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The salient point is that you identified these by the use of tools to snoop, not tools to deny.

I think the problem that use corporate tools exerience is that the tools for denial are easier to use than the tools to snoop and creating an exception (like SMTP) is so difficult from a company policy perspective that there now exists many missed opportunities for improvement.

WSJ posted a great article about a company in France. The point I would like to make with this article is the following quote:

Remarkably, FAVI has thrived in, of all places, France -- a country Mr. Zobrist describes as the "last Soviet Republic." In a country obsessed with centralization, and that still produces five-year plans, Mr. Zobrist has pushed control down to the front lines, where it does the most good. Friedrich Hayek, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, argued 60 years ago that decentralized systems would always beat centralized, command-and-control systems because, in his famous phrase, all important information is distributed and the "man-on-the-spot" knows best. Thus, no one person or ministry knows enough to direct resources for an entire economy. The collapse of the Soviet system underscored his point. But if central planning has gone out of style as a means of organizing the economy, it remains far too prevalent as a means of organizing firms. If Jean-Francois Zobrist can break that mold in France, there must be hope for workers everywhere who are trapped in the chain of command.

I wonder if there is a way to trick them into auditing you even if you have never agreed to their license. Then maybe you could charge them with trespass or harassment. If you're in Pennsylvania, you might even be able to hammer them with a third degree felony, like they did to those high school kids.

PA Title 18, Chapter 76: Computer Offenses
"Computer Trespass" PA criminal code section 7615, a Third degree felony.

(a) Offense defined.--A person commits the offense of computer trespass if he knowingly and without authority or in excess of given authority uses a computer or computer network with the intent to:

(1) temporarily or permanently remove computer data, computer programs or computer software from a computer or computer network;

(2) cause a computer to malfunction, regardless of the amount of time the malfunction persists;

(3) alter or erase any computer data, computer programs or computer software;

(4) effect the creation or alteration of a financial instrument or of an electronic transfer of funds; or

(5) cause physical injury to the property of another.

(b) Grading.--An offense under this section shall constitute a felony of the third degree
--http://www.wcupa.edu/infoservices/polici es/pa_ti tle_18_chapter_76.htm

I downloaded the removed video when the site was on Fark this week. You can get it off my server here (3.8 meg wmv).

Just read the second page on the site. It's an "about the company" article that says, "There have been times when demand was better than supply, and service has fallen behind".
First, marketing 101, you never talk about your faults unless you are trying to refute some sort of negative assertion or claim. Second, the phrasing of the sentance indicates that they still have a customer service problem. They should have used "had" not "have" or "has".

How about this one? "If you want a simple, no-frills printer; if you don't want to buy features you'll never use; if you want... we're afraid there's only one logical choice." I'm pretty sure that they could have said that better. I mean, you don't talk about what the product CAN'T do, you talk about what it CAN do and how much more value you get for the things you DO want to do.

Just read the second page on the site. It's an "about the company" article that says, "There have been times when demand was better than supply, and service has fallen behind".
First, marketing 101, you never talk about your faults unless you are trying to refute some sort of negative assertion or claim. Second, the phrasing of the sentance indicates that they still have a customer service problem. They should have used "had" not "have" or "has".

How about this one? "If you want a simple, no-frills printer; if you don't want to buy features you'll never use; if you want... we're afraid there's only one logical choice." I'm pretty sure that they could have said that better. I mean, you don't talk about what the product CAN'T do, you talk about what it CAN do and how much more value you get for the things you DO want to do.

Wikipedia is amazing -- it even has an entry for The Magic Wand word-processing software advertised on one of the catalog's pages:

Magic Wand (software)

I remember printing pages of BASIC source code with one of these things. At 25cps I could usually type faster than this thing count print.

I once reprogramming the horizontal and vertical motion rates and printing lots and lots of periods to print really ugly bitmap images.

I'll take it down if he wants me to, of course, but I thought it would help.

First, the two languages are very similar, with PHP biased towards web-programming, mostly by the absense of particular libraries. But PHP is also emerging as a general purpose language. There has been some experiments to get a GTK capability to PHP.

But, if you already have a staff trained in perl, there's IMO not any real reason for you to switch to PHP.
I have, however, developed a preference for PHP, it has a simpler syntax, and better naming conventions. PHP has more text and perl have more meta-characters when defining arrays, doing string manipulation ect. PHP is simply more readable, to beginners at least. What is the point for example for an array to be prefixed by % or @ or $, depending on the context?

Thanks for your comment.

I looked at the emoscop. An emoscop adapter on a less expensive 2Meg or 4Meg pixel camera may be a very good way to reduce the cost of building a video headset for the Legally Blind. I'll be glad when I retire in a few (too many) years and have time to build a prototype (maybe someone will do it before me, ... I hope they won't patent what I consider an obvious application of available technology). After I retire ..., taking the SF farther may involve some of the concepts implied by the below websites.

