Slashdot Mirror

"Anytime a company has hack insurance, that tells me their management doesn't trust the I.T. staff ..."

Sounds right in this case:

https://www.itpro.co.uk/securi...

"Instead of a war exclusion clause, Zurich should have invoked a gross negligence clause, which is much easier to prove in this case than attribution to a nation-state, particularly considering Mondelez was hit twice by the same ransomware," he said. The "fool me once" proverb is fully applicable here: while many companies fall victims to ransomware, one of the first steps to recovery is to make sure it doesn't happen again."

“Mondelez originally made claims for the cost of these damages on its property insurance policy, taken out with Zurich. The policy suggested it was covered for physical loss or damage to electronic data, software and physical damage caused by the malicious code or instruction.” link

@Confused: “.. Whether Mondelez' are incapable buffoons or they left their doors open with a writte invitiation to plunder them isn't really what this is all about.”

Yea, it's about your cyber-insurance covers you for loss of data caused by malicious code or instruction, except when you get hacked.

The CEO is supposed to coordinate everything done by all groups in the company. That isn't happening.

Microsoft has suffered a HUGE LOSS OF RESPECT because of making Windows 10 into spyware.

One of the many, many articles: 17 Windows 10 problems - and how to fix them (Dec. 1, 2017). There have been MANY terrible problems since then. One example: Windows 10 bug: Microsoft fixes issue that broke USB, built-in cameras, keyboards (Mar. 6, 2018)

Do you see any competence in that?

Eh? There are more developers than ever.

But developers are not where the money is. Unless you're a Mac or iOS developer, you're probably looking at a PC anyway. Right now, Tim Cook and company want to sell Macs to people who are ogling at iPhones and iWatches, and they think that means smaller and lighter, rather than beefy and powerful.

I don't like this trend. But people getting paid a lot more than I am believe that this is where the money is (read: market-share growth). There's some truth to this, as for a long time the quality of PC laptops have sucked and sucked more, with a few recent notable exceptions like the Dell XPS 13 and the HP Spectre . But there appears to be little profit in desktops like what a developer would want, and if you're a developer or gamer, you're often better-off rolling your own anyway. All that results in the Apple marketing-gods believing that there are lots more casual users open to buying a Macbook than there are developers considering an iMac or Mac Pro. For better or worse, Apple puts their mouths where they think the money is, and so far, compared to HP, Dell, and Lenovo, that strategy has worked, even while power users and their Mac Pros feel screwed, year after year.

You can look at RIM/Blackberry to see where all other non-Apple, non-Android smartphone makers ended up. The feature phone market dried up, ending Nokia's most successful niche. The company's downward slide had already started before Elop signed-on. "The company's board was widely seen to be searching for a turn-around CEO." Note that you don't need a "turn-around" if your company is doing great... Or if you don't believe that, you can just look at the charts and see the decline BEFORE Elon was hired on. In fact RIM/Blackberry sales were still climbing a couple years after Nokia's downward slide began...

"Elop's CEO contract with Nokia included a bonus clause worth $25 Million dollars, if Elop sold the handset unit specifically to Microsoft." So obviously Nokia's board were specifically eying a Microsoft buyout when they signed Elop on.

No question Elop was a lousy leader who didn't help things, but everybody knew Nokia was broken before his tenure started. I'd call Elop's tenure a symptom, not the disease. Note that Blackberry had a precipitous downward slide, too, without any former Microsoft execs involved.

> I bought a half dozen of the RPi kits when they came out and I've only unboxed one. I played with it and did exactly nothing of value with it. I keep meaning to pick it up and learn more but I can't actually think of anything I'd want to do with it or with the rest of them.

--There are *lots* of things you can do with a PI that are pretty neat. If you already know Linux, you can just leave the board up and running 24/7 with minimal power expense.

--I chose to implement my Squid server on a Cubieboard instead, but you can do basically the same with a PI.

--Some links to get you started:

https://communities.vmware.com...
^^ This is a complete drop-in Squid Vmware appliance that I created. Once you get a Linux distribution installed on the PI, you can install the Squid package on it as well and copy the config files over.

http://www.squid-cache.org/

http://www.instructables.com/i...

http://www.pcworld.com/article...

http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/...

http://www.digitaltrends.com/c...

