*Things the Govt can do* - FTC needs to ensure caller ID cant be spoofed - FBI needs to hunt down the racketeers and bust them - FTC needs to mandate (likely by fiat) that the telephone companies make the robocallers pay the full cost for the call
*Things you can do* - Use an audio capcha system - Provide a system to black list known and irritating callers - A few people discussed how Google voice might solve the problem.
I did not expect to see that many people going through the submission process which tells me that the pain point is real. However, I think people are mostly converging on how they intend to block the calls and the winner will get decided on how good your execution measures up to every one else. What FTC finally does implement based on the contest is another matter.
I work for a smallish team (~100) in a megacorp that ships a service that has a significant number of customers.
We have 2 major code branches - the developer branch and the production branch. - The production branch sees management approved point fixes that get collected and rolled out every month after a huge number of tests (automated and manual). - The developer branch gets continuous feature additions. We collect all features from the developer branch and move it to production once every 6 months.
The details below pertain to our developer branch: Like a lot of other people have suggested, we have spent time on robust test automation. We split that up into a smallish set that runs before any code check in. All checked in code runs through a significant battery of tests nightly. We fork the developer branch and deploy it on a self hosted environment every week. After self hosting features for ~5.5 months, we initiate rolling out the new features to production - takes about a fortnight.
With Windows Intune, you get the same list of updates as the Windows Software Update Service (WSUS), with the same level of control:
* Windows Intune works over the cloud like Windows Update and Microsoft Update, but you don't need on-site infrastructure.
* Updates are delivered directly to any of your managed PCs that have an Internet connection.
Partners can manage Windows Intune for multiple customers from a central place (the central place being https://manage.microsoft.com).
In order to sell subscriptions to Windows Intune, you will need to first sign a Microsoft Online Services Partner Agreement (MOSPA).
Subscriptions to Windows Intune will be sold like other cloud services from Microsoft—through the Microsoft Online Services website at http://www.microsoft.com/online/.
Windows intune provides you with a simple web based console to do the following: Manage updates: Centrally manage the deployment of the Microsoft® updates and service packs you choose to all your PCs from the Windows Intune console—freeing up your IT staff from routine management tasks.
Protect PCs from malware: Help safeguard your PCs from the latest threats with centralized protection that's built on the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine and uses the same trusted technologies as Microsoft Forefront® Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Security Essentials.
Proactively monitor PCs: Receive alerts on updates and threats so that you can proactively identify and resolve problems with your PCs— before they impact end users and your business.
Provide remote assistance: Help resolve PC issues, regardless of where you or your end users are located, with remote assistance.
Track hardware and software inventory: Track hardware and software assets used in your business to efficiently manage your assets, licenses, and compliance.
Set security policies: Centrally manage update, firewall, and malware protection settings across all of your PCs, even on remote machines outside the corporate network.
Re:In the End...
on
Why Microsoft?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
You can use any browser of your choice. I do. I have never seen any employee use a Linux desktop. I can't imagine the pain you would have to go through to develop/debug windows stuff on a linux box. I have seen people use their apple macbook-air to present things often enough though. I have also seen the IT staff doing their best to help visitors to the campus with config issues even when they use linux. I know several people who use windows ports of vim/emacs/cygwin etc in their primary desktops. Their code does make it to the public. We are expected to dogfood our own applications. So yes, we do check out the latest browser, the latest builds of visual studio or what ever else we get asked to check. Thanks
We store customer specific data hence we are legally mandated to ensure that e.g. EU customers go to EU. Every time a customer reports a problem, we need to look at web logs or SQL query results from a specific set of machines to help debug it. The sheer number of data centers we are hosted in makes it impossible to keep them all in sync at any given time, hence its not always possible to debug based on results from the closest data center.
