by Smartfilter, which is the application my employer uses to keep us from spending all day watching Youtube.
Surprising? No. Smartfilter blocks lots of useful stuff that makes it a lot harder to do my job. But the category it put that page into was pretty amusing: Dating/Social.
I can just imagine that date now. Two people meet after work in a dimly-lit restaurant that will be out of business in 18 months. Instead of talking about music, or movies, the neighborhood, or the other things my wife and I talked about on our first date, they talk about Robocopy.
"Where have you been all my life? All I’ve ever looked for was a nice girl who knows what the /z switch in Robocopy does! I’ve never met a girl who knew what Robocopy was!"
Actually I might be able to think of one or two relationships that probably did go down something like that, now that I’ve mentioned it. I think that should scare me.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Of course we’re still using Websense. I am finally upgrading to the latest version. It’s nice not to see all those local churches miscategorized as "Sex" (including yours if I remember correctly).
I will have an ongoing battle with coworkers who think that Emacs sites having been originally categorized as "Gay" was correct, though.
My church categorized under "sex"? That’s funny. The subject has been mentioned recently there… In a sermon on adultery that was delivered by a seminary professor.
I’m sure there are some people in Kirkwood who would prefer my church’s site remain blocked anyway, having attended a service at a strongly "confessional" church a couple of months back. What’s ironic is that our doctrine is every bit as by-the-book as theirs. I remain convinced that "confessionalism" is more about controlling what the service looks and sounds like than it is about doctrine.
Emacs…. no comment. Of course Websense once categorized a page on Symantec’s site under "sports" because it thought the page was somehow affiliated with the WWF. Which raises some interesting and ironic questions too.
I’m sure a language-based approach to filtering would yield far better results than either Smartfilter or Websense deliver. The question is whether systems are powerful enough yet to do it without hurting performance even more than this generation does.
Regarding what "confessionalism" means… maybe that’s true in your denomination. In most of the rest it’s a four-letter word to the people who think that church ought to be more like the Optimists’ Club.
In my own case, a "confessional" Baptist is about as rare as a dog who speaks Norwegian.