Electroreactive and conducting polymers:

http://www.wcupa.edu/_acad emics/sch_cas.che/mrc.htm

Smart Optics:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/d oi/10.1046/j.1468-4004.2003.44126.x/abs/

Flexible water-filled lens concepts:

http://physics.ucsd.edu/students/courses /fall2002/physicslabs/physics1clab/

Maybe a smart/programable emoscop with eltroreactive fluid-filled lenses for .... As Annie always said to Daddy WarBucks; TOMORROW ....

OldHawk777

Thanks for your comment.

I looked at the emoscop. An emoscop adapter on a less expensive 2Meg or 4Meg pixel camera may be a very good way to reduce the cost of building a video headset for the Legally Blind. I'll be glad when I retire in a few (too many) years and have time to build a prototype (maybe someone will do it before me, ... I hope they won't patent what I consider an obvious application of available technology). After I retire ..., taking the SF farther may involve some of the concepts implied by the below websites.

Electroreactive and conducting polymers:

http://www.wcupa.edu/_acad emics/sch_cas.che/mrc.htm

Smart Optics:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/d oi/10.1046/j.1468-4004.2003.44126.x/abs/

Flexible water-filled lens concepts:

http://physics.ucsd.edu/students/courses /fall2002/physicslabs/physics1clab/

Maybe a smart/programable emoscop with eltroreactive fluid-filled lenses for .... As Annie always said to Daddy WarBucks; TOMORROW ....

OldHawk777

Here are a couple of referneces:

• http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/magic-realism .html
• http://courses.wcupa.edu/fletcher/novel.htm

I'm a huge fan of this genre as it begins to evolve into the mainstream. It's allowing many authors who have been struggling for credibility in the F&SF genres to start to get some real notice for their extraordinary talents (not to mention producing stores like "American Gods" and "Gun With Occasional Music").

When the Social Security system, everyone received a social security number that we were assured that it would not be used as a personal ID number. But, there was never a law passed to keep it from being an ID number.

Then, of course, we got used to it... everyone has a social security number. It became a defacto ID number. At my school, each student is given an id number, but rarely does anyone know it, because you can use your SS# anywhere you need your id#.

Now, with the war on terrorism, I'm sure someone will get the bright idea of changing the SS# into an identification number, and across the country, millions of people will scratch their heads and say, "What was it before?"

Murakami and many many other "postmodern" authors owe a debt to magic realism, which in terms of literature was originally used to describe Latin-American writers such as Borges and García Márquez. So you might do well to start out with Borges' "La Biblioteca Total" or García Márquez's "Cien Años de Soledad"

A friend of mine swears by the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, though I certainly couldn't tell you how he reads in the original Arabic.

Also, although he writes in English, I'd urge you to consider the great Anglo-Japanese writer Kazuo Ishiguro. Japanese and English people are both known to outsiders for their senses of reserve and decorum, and Ishiguro taps into that beautifully in his "The Remains of the Day." But if you are looking for something more overtly allegorical, you will do no better than the quietly bizarre novel "The Unconsoled" certainly one of the best books I've ever read.

The worst part of this all is that the "new" price of $399 is horrible. They are also trying to shirk with a $30 coupon. Link below.

Here are a few links to show you how to find a deal on this card, Vision Tek part number 30001522 :

Pricewatch Search for 30001522

Tip on searching Pricewatch (my favorite); the url format is: [http://brook.pricewatch.com/search/search.asp?cri teria=item_criteria_here]

Streetprices Search for 30001522

Pricegrabber Search, I don't like Price-grabber, but its here to show that even a crappy Shylock engine is better than Worst Buy ©(TM)®.

BEST BUY charged with FRAUD:
Best Buy & HRS Credit Insurance Fraud to their customers. Big Ripoff Scam!

Story also covered here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/10020202.htm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24005.html

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/19176/

http://courses.wcupa.edu/jredingt/BestBuy.htm

http://www.hardocp.com/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/24041 . tml Worst Buy Highway Robbery Inc. Trying to give only $30 bucks for mistake.

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bes tbuy_gf4deal.html

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bb_ arrest.html

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/24/11357/3033 .

I have had horrible experience with them as well. I won't even go into it, but they tried to do something fraudulent and were obstinate about owning up to it.

I had a similar Problem with Buy.COM and there was a class action lawsuit and 3 years later I got a $60 coupon for my troubles. I would have liked to have gotten a $50 Hitachi monitor for th $163 dollars they promised it for.

It has been committed in history FORVER, here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&frame=right& th=5c9f98e92d07422b&seekm=36C0A7EF.7AF4%40uclink4. berkeley.edu#link1

I have had horrible experience with them as well. I won't even go into it, but they tried to do something fraudulent and were obstinate about owning up to it.

The worst part of this all is that the "new" price of $399 is horrible.

Here are a few links to show you how to find a deal on this card, Vision Tek part number 30001522 :

Pricewatch Search for 30001522

Tip on searching Pricewatch (my favorite); the url format is: [http://brook.pricewatch.com/search/search.asp?cri teria=item_criteria_here]

Streetprices Search for 30001522

Pricegrabber Search, I don't like Price-grabber, but its here to show that even a crappy Shylock engine is better than Worst Buy ©(TM)®.