I work with world class developers and an equally competent team of operations folks. The amount of disconnect between the 2 sets of folks is amazing. The developers black box stuff out of their consideration (e.g. setting up load balancers, with or with out affinity, not littering certificates all over the place, the amount of privileges a service needs etc.). The operations folks ignore other aspects (a cache that's hard to build could be lost after a process recycle, not version controlling their ad-hoc queries/sql jobs etc.) Even if I take out considerations of giving developers access to customer sensitive data, the mere fact that most developers assume that a complete clean reinstall is as trivial as going back to a previous VM image (wrt time considerations) makes me pause and not provide them access. Add to the fact that developers talk in logical terms (regardless of scale) while operations talks in physical terms (actual machine names, drives etc.) and watching them communicate is like watching 2 blind men describe an elephant to you. Our team makes it mandatory for developers to request for clean concise information from operations who procure it on their behalf. Yes it is slow, yes, it makes the developers having to batch their queries together but I can't imagine doing it any other way right now.
There is already a fork that is being worked upon by Monty (who was the founder of MySQL)
I suspect the real contention is over the brand MySQL (which has significant mind-share) which was transferred to SUN and will now go to Oracle.
A lot of medium sized companies use MySQL today and have support contracts with who-so-ever owns the brand itself.
They I guess are the ones who are worried - choosing another database is often not an option.
I think the problem that you may be facing is due to firefox doing weird things to generate random numbers at start See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=501605 I see that the bug has since been fixed - but I guess it has not been distributed to the general public via upgrades.
I actually am looking at the Apache2 code right now for some obscure reasons. I have 6 years of professional development experience (though very little of that in C). What I saw was, it took me like 2 weeks of constant battling to make some sense of the code in any way. GDB, inserting random print statement statements, stace and ltrace helped. However what has come out as the most difficult road block for me is: Macros! I don't get flustered by pointers too much, but Apache2 code uses some demonic macros, resulting in method invocations being redirected to differently named subroutines in other files. That and the fact that any substantial project takes 10 minutes to recompile for every trivial thing I change are my real pain points. Having said that, just because I can now read the code does not let me feel confident that I can contribute code to Apache2. That I think will take way more time!!!
R K Pachauri thinks this will facilitate more gas guzzling on the roads, though Tatas are quick to reject it. Suzuki thinks safety concerns would mount
People are also worried if our roads will be congested by these cars.
actually, it might not, but then it does not have to. Without exception, Indian cyber cafes have PCs that come preloaded with windows. Often its cobranded with the ISP. Often all that is available to the user is internet explorer, Microsoft word and yahoo messenger (by that I mean, those are the only 3 icons on the Desktop - for most people, they are equivalent)
I can imagine the Mumbai police doing some thing as hare-brained as that. It might be their attempt at fight against terror. I am hoping that people will wizen up to it. The publicity here an elsewhere might help!
I am not sure if you are ignorant or illiterate. exactly when did i say that i code in windows (and if i do, so what?) and are you upset that java is not being released in the BSD license?
I never said that I could not find a dictionary of english words. if you had read my post, you would know that I talked of dictionaries in multiple languages. Of all the languages in the world, English is just one of them. It might help to remember that much.
I am currently working on a java-based universal spell checker (the kind that can do a decent job without involving knowledge of that language). By language, I mean, English, Hindi etc. I am amused by the idea of being able to extend that to programming languages.
The most significant problem that I am facing has nothing to do with coding the spell-checker. Its about getting a sizable dictionary of words (finding one, converting to UTF-8 etc.)
The trouble is that programming comes with a very different set of words that are not common in a normal dictionary - acronyms (XML, JRAD etc.) - weird keywords (foreach, esac etc.) - regex - portmanteau words like regex etc.
I have a feeling that if some one can take the pain and build a dictionary of such things, it can be done. I am not much of a lexicographer. If you can find such a dictionary, get back to me, and I will see if I can get this to work for you
Symantec's explanation
The trojan (Called Infostealer.Monstres) seems to be using HR login details (possibly stolen) to access hiring.monster.com and recruiter.monster.com sub-domains and download candidate information.
