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Polish MP Returns iPad Citing Lack of Control
rysiek writes "Polish MP and spokesperson for one of Polish political parties Dariusz Joski returned his state-issued iPad, citing lack of control (Google-translated). Polish Free and Open Source Software Foundation (of Anti-ACTA fame) offered (free of charge, of course) to help him choose, install and configure Linux on his laptop, including setting-up disk encryption. We are still waiting for an answer from the MP."
Another concern of his appears to have been a lack of security regarding communications with other government officials.
The MP probably doesn't realize that Apple has plenty of control over all iPads.
From the Google-translated story, a quotation:
"Admin has access to everything. Tablet I am"
Sounds ominous indeed.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Well as a politician I'm pretty sure he had one eye on the free publicity for him this would cause, seems to have worked I'd say.
iOS 3+ is full disk encrypted. http://www.neowin.net/news/ios-encryption-is-impossible-to-crack-by-nsas-standards
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
it's that there's no mouse and keyboard or printing support (as far as I know)
You... don't know. Here's a list of a couple hundred printers that work with the iPad, here is a roundup of keyboard/case solutions for the iPad from The Verge. I'm not going to search for mouse setups for a multi-touch device for various reasons.
You know what really bugs me about your post? Since the first time I logged into slashdot, I've been reading about cases of FUD working against Linux and Open Source Software. Now I'm seeing Linux and Android fanboys with their heads up their asses, spreading the same kind of FUD. "Oh, as far as I know, it doesn't work with external keyboards." sure brings me back to the times of, "It seems to me that if it was good, they'd charge money for it."
It's kinda sad that Apple hates on Linux then actually released a product that's less functional, less flexible, and less compatible with other software than Linux.
Apple hates on Linux? Linux isn't even on Apple's radar. What they've made is a product that's more functional and flexible than a phone, while being considerably more portable than a laptop. They weren't trying to create a new laptop, they were aiming for a product between laptops and phones. Most people have extremely low demands of their computers. Email, Skype, a browser and a photo editing application. Hell, my girlfriend is technical enough to fix her own router, but I haven't seen her do anything on her laptop that she couldn't do on a tablet in the four months we've been living together.
The land I was born in, the land that I grew up in, the land that I live in and the land that I love... ...with some of the worst (or best, depending on your definition of the word) politicians I've ever seen. You have to understand - they don't use those iPads for anything other than browsing porn ( http://www.komputerswiat.pl/media/2012/187/2456339/porno-tablety-sejm-1.jpg ) or funnyjunk-like equivalents. They're wasting money - and they're wasting our money, because the iPads were state-funded. We're letting them do that - and there is nothing we can do to change that.
This isn't just some generic "politics == stupid" sentiment - this is a matter of analyzing at least the major decisions of the last 100 years and coming to the conclusion that the decisionmakers are idiots. It would be at least comforting to know that the voters are aware of it, but no dice - politics in Poland are either a taboo subject or restricted entirely to the Internet - and we all know how debating on the Internet works. I can honestly tell you that no camp currently registered for voting into the Sejm (the Senate 2.0) is worth voting for. The two major parties, PO (centrist/right) and PiS (right/national) are so deep in shitslinging between them that they lost focus on running the country, which breeds tons of discontent and lots of potential for corruption, both internal and external - they were both caught in the act, too. The alternative parties aren't much better: SLD (left/social) are basically repurposed commies from the last system and notorious for their mob connections, Ruch Palikota (liberal) is led by a huge idiot who changes his views like a goddamn flag, and UPR (left social/right economy) is helmed by a guy who is first to rip off "working" solutions from other countries with no regard for both current possibilities or needs of Poland.
This situation is perfect for PR however, since voting usually is not between "the best candidates" but "the least evil", so it just takes the right amount of spin to completely ruin a party's chances.
But it starts to show. Voter participation is dropping with each term - which in the short term is very bad since it leads to fringe voting, but in the long run demonstrates that we're starting to get tired of this shit.
It crossed my mind to post this anonymously to be honest, since Polish politics are a matter of very heated (and very vulgar) debate on the Polish-speaking Internet, but, ah well.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
I think the big story is that there still exist people who don't know about the lack of control. On Slashdot we all know; in the mainstream most people don't.
Obviously the guy cares about being The master of his computer, knowing who has access to his imap password, etc. Had he known how bad this particular personal computer would be about such things, he would have avoided it from the beginning. But he didn't.
This suggests to me that more educating of the public, could help everyone a lot. People ought to know about iOS' problems before, not after. Finding out after is why Apple is doing so well (as Microsoft before them), and at the public's expense since control issues are zero-sum games.
This guy should never have been put into this situation where he has to get rid of the already-paid-for junk. But unlike many problems, we actually have the power to prevent this one, simply by spreading the word.
Apple-bashing isn't sufficient; you have to say why you're Apple-bashing. Explain the problem enough, and eventually people won't need things bashed anymore, because the products' defects will scream at the prospective customers for themselves. They'll see that some products aren't advertised as serving their users or as being secure, and realize "oh right, that stuff matters, and it's suspicious when the manufacturer weasels about it."
There's no reason we can't get the state of the art in security (who has access to your email?) at least back to as well as it was 20 years ago (which was pretty bad, but I'm only comparing it to 2012 so the bar is absurdly low). All it takes it getting the public to think that way.