BEST BUY charged with FRAUD:
Best Buy & HRS Credit Insurance Fraud to their customers. Big Ripoff Scam!

Story also covered here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/10020202.htm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24005.html

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/19176/

http://courses.wcupa.edu/jredingt/BestBuy.htm

http://www.hardocp.com/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/24041 . tml Worst Buy Highway Robbery Inc. Trying to give only $30 bucks for mistake.

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bes tbuy_gf4deal.html

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bb_ arrest.html

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/24/11357/3033 .

I have had horrible experience with them as well. I won't even go into it, but they tried to do something fraudulent and were obstinate about owning up to it.

The worst part of this all is that the "new" price of $399 is horrible.

Here are a few links to show you how to find a deal on this card, Vision Tek part number 30001522 :

Pricewatch Search for 30001522

Tip on searching Pricewatch (my favorite); the url format is: [http://brook.pricewatch.com/search/search.asp?cri teria=item_criteria_here]

Streetprices Search for 30001522

Pricegrabber Search, I don't like Price-grabber, but its here to show that even a crappy Shylock engine is better than Worst Buy ©(TM)®.

BEST BUY charged with FRAUD:
Best Buy & HRS Credit Insurance Fraud to their customers. Big Ripoff Scam!

Story also covered here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/10020202.htm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24005.html

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/19176/

http://courses.wcupa.edu/jredingt/BestBuy.htm

http://www.hardocp.com/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/24041 . tml Worst Buy Highway Robbery Inc. Trying to give only $30 bucks for mistake.

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bes tbuy_gf4deal.html

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bb_ arrest.html

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/24/11357/3033 .

At West Chester U, we had a service contract with IBM, so all the new PC's were theirs. But that's the only place I've seen them.

BTW, can anyone give me some suggestions of academic reasons I can submit the network gestapo to have ping reactivated?

Tom Albrecht III

According to a few stories from local (to me) newspapers and television stations, I am led to believe that the discovery was at the state university about 5 minutes from where I live, West Chester University (Pennsylvania). This is somewhat surprising because WCU is mainly a school for teachers and musicians, and doesn't have a very strong science program.
---------------

I wouldn't consider this the appropriate forum for theological questions. But if you care to, email me personally and I would love to see if I can point you in the right direction.

Well.. I read your reply!
Seriously though, I agree with you. I go to West Chester University and the main school mail server is an Exchange Box and all the lab computers are Win95 boxes. Even with this there are still others fighting the good fight.
Scheduling is done on IBM mainframe with a web front end.
The Academic Computing Center uses Linux and BSD boxes for some things.
There are a few Macs floating around as well.
But check out the Computer Science department. The main web page is run off of an old DEC ULTRIX box. We also have a Sparc 10 Solaris box, two Linux boxes (one PIII, one PII), a BSD box, and many Sparc Classics running Linux or Solaris serving as X-Terminals to either the Linux boxes or the Sparc 10 box.
WCU is a small little state school and spends a lot of money on MS software. Even so, I don't think they would switch to a total MS world. Both the ACC and the CS department would fight it forever. One of the few really good departments at WCU is the CS department (I know I'm biased but really it's true!). A big part of that is the wide exposure you get. Going through WCU I saw everything under the sun (excuse the pun). When I got out I had a resume that let me go anywhere in the IT world. I think that it would be a bad idea to give that up and I think that WCU would agree. So would a lot of other universities.

Well.. I read your reply!
Seriously though, I agree with you. I go to West Chester University and the main school mail server is an Exchange Box and all the lab computers are Win95 boxes. Even with this there are still others fighting the good fight.
Scheduling is done on IBM mainframe with a web front end.
The Academic Computing Center uses Linux and BSD boxes for some things.
There are a few Macs floating around as well.
But check out the Computer Science department. The main web page is run off of an old DEC ULTRIX box. We also have a Sparc 10 Solaris box, two Linux boxes (one PIII, one PII), a BSD box, and many Sparc Classics running Linux or Solaris serving as X-Terminals to either the Linux boxes or the Sparc 10 box.
WCU is a small little state school and spends a lot of money on MS software. Even so, I don't think they would switch to a total MS world. Both the ACC and the CS department would fight it forever. One of the few really good departments at WCU is the CS department (I know I'm biased but really it's true!). A big part of that is the wide exposure you get. Going through WCU I saw everything under the sun (excuse the pun). When I got out I had a resume that let me go anywhere in the IT world. I think that it would be a bad idea to give that up and I think that WCU would agree. So would a lot of other universities.

With PC prices below $500.00, why you just set up a Linux box that boots off a server. My old school, West Chester University did this to their old, slow, Sparc Classics. They all run off of either a Linux box or bigger Sun Solaris box. They run great now. Its even better than an X Terminal; it gives you the best of both worlds.