--Your local LUG (Linux User Group) should be able to help you get started and maybe give you some ideas on what to do with the board(s). HTH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

--I recommend you designate a Saturday (or whatever day is $convenient) and resolve to do something with at least one Pi board. Feel free to email me with progress reports ;-)

Odd, I've had the same experience, but with Chrome.

Ignoring subjective experience for the moment, the question was to how bloated and performant each was in relation to the other. In that case, the victor is clear. I'll put hard data ahead of wishes and good feelings any day.

But your argument fails on ... .well content.

I thought it was fair. His comment was nonsense. Quibble if you want, that's fine, but keep in mind that WebVR is not only included in FF Nightly, but Chrome experimental builds as well. Not only is his point irrelevant, it's meaningless to distinguish between the two browsers on that basis as both of them are building implementations of the same fledgling specification.

His comment was both irrelevant and misleading. I think my one-word reply sums that up nicely.

Stepping stones. Windows 8 was a wobbly stepping stone but it was a stepping stone. Dev on MS is much easier to cross over platforms than it was in the past.

But seriously (and I'm not Trolling here) :

IMHO, Mobile Applications are, for the most part, very rarely directly translatable in either scope or purpose to Desktop or Server Applications; so what is to be gained by making the poor Developer have to be saddled with a Presentation Layer (GUI) that is an absolute Train-Wreck between Touch and Non-Touch paradigms?

I understand how they can share a common kernel and SOME Frameworks/APIs, and maybe even the (very) occasional GUI concept; but that's where it should end. But it doesn't.

Truth be told, I would bet that not one Application in 1,000 actually benefits more than 10% from a "Unified Codebase". The only product that looks to be designed with this in mind is the Surface Pro 3, And that is not the Game-Changer that Microsoft is touting it to be. Too heavy and expensive for a Tablet; and simply not good enough compared with other Laptops at the same price-point. They keep trying to compare it with Apple's entry-level ultraportable (the one that sacrifices many other things for the sake of "small"; but if you look at the pricing, it should be more-fairly compared with something like a 13 inch Macbook Pro, where these folks say that it loses hands-down.

Nope. I'll give MS some points for trying to rescue Windows 8; but they are suffering from the "Gone too far to go back." syndrome, and it's going to (continue to) bite them, bad. Really bad...

In the article:
"The judge, Colin Birss, ultimately sided with the car companies, despite saying he "recognized the importance of the right for academics to publish.""

This is very misleading. The judge did not "ultimately" side with anyone because this is an *interim* injunction during the course of more prolonged litigation. Citation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23487928
and
http://www.itpro.co.uk/security/20291/vw-gets-high-court-bans-scientists-revealing-luxury-car-security-codes

The purpose of the interim injunction is to temporarily maintain the status quo while further evidence and arguments are presented, prior to any actual and significant judgement.

Once again slashdot avoids objective reporting and instead offers its readers what they actually prefer and craze: dishonest, misleading, untrue versions of the world that play to the infantile prejudices of the average self righteous and privileged pseudo liberal.

I find the number of Americans who don't mind this invasion of privacy amazingly high. Perhaps I should adjust my expectations. So many gun "enthusiasts" are worried about a government database of gun owners. I wonder how many of them are OK with blanket surveillance. Now the government can make a database for anything-- gun owners, church goers, lefties, righties, anyone who who has had an abortion, wants a girlfriend, has a girlfriend, has two girlfriends, two girlfriends and a wife... You name it, the government can make a list.

Given the track record for how power corrupts, this is a dangerous road to travel. Power over prisoners -> Abu Ghraib. Police database ->
http://www.itpro.co.uk/634774/police-database-abuse-hugely-intrusive
http://www.policeone.com/police-products/software/Data-Information-Sharing-Software/articles/5360910-Cops-criticized-for-misuse-of-databases/
Power to wage war -> Iraq, Afganistan.

I think you would be hard pressed to come up with a government power that has not or will not be abused. This "total information awareness" carries the risk of even more abuse. If the government wants to quiet a dissident, what embarrassing information can they find out about him/her. What about family members? The governments ability to suppress dissent will become even greater-- imagine a world where the government "reminds" you the consequences of not toeing the line. America can become that.

