Disclaimer: IANAL, this statement is not intended as a substitute for legal counsel and is not intended as legal advice. If you need legal advice with respect to copyright law, buy some.
Any Cage recording would have been from the analog days... all that has to be done is to demand that the representatives produce the original master recording... crank way up until the noise content which is there regardless of what Cage's intent was is plainly audible, and run a copy of the noise-free recording that's allegedly in breach of copyright.
Silence A != Silence B. Of course, there are even more sophisticated ways to differentiate the two, depending on the conditions that were used to generate the respective "silences".
End of case, and hopefully start of new case where Cage's people get countersued for damages.
One can copyright the concrete expression of an idea. Nobody can copyright an idea, and it looks to me like Cage's people are trying to claim copyright of the idea of silence in the context of a musical composition.
Anybody in the US who hasn't figured out that the Libertarian cult argument that "if we get government completely out of the marketplace, everything will be wonderful" is bullshit need only look at the US inferiority in the area of cell phones to get the point.
There are certain areas where government regulation to protect corporations from their own short-sighted stupidity and the public from the consequences is a very good idea.
EU regulation forced the national (later private) carriers to standardize on ONE cell phone technology.
As a result, there is effectively one cellular network in EU that the different carriers build towers for, and as a result, an EU mobile user can get dial tone practically anywhere. SMS works everywhere. An EU user who wants to change carriers can do so by swapping the SIM card. EU users don't have to pay for incoming calls.
Meaning that just about everyone has a mobile in the more advanced parts of EU, and the same phone that works in Holland works fine in Spain. I have a close friend in Holland. I take it for granted my SMS messages will get to her no matter where in the EU she goes.
"Let the market decide" has put the US a generation behind the rest of the world for mobile services. The major RBOCs got exactly what they paid for, and not only did the public get screwed, but they are not profiting off cell phones the public can't be bothered to buy. Isn't it wonderful having the best elected officials money can buy?
They're still alive, well, and supporting lots more Linux than any dozen or hundred (depending on mainframe size) Pentium-based boxes can.
As for their traditional roles, check any Fortune 1000 back-office IT operation...
The open source thing reflects a return to IBM's original computing roots. There was a time when the idea of making software proprietary never occurred to anybody and user group contributions were welcomed, as they expanded the range and scope of the then-new commercial and academic computers of the 50s and 60s.
Atari Corporation, Coin Op Engr. Div., Milpitas, CA - Development Technician
From my resume. I worked there briefly in late 1982.
While it was a very comfortable place to work... one could already see the place had no future. In high-tech, complacence = death. I'm surprised the place lasted as long as it did.
The place had a very nice large hot tub and good food in the company cafeteria.
I take a certain amount of perverse pride in the fact that I was really there. The people who romanticize the place obviously weren't.
ICANN believes that they aren't responsible to anybody
ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC are getting pissed at them, and have publically suggested that ICANN restrict its role to whatever it is they're supposed to be doing and leave tech admin to organizations capable of doing it.
<p?Their budget is spiraling and for that, we get the same kind of root administration we've been getting from Verisign and probably could get from another vendor with better results and for a fraction of the cost.
Their only real products appears to be hot air and bullshit.
Whether you're