It also seems to be similar to a previously known trojan called Trojan.Gpcoder.E
Symantec estimates that 1.6 million people (mostly from USA) have been impacted.
They have informed Monster about it
Not only does it sometimes gets its facts wrong, a lot of articles are written in a very ad-hoc manner with no editor having read it thoroughly.
A case in point is the article on Harry Potter and the deathly hallows which as has been mentioned earlier in slashdot itself, is full of spoilers, posted inside a day of the book having been released. A lot of people who stumbled onto that article while looking for details on the book must have felt cheated. Such a thing would never have been allowed to creep into any entry in a standard encyclopaedia.
Also as someone else noted, Wikipedia may be better off mentioning that there exists a different version of the information on Enclyclopaedia Brittanica on its own site than try and convert EB to its own set of facts.
ps: The redeeming qualities of wikipedia are ofcourse why I visit that site. As of today, the deathly hallows article comes with clear warnings on the stuff that I mentioned here.
All points accepted as valid, but I still would love to see the other 3 points honoured by reporters. I do not intend or expect to do their job for them, but I would appreciate if they put in more research that what anyone can get by googling a term and visiting the 1st 2 links showing up
Besides, points 9 and 10 can be done only by a person who understands the business, which is what my point is about:-)
I have been blogging for 5+ years and I can vouch for the fact that most companies cant understand blogging or other means of "citizen journalism". I actually find the job of a journalist very confusing. To me, it appears that they are supposed to
1- be able to grasp when an event is newsworthy
2- to report is accurately
3- to comment on/critique it
4- follow up later with more related news if any
Point 2 is something that an observant person can do with reasonable accuracy (without needing a background). Everything else needs a significant understanding of the business at hand. You dont need to be a doc to be able to say that a road-accident is serious; but when you are reporting technical/business decisions of a company, there is no way, a reporter can do a good job of it, without having a significant grounding on the background.
Most reporters dont, and that makes most news look like press releases of a company. This is where a good blogger can fill in the gap. At the end of the day, what should matter is whether the writing is relevant, insightful and accurate. Whether or not, the person is a professional journalist is irrelevant. Most companies however seem to prefer the safety of renowned newspaper against the uncertainity of an unknown blogger.
I guess the bloggers need to shrug it off and move on with whatever they can find. As long as the articles are useful, the companies will begin to eventually take notice. I know, at least in my work, we keep a watch on what some specific people are writing about us.
I like the high road you took here.. but most people do not look at a computer as something that defines their identity.. they use it to get a job done. I take my computer as something that is indicative of me.. but my pen.. naah.. could not care less! People will make a sacrifice for things they care about.. not for what we care about! But it was nice reading your point of view!
Actually, its quite hard for non computer people to make up their own minds about something as esoteric as OS. I am sure to be flamed for this, but an OS should ideally just work! I dont have an opinion on most things myself (and I use them regularly!). For example, I dont really know if a plasma TV is better than an LCD screen TV... I dont know if 5.2 megapixel camera does as well as an 8.2 Megapixel camera (or not!).. actually I can go on.. but the long and short is, I cant expect my parents to make an informed decision on an OS. I suspect they will settle for familiarity over freedom to choose etc etc. Most non techie people, atleast here in India, will buy the computer that the salesman suggests (and the OS will come preinstalled). If Linux needs to gain traction, the salesman needs to suggest it as an alternative.. and I think unless someone like HP throws their weight behind a linux desktop (or laptop), you will never see any competition
I graduate this summer. I heard of this the 1st time, last year; but I broke my hip last summer and could not participate. I dont much care for the money, but it would have been a great opportunity to interact with the opensource community and I regret not getting an opportunity to do that! Sometimes, rules have a queer way of not being fair!