What happened to the country where men would say "Give me liberty or give me death!" or "I'd rather die on my feet than live upon my knees" (OK he was actually Mexican but same sentiment).

RP is a year old now but it's in a position where it isn't going to get stale

This also appears to be Eben Upton's view and since he's one of the founders of the Raspberry Pi Foundation this can reasonably be assumed to be the official view of the Foundation. They seem to think they can wait until 2015 to release a successor to the Raspberry Pi, see here: http://www.itpro.co.uk/644701/raspberry-pi-founder-has-plans-for-a-sequel-in-2015.

They are kidding themselves. The unexpectedly huge success of the Raspberry Pi has ensured that it will have competitors well before 2015. I think 2013 could well be the year the Raspberry Pi is overtaken and largely forgotten about. Why would anyone bother with the Pi when something faster with more RAM becomes widely available for a similar price? Especially if it turns out to be much less buggy than the Pi, which it most likely will do.

Also, the Raspberry Pi Foundation had better get the much promised educational side of things into full swing this year. They've achieved next to nothing on that front to date. They blame the unexpected success of the Pi for delaying this, which is a ridiculous excuse. The Raspberry Pi can survive mostly on hype for only some time, if there aren't substantial and timely improvements in all areas then people will lose interest and move on.

This is rather pointless, for all the reasons others have previously stated. But this is really laughable, Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation thinks they can wait until 2015 to produce a successor to the Raspberry Pi. Even more amusingly he intends to still be selling the Raspberry Pi Model B in 2020, seven years from now: http://www.itpro.co.uk/644701/raspberry-pi-founder-has-plans-for-a-sequel-in-2015

You're talking about previous versions of Windows Phone. Windows Phone 8 is a different OS, and the phones are actually decent now (hardware wise, on par with top android phones).

Windows Phone 8 has only been on sale a few days, so there is no possible way you could be confident in that.

They said the save thing about windows phone 7

http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/03/16/7-reasons-windows-7-phone-iphone-killer/
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/080811-windows-phone7.html
http://www.itpro.co.uk/627835/head-to-head-iphone-4-vs-windows-phone-7-vs-android
http://www.aido.com/blogs/my-blog--sanjays-blog/lg-windows-phone-7----the-iphone-killer
http://www.techulator.com/resources/4775-Few-Reasons-Why-Windows-Phone-iphone-killer.aspx

Apparently this was still the case as recently as Win 7 vs. Lion.

For myself, I have not upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion on my work computer even though it wouldn't cost me anything, basically for the other aforementioned reasons - I don't see how it would earn back the time it cost to do the upgrade and learn the new system, and I'm not sure it's an "upgrade" from my perspective. (I'm pretty sure I don't want fullscreen apps on my 30" monitor).

According to this article HP wants 430 USD for it. Good guess.

A timely post given the headlines from the UK today. Britain's high-tech surveillance society is now in a royal mess, shall we say, with the Prime Minister, the police, and the press as major players. The corruption has just been shown to reach into law enforcement in a widespread way.

It costs too much when the competition is free. Of course my problem solving didn't fail. I successfully moved us to Google Docs.

I hope you're not calling Google Docs "free"! Even if the "standard" edition is satisfactory, your payment right now is supplying your (i.e. your clients') data to Google for mining. What do you think Google are, a charity?

Office doesn't have real time collaborative editing. Google Docs does.

No. Note that, as in any proper versioning system, you sync when you're ready - not with every letter you type - although the areas of a document on which people are working will be shown (and optionally locked) if desired. If you really want "real time" letter-by-letter then you're a time-wasting idiot, but you can script an automatic Ctrl-S after each letter.

When we create documents, we like them automatically shared and accessible from any other computer anywhere. Google Docs does this automatically and instantly. Office does not.

Wow. When I create documents I certainly don't fucking want them "automatically shared and accessible from any other computer anywhere". If that's what I want, I'll enable it for specific documents through appropriate collaborative Office / collaborative text editor / version control - though there are still very few cases when I want something accessible "from any other computer anywhere". You have an awful security policy.

Google certainly doesn't do anything "instantly". If you find the responsiveness of Google Apps better than local software, you need to buy PCs less than a decade old or fire your IT guy (you?).

Google Docs works on the boss's iPad. MS Office does not.

Oh. You got me there. It's like in the early '90s everyone computerising would go Wintel because, well, that's what the guy in the competing firm / in head office was being shoveled, and that's where all the shiny cheap marketing was going on. Despite dozens of options, so many decisions come down to the arbitrary whim of a good feeling. You've just illustrated one.

"Take for instance the TJX Cos. data breach, where insecure wireless networks were compromised for months, revealing millions of personal records, before they were pinpointed and finally secured. Once made aware of the issue, it took TJX an additional few months until the situation was completely in control and secured"

Don't you mean the data breach that went unnoticed for over eighteen months (or possible up to two years) until their bank informed them of the huge number of fraudulent transactions. Which all began with an antenna and a laptop computer.

The hack consisted of accessing wireless POS terminals from the car park and then going on to access the internal CC database for over eighteen months, without anyone noticing. They only took action when the banks phones them up and asked about all the fraudelent activity out TJX stores.

"TJX admit that 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen from the company in a computer data security breach over an 18-month period" link

She is already on twitter @Queen_UK. Okay, that's not her, but a sock puppet.

However, she is was not 'late to the party' in sending e-mails. She sent her first e-mail in 1976.

In practice (aka reality) OS X has never had a virus or worm. All known in-the-wild exploits to this day have required users to install something, many requiring administrative passwords. That is, all in-the-wild exploits have been trojans.

The Windows landscape is full of viruses and worms. Conficker is just one recent and ongoing example. Botnets are not only comprised mostly of Windows machines running IE, but apparently 80% viruses run in Windows 7 just as they did in previous versions of windows.

And you're repeating the idea that Windows of any stripe is more secure than Mac OS X with a straight face?

Hah - in the UK a cap as low as 250 MB is unlimited. Such is life.

Have you noticed the new Acer netbook - the Ferrari One?

It will appeal to some, but not to others. Pretty expensive for a "netbook" though, which will limit its appeal. Sounds like, at a minimum, it's at least as much a niche product as the MacBook Air.

• ~ $3-400 cheaper than the low-end MacBook Air
• Heavier than a MacBook Air
• Smaller screen than the MBA
• Thicker than the MBA (ITPro called it "chunky" and "not at all like a netbook"
• Main alphanumeric keys are full-sized
• Reported battery life is the same
• VGA instead of Mini-Displayport (but you can buy an ATI external graphics card and use it... is that a feature or a liability?)
• Multiple USB ports

Freedom is hard fought for and easily lost. Those that try and take rights and freedoms away try and do so under the radar. For instance who would have thought that RIPA would be used to spy on half a million uk citizens a year. Most uk citizens I speak to don't know about the eborders scheme, where everyone is catalogued each time they enter or leave the country (with up to 2.5 billion journeys stored at any one time).

The vast amount of information being gathered, as you say via your phone, cards, internet, etc, is worrying. You merge this into one coherent database and you have no privacy left. I would hardly call a slip towards totalitarianism an irrational fear, especially when it is being legislation into existence in front of people's eyes. Many laid down their lives to earn the freedoms we take for granted today, and it would be disrespectful to give them away for temporary convenience.

Phillip.

The way I read it when it first came out was, most of their feature requests were already in the product. So the ribbon was intended to (among other things) try to make it easier for people to find things.

You still have to know what you're looking for, and how Microsoft decided it should be classified. For example, to insert a new line of cells you don't look on the Insert ribbon - if you do, you'd see "Insert / Line" and be surprised when a graph pops up. It's not under Data, as in Insert a line of data. So I go to Home. There's an Insert option, but it's in the box labeled Cells. I don't want cells, I want a whole line. The "old way" was Insert -> Row, and the 2003 shortcut still works in 2007.