Slashdot Mirror
Our submission is at: http://robocall.challenge.gov/submissions/13007-save-me-time
I found that most suggestions fell into the following buckets
*Things the Govt can do*
- FTC needs to ensure caller ID cant be spoofed
- FBI needs to hunt down the racketeers and bust them
- FTC needs to mandate (likely by fiat) that the telephone companies make the robocallers pay the full cost for the call
*Things you can do*
- Use an audio capcha system
- Provide a system to black list known and irritating callers
- A few people discussed how Google voice might solve the problem.
I did not expect to see that many people going through the submission process which tells me that the pain point is real.
However, I think people are mostly converging on how they intend to block the calls and the winner will get decided on how good your execution measures up to every one else.
What FTC finally does implement based on the contest is another matter.
I work for a smallish team (~100) in a megacorp that ships a service that has a significant number of customers.
We have 2 major code branches - the developer branch and the production branch.
- The production branch sees management approved point fixes that get collected and rolled out every month after a huge number of tests (automated and manual).
- The developer branch gets continuous feature additions. We collect all features from the developer branch and move it to production once every 6 months.
The details below pertain to our developer branch:
Like a lot of other people have suggested, we have spent time on robust test automation. We split that up into a smallish set that runs before any code check in. All checked in code runs through a significant battery of tests nightly.
We fork the developer branch and deploy it on a self hosted environment every week.
After self hosting features for ~5.5 months, we initiate rolling out the new features to production - takes about a fortnight.
Hope that helps.
With Windows Intune, you get the same list of updates as the Windows Software Update Service (WSUS), with the same level of control:
* Windows Intune works over the cloud like Windows Update and Microsoft Update, but you don't need on-site infrastructure.
* Updates are delivered directly to any of your managed PCs that have an Internet connection.
So to me the fact that there is no set up needed to manage the service (for multiple clients) is the USP.
For more details, please look at the http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-faq.aspx
Partners can manage Windows Intune for multiple customers from a central place (the central place being https://manage.microsoft.com).
In order to sell subscriptions to Windows Intune, you will need to first sign a Microsoft Online Services Partner Agreement (MOSPA).
Subscriptions to Windows Intune will be sold like other cloud services from Microsoft—through the Microsoft Online Services website at http://www.microsoft.com/online/.
For more details, please look at the http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-faq.aspx
Windows intune provides you with a simple web based console to do the following:
Manage updates: Centrally manage the deployment of the Microsoft® updates and service packs you choose to all your PCs from the Windows Intune console—freeing up your IT staff from routine management tasks.
Protect PCs from malware: Help safeguard your PCs from the latest threats with centralized protection that's built on the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine and uses the same trusted technologies as Microsoft Forefront® Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Security Essentials.
Proactively monitor PCs: Receive alerts on updates and threats so that you can proactively identify and resolve problems with your PCs— before they impact end users and your business.
Provide remote assistance: Help resolve PC issues, regardless of where you or your end users are located, with remote assistance.
Track hardware and software inventory: Track hardware and software assets used in your business to efficiently manage your assets, licenses, and compliance.
Set security policies: Centrally manage update, firewall, and malware protection settings across all of your PCs, even on remote machines outside the corporate network.
You may read more details here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-faq.aspx
Full disclosure: I work on the team that built it.
You can use any browser of your choice. I do.
I have never seen any employee use a Linux desktop. I can't imagine the pain you would have to go through to develop/debug windows stuff on a linux box.
I have seen people use their apple macbook-air to present things often enough though.
I have also seen the IT staff doing their best to help visitors to the campus with config issues even when they use linux.
I know several people who use windows ports of vim/emacs/cygwin etc in their primary desktops. Their code does make it to the public.
We are expected to dogfood our own applications. So yes, we do check out the latest browser, the latest builds of visual studio or what ever else we get asked to check.
Thanks
We store customer specific data hence we are legally mandated to ensure that e.g. EU customers go to EU.
Every time a customer reports a problem, we need to look at web logs or SQL query results from a specific set of machines to help debug it.
The sheer number of data centers we are hosted in makes it impossible to keep them all in sync at any given time, hence its not always possible to debug based on results from the closest data center.
I work with world class developers and an equally competent team of operations folks. The amount of disconnect between the 2 sets of folks is amazing. The developers black box stuff out of their consideration (e.g. setting up load balancers, with or with out affinity, not littering certificates all over the place, the amount of privileges a service needs etc.). The operations folks ignore other aspects (a cache that's hard to build could be lost after a process recycle, not version controlling their ad-hoc queries/sql jobs etc.)
Even if I take out considerations of giving developers access to customer sensitive data, the mere fact that most developers assume that a complete clean reinstall is as trivial as going back to a previous VM image (wrt time considerations) makes me pause and not provide them access. Add to the fact that developers talk in logical terms (regardless of scale) while operations talks in physical terms (actual machine names, drives etc.) and watching them communicate is like watching 2 blind men describe an elephant to you.
Our team makes it mandatory for developers to request for clean concise information from operations who procure it on their behalf. Yes it is slow, yes, it makes the developers having to batch their queries together but I can't imagine doing it any other way right now.
The word "bhut" means ghost in Assam, which is where the pepper is grown.
Just an FYI, but Windows update does not need IE on Vista and beyond
There is already a fork that is being worked upon by Monty (who was the founder of MySQL) I suspect the real contention is over the brand MySQL (which has significant mind-share) which was transferred to SUN and will now go to Oracle.
A lot of medium sized companies use MySQL today and have support contracts with who-so-ever owns the brand itself. They I guess are the ones who are worried - choosing another database is often not an option.
I think the problem that you may be facing is due to firefox doing weird things to generate random numbers at start
See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=501605
I see that the bug has since been fixed - but I guess it has not been distributed to the general public via upgrades.
I actually am looking at the Apache2 code right now for some obscure reasons. I have 6 years of professional development experience (though very little of that in C).
What I saw was, it took me like 2 weeks of constant battling to make some sense of the code in any way. GDB, inserting random print statement statements, stace and ltrace helped. However what has come out as the most difficult road block for me is: Macros!
I don't get flustered by pointers too much, but Apache2 code uses some demonic macros, resulting in method invocations being redirected to differently named subroutines in other files.
That and the fact that any substantial project takes 10 minutes to recompile for every trivial thing I change are my real pain points.
Having said that, just because I can now read the code does not let me feel confident that I can contribute code to Apache2. That I think will take way more time!!!
R K Pachauri thinks this will facilitate more gas guzzling on the roads, though Tatas are quick to reject it.
Suzuki thinks safety concerns would mount
People are also worried if our roads will be congested by these cars.
actually, it might not, but then it does not have to.
Without exception, Indian cyber cafes have PCs that come preloaded with windows.
Often its cobranded with the ISP.
Often all that is available to the user is internet explorer, Microsoft word and yahoo messenger (by that I mean, those are the only 3 icons on the Desktop - for most people, they are equivalent)
I can imagine the Mumbai police doing some thing as hare-brained as that. It might be their attempt at fight against terror. I am hoping that people will wizen up to it. The publicity here an elsewhere might help!
I am not sure if you are ignorant or illiterate.
exactly when did i say that i code in windows (and if i do, so what?)
and are you upset that java is not being released in the BSD license?
I never said that I could not find a dictionary of english words. if you had read my post, you would know that I talked of dictionaries in multiple languages. Of all the languages in the world, English is just one of them. It might help to remember that much.
I am currently working on a java-based universal spell checker (the kind that can do a decent job without involving knowledge of that language). By language, I mean, English, Hindi etc.
I am amused by the idea of being able to extend that to programming languages.
The most significant problem that I am facing has nothing to do with coding the spell-checker. Its about getting a sizable dictionary of words (finding one, converting to UTF-8 etc.)
The trouble is that programming comes with a very different set of words that are not common in a normal dictionary
- acronyms (XML, JRAD etc.)
- weird keywords (foreach, esac etc.)
- regex
- portmanteau words like regex
etc.