"Nine out of 10 feature requests we got for 2007 were already in the 2003 product," says Microsoft senior marketing manager Paul Coleman. "People just couldn't find them."

http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/01/72596

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/114467/is-microsofts-ribbon-ui-really-that-great-from-a-usability-perspective
http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/maryb/2009/07/13/dont-like-the-ribbon-you-will/
http://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/note/666e1143-e735-4d8e-a98a-931fda130235/pivic/Tech
http://www.betanews.com/article/Top-5-obvious-feature-enhancements-to-Microsoft-Office-2010/1247509742/2
http://www.factplace.com/microsoft_onenote_12.htm

Why is it that we haven't built datacenters in places with natural cooling. gives a new meaning to the phrase, sent to siberia.
I know I am not the only one with this obvious Idea.

I've heard about it for a while now - it's not overly new news in the UK.

At least they're not wasting resources on Vista/7 - they're using Windows XP, which is nice and secure(!) As the El Reg article points out, though, at least the submarine is generally a stand-alone network, which should protect it from a lot of vulnerabilities (although not all)

I found this assessment to be adequate when looking at Microsoft as a marketing company that makes the operating system. But what about Bing and Natal? These have been two very important developments to different worlds following the departure of Gates. I read an article from ITPro UK that I think did a better job describing change (or lack thereof) and there's certainly others with their own 1-year-on take.

Personally, it's the small things that Microsoft has done differently that I see as real change. The recent ECMA standardization and community promise surrounding CLI and C# for one. While not perfect, it's an important step. Supporting more community standards (albeit questionable) in IE8 has also been a tremendous step in my mind. I'm not embracing IE8 yet out of sheer caution but these are certainly progressive moves however small. Has Ballmer toned down his wild intensity now that he heads Microsoft and is the unquestionable leader? I don't think so in the operating system world but maybe in smaller subsections of software development. The pricing and marketing strategies they've used for their OS have been just as questionable and (in the case of the OLPC) as ridiculous as ever.

I hate to say it as I thought it was the end of the world when Ballmer took over Microsoft and that everything was going to grind to a halt around them but things don't look so bad. Honestly, I'm more concerned with other companies buying up everyone and everything around them in their quest to own a full stack of software or dominate one cash cow field--Google included. Two or three years ago, had I rubbed--to have everything in the world that was made by them blink out of existence. Now, I'd probably have better things to spend that wish on. I hate to sound like an apologist because I still despise a lot of their marketing tactics and things they do. But I'm glad they're starting to show some improvement and at least a little bit of innovation. I think things had really stagnated under Gates and though Ballmer looked like the big bad wolf, he's obviously taking more risks now that he's in charge.

Some of the articles in "IT Pro" magazine seem to me to be ads. Here are other articles:

Can Microsoft make a success out of Silverlight? Quote: "... Microsoft's Silverlight weighs in at just a four-megabyte download, and apparently takes just 10 seconds to install." Another quote: "So how has Silverlight fared, and can it really topple Flash?" Silverlight is far, far behind Flash.

Can Google or Microsoft get any bigger? Quote: "... Google, along with Microsoft, is so large and so dominant in its sectors, that both firms are hitting a point where their potential for profitable growth is limited." Another quote: "Certainly the pair of them own their key markets, ..." Google and Microsoft are not a "pair".

This is the article, published today, to which this Slashdot story linked: Has Bing already overtaken yahoo? But that article no longer exists, apparently. Now that link takes visitors to another article: UPDATED: Bing and Yahoo battle it out for second in search. Quote: "One stats firm has said Microsoft's Bing has already caught up to rival Yahoo, just a week after launch - but it's since slipped back to third." Bing hasn't "slipped back to third", Bing has dived in the ratings, and is now far behind Yahoo.

Some of the articles in "IT Pro" magazine seem to me to be ads. Here are other articles:

Can Microsoft make a success out of Silverlight? Quote: "... Microsoft's Silverlight weighs in at just a four-megabyte download, and apparently takes just 10 seconds to install." Another quote: "So how has Silverlight fared, and can it really topple Flash?" Silverlight is far, far behind Flash.

Can Google or Microsoft get any bigger? Quote: "... Google, along with Microsoft, is so large and so dominant in its sectors, that both firms are hitting a point where their potential for profitable growth is limited." Another quote: "Certainly the pair of them own their key markets, ..." Google and Microsoft are not a "pair".

This is the article, published today, to which this Slashdot story linked: Has Bing already overtaken yahoo? But that article no longer exists, apparently. Now that link takes visitors to another article: UPDATED: Bing and Yahoo battle it out for second in search. Quote: "One stats firm has said Microsoft's Bing has already caught up to rival Yahoo, just a week after launch - but it's since slipped back to third." Bing hasn't "slipped back to third", Bing has dived in the ratings, and is now far behind Yahoo.

Some of the articles in "IT Pro" magazine seem to me to be ads. Here are other articles:

Can Microsoft make a success out of Silverlight? Quote: "... Microsoft's Silverlight weighs in at just a four-megabyte download, and apparently takes just 10 seconds to install." Another quote: "So how has Silverlight fared, and can it really topple Flash?" Silverlight is far, far behind Flash.

Can Google or Microsoft get any bigger? Quote: "... Google, along with Microsoft, is so large and so dominant in its sectors, that both firms are hitting a point where their potential for profitable growth is limited." Another quote: "Certainly the pair of them own their key markets, ..." Google and Microsoft are not a "pair".

This is the article, published today, to which this Slashdot story linked: Has Bing already overtaken yahoo? But that article no longer exists, apparently. Now that link takes visitors to another article: UPDATED: Bing and Yahoo battle it out for second in search. Quote: "One stats firm has said Microsoft's Bing has already caught up to rival Yahoo, just a week after launch - but it's since slipped back to third." Bing hasn't "slipped back to third", Bing has dived in the ratings, and is now far behind Yahoo.

you must be new here, or have a short memory

http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/03/31/0039238.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/03/31/200201.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/04/20/2112208.shtml
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/05/02/0049225.shtml

http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future
http://www.itpro.co.uk/605496/iso-rejects-anti-microsoft-office-open-standards-appeal

"The International Standards Organisation has rejected appeals from four countries to deny Microsoft's Office Open XML backing as an international standard.

OOXML won approval from the ISO in April, following a controversial fast-track review process which was plagued with claims of voting irregularities, and accusations of technical flaws in the standard itself."

page 2 of the last link is a hoot as well http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future/2

"ISO ratification was achieved at considerable cost. The reputation of the ISO was compromised, as was that of Microsoft. ISO ratification was achieved amid widespread allegations of misbehaviour and undue political influence, which was noted by the likes of the European Commission. Neelie Kroes, the EU Commissioner, recently said: "If voting in the standard-setting context is influenced less by the technical merits of the technology but rather by side agreements, inducements, package deals, reciprocal agreements, or commercial pressure ... then these risk falling foul of the competition rules."

The process has also adversely affected the work of the ISO. Martin Bryan, a senior ISO/IEC Convenor, who reported that the fast-tracking of OOXML "has made it almost impossible to continue with our work within ISO. The influx of P members whose only interest is the fast-tracking of ECMA 376 (OOXML) as ISO 29500 has led to the failure of a number of key ballots."

"More than one commentator was reminded of the famous remark by Tom Lehrer, mathematics lecturer and sixties satirist, who said that "satire became obsolete the day that Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.""

Do I need say any more

you must be new here, or have a short memory

http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/03/31/0039238.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/03/31/200201.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/04/20/2112208.shtml
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/05/02/0049225.shtml

http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future
http://www.itpro.co.uk/605496/iso-rejects-anti-microsoft-office-open-standards-appeal

"The International Standards Organisation has rejected appeals from four countries to deny Microsoft's Office Open XML backing as an international standard.

OOXML won approval from the ISO in April, following a controversial fast-track review process which was plagued with claims of voting irregularities, and accusations of technical flaws in the standard itself."

page 2 of the last link is a hoot as well http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future/2

"ISO ratification was achieved at considerable cost. The reputation of the ISO was compromised, as was that of Microsoft. ISO ratification was achieved amid widespread allegations of misbehaviour and undue political influence, which was noted by the likes of the European Commission. Neelie Kroes, the EU Commissioner, recently said: "If voting in the standard-setting context is influenced less by the technical merits of the technology but rather by side agreements, inducements, package deals, reciprocal agreements, or commercial pressure ... then these risk falling foul of the competition rules."

The process has also adversely affected the work of the ISO. Martin Bryan, a senior ISO/IEC Convenor, who reported that the fast-tracking of OOXML "has made it almost impossible to continue with our work within ISO. The influx of P members whose only interest is the fast-tracking of ECMA 376 (OOXML) as ISO 29500 has led to the failure of a number of key ballots."

"More than one commentator was reminded of the famous remark by Tom Lehrer, mathematics lecturer and sixties satirist, who said that "satire became obsolete the day that Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.""

Do I need say any more

you must be new here, or have a short memory

http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/03/31/0039238.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/03/31/200201.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/04/20/2112208.shtml
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/05/02/0049225.shtml

http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future
http://www.itpro.co.uk/605496/iso-rejects-anti-microsoft-office-open-standards-appeal

"The International Standards Organisation has rejected appeals from four countries to deny Microsoft's Office Open XML backing as an international standard.

OOXML won approval from the ISO in April, following a controversial fast-track review process which was plagued with claims of voting irregularities, and accusations of technical flaws in the standard itself."

page 2 of the last link is a hoot as well http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future/2

"ISO ratification was achieved at considerable cost. The reputation of the ISO was compromised, as was that of Microsoft. ISO ratification was achieved amid widespread allegations of misbehaviour and undue political influence, which was noted by the likes of the European Commission. Neelie Kroes, the EU Commissioner, recently said: "If voting in the standard-setting context is influenced less by the technical merits of the technology but rather by side agreements, inducements, package deals, reciprocal agreements, or commercial pressure ... then these risk falling foul of the competition rules."

The process has also adversely affected the work of the ISO. Martin Bryan, a senior ISO/IEC Convenor, who reported that the fast-tracking of OOXML "has made it almost impossible to continue with our work within ISO. The influx of P members whose only interest is the fast-tracking of ECMA 376 (OOXML) as ISO 29500 has led to the failure of a number of key ballots."

"More than one commentator was reminded of the famous remark by Tom Lehrer, mathematics lecturer and sixties satirist, who said that "satire became obsolete the day that Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.""

Do I need say any more

While partial encryption strategies for sensitive data may be a good idea, whole-disk-encryption is largely a bad idea. Most users don't really need to encrypt stuff like temporary files, os files, program files etc. It's just the sensitive user-created stuff that may need protection.

Especially, some researchers have found that whole-disk-encryption is fairly easy broken (pure software solution) for any machine that has had it's keys in ram (not wiped) up to the last 5 minutes or so. (I.e. in ACPI Standby).
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9876060-38.html
http://www.itpro.co.uk/170304/disk-encryption-easily-defeated-research-shows

I go with similar suggestion as some others here mentioned, focus security on home-directories, possibly removable media (although be careful about user education, ALL removable media should of course not be encrypted). Above all, focus on a strong practice and security around putting stuff in networked storage. That can also help keeping backups, versioning and have other positive side-effects.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/182871/staff-forced-to-bypass-security-controls

The fact is that the people themselves will likely be forced to override it just to have some sense of normal workplace functionality. Or they'll do it because they don't want to be bothered.

It's a lot like when the U.S. missile launch codes were all set to 00000000 to keep it simple:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jun/17/usa.oliverburkeman1

Evidently people also had the same problem - they hated the security so much that they disabled it.

And then there's this gem from last year:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/28/long-hacker-csc-tech-security-cx_ag_0229hacker.html

Evidently old school attack vectors are far more likely to succeed at getting data. I'd get your managers to concentrate on physical security and internal checks instead of worrying about computer data. That doesn't mean you don't need some security, but the simple fact is that more than 90% of data theft are inside jobs and simple employee stupidity.

But you should know this already. I'd be more worried about the competency of an employee posting on slashdot about how they need help from the Peanut Gallery here than whether my files are encrypted or not.

Ok, sorry, Apple didn't ever tell people NOT to install antivirus software. However, they do tell people it isn't necessary, which is just as dangerous.

And I quote: "'The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box,' the spokesman told the BBC."

http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/1205/apple.html

http://www.itpro.co.uk/608967/week-in-review-apple-confuses-on-security

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/practicalmac/2008475243_ptmacc06.html?syndication=rss

Business travellers in the US and Europe lose a staggering 15,648 laptops per week, according to a new study by Dell.

So one shouldn't be surprised that laptops go missing, if the study is anything like accurate.

If it was satire, I'd say something like "The pictures on the camera were from MI6's new initiative to recruit people through Facebook." Oh wait, that's a real story. o_0

except by Lindows/Linspire - does anyone use that any more?

At least 1,5 million users only in the US, there must also be a few of us in the rest of the world, thank you for noticing.

you've obviously never heard of sewer networks.

This has been a long time in the coming and has been bugging the hell out of me. This is where i see a lot of the "Community Contributions" involving Jeff Hawkin's recent endeavors. If you take a look at some of the details of his models, the fact that DARPA and Lockheed/Martin have taken an interest in his work, and his recent projects things start to look scary.

It is easy to envision the possible uses for his recent mundane technologies". Itinerary analysis and keyword triggered speech recognition and recording? The former has obvious uses and the latter would remove a metric shitload of overhead from surveillance storage and analysis.

My tinfoil hat allergy can only say correlation != causation so many times before the system spazzes right out.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/154929/shells-it-outsourcing-plans-lambasted.html

Ha! This will teach those damn snot-nose punks to expect too much! Outsource, offshore, hire H1Bs, make the entire IT field low-paying, and insecure, for new IT workers. Have tech workers work 70 hours a week, all sort of odd shifts, and be on-call 24x7. Then demand a college degree, certs, and experience, and don't pay a living wage.

Then publish all sorts of bullsh!t articles about how companies not find any IT workers, and how IT workers have it too good.

Thing I'm exaggerating? See the results of my informal survey, go to techtoil.org, and click on "Salary Survey" check out these sections:

# TECH/HELPDESK : $10 - $20/hour
# UNSKILLED LABOR : $8 - $16/hour
# WEB DESIGN : $0 - $30/hour

Anyone want to bet that if they'd stuck with Caldera Linux as their primary business, they'd be doing a lot better today?

Yes.

"Ransom Love, the immediate successor to Sparks, engaged in a famous spat with Richard Stallman, after Love had announced that Caldera would drop the GNU GPL (General Public License), the most common free software license, for future products because it was holding back its business. Love claimed: "We add value to Linux, so it can become successful. We integrate Linux in back office systems and we do all the marketing that's necessary. Did Richard Stallman ever invest $100 million (£50 million) in Linux? We did." Love asserted that the free software movement had "no clue" about marketing, and doesn't realise that "someone must pay for it", to which Stallman's curt response was that "Caldera's not a free software company at all. They are just a parasite.""
(c.f., emphasis mine)

CC.

Well, impress us with all the obscure legal terms you want; this article points out Caldera/SCO's quote way back when: "...people were concerned then that Caldera was trying to take Linux proprietary. And they couldn't be more wrong. Because we never had an intention. Never have. Never will."

I still say: Promises, schomises. Let's kill off Novell right now, then we'll be damned sure that they won't be any trouble. Welcome to 2007; after 15 years of being under constant attack, the Linux community is figuring out how to cover its ass. Duh!

No, an unbiased observer would probably see this as an extension of student discount programs Microsoft already offers or an attempt to make a little extra money from markets that currently bring in none.

It's interesting that the summary only surmises what an unbiased observer might wonder, whereas you claim to speak for all unbiased observers. You are clearly a Microsoft fanboy, therefore not an unbiased observer. I don't believe it takes a 'free software zealot' to realise that this move is as a direct result of the OLPC efforts. Microsoft are rightly worried they're going to miss out, losing market share to FLOSS. I would be worred if I were defending an outdated business model with an uncertain future too.

The BBC is pretty unbiased when it comes to technology and they made the comparison between this and the OLPC, or did you not bother to read the article? Even if they aren't unbiased they're certainly not 'free software zealots'.

Whilst it's unfortunate that you're a Microsoft fanboy I do applaud your spelling of the word 'arse'.

...it's been proved to be unenforceable, and is therefore ignored.

This statement is based on a fallacy. Given that the RIPA key disclosure requirements have not yet been 'activated' (see http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/98805/new-ripa-act-pow ers-puts-data-security-at-risk.html) they cannot be proven to be enforceable or unenforceable - yet.