I have a feeling that if some one can take the pain and build a dictionary of such things, it can be done. I am not much of a lexicographer. If you can find such a dictionary, get back to me, and I will see if I can get this to work for you
Symantec's explanation
The trojan (Called Infostealer.Monstres) seems to be using HR login details (possibly stolen) to access hiring.monster.com and recruiter.monster.com sub-domains and download candidate information. It also seems to be similar to a previously known trojan called Trojan.Gpcoder.E
Symantec estimates that 1.6 million people (mostly from USA) have been impacted.
They have informed Monster about it
A case in point is the article on Harry Potter and the deathly hallows which as has been mentioned earlier in slashdot itself, is full of spoilers, posted inside a day of the book having been released. A lot of people who stumbled onto that article while looking for details on the book must have felt cheated. Such a thing would never have been allowed to creep into any entry in a standard encyclopaedia.
Also as someone else noted, Wikipedia may be better off mentioning that there exists a different version of the information on Enclyclopaedia Brittanica on its own site than try and convert EB to its own set of facts.
ps: The redeeming qualities of wikipedia are ofcourse why I visit that site. As of today, the deathly hallows article comes with clear warnings on the stuff that I mentioned here.
All points accepted as valid, but I still would love to see the other 3 points honoured by reporters. I do not intend or expect to do their job for them, but I would appreciate if they put in more research that what anyone can get by googling a term and visiting the 1st 2 links showing up
:-)
Besides, points 9 and 10 can be done only by a person who understands the business, which is what my point is about
I have been blogging for 5+ years and I can vouch for the fact that most companies cant understand blogging or other means of "citizen journalism".
I actually find the job of a journalist very confusing. To me, it appears that they are supposed to
1- be able to grasp when an event is newsworthy
2- to report is accurately
3- to comment on/critique it
4- follow up later with more related news if any
Point 2 is something that an observant person can do with reasonable accuracy (without needing a background). Everything else needs a significant understanding of the business at hand. You dont need to be a doc to be able to say that a road-accident is serious; but when you are reporting technical/business decisions of a company, there is no way, a reporter can do a good job of it, without having a significant grounding on the background.
Most reporters dont, and that makes most news look like press releases of a company.
This is where a good blogger can fill in the gap. At the end of the day, what should matter is whether the writing is relevant, insightful and accurate. Whether or not, the person is a professional journalist is irrelevant. Most companies however seem to prefer the safety of renowned newspaper against the uncertainity of an unknown blogger.
I guess the bloggers need to shrug it off and move on with whatever they can find. As long as the articles are useful, the companies will begin to eventually take notice. I know, at least in my work, we keep a watch on what some specific people are writing about us.
I like the high road you took here.. but most people do not look at a computer as something that defines their identity.. they use it to get a job done.
I take my computer as something that is indicative of me.. but my pen.. naah.. could not care less!
People will make a sacrifice for things they care about.. not for what we care about!
But it was nice reading your point of view!
Actually, its quite hard for non computer people to make up their own minds about something as esoteric as OS. I am sure to be flamed for this, but an OS should ideally just work!
I dont have an opinion on most things myself (and I use them regularly!). For example, I dont really know if a plasma TV is better than an LCD screen TV... I dont know if 5.2 megapixel camera does as well as an 8.2 Megapixel camera (or not!).. actually I can go on.. but the long and short is, I cant expect my parents to make an informed decision on an OS. I suspect they will settle for familiarity over freedom to choose etc etc.
Most non techie people, atleast here in India, will buy the computer that the salesman suggests (and the OS will come preinstalled). If Linux needs to gain traction, the salesman needs to suggest it as an alternative.. and I think unless someone like HP throws their weight behind a linux desktop (or laptop), you will never see any competition
I graduate this summer. I heard of this the 1st time, last year; but I broke my hip last summer and could not participate.
I dont much care for the money, but it would have been a great opportunity to interact with the opensource community and I regret not getting an opportunity to do that!
Sometimes, rules have a queer way of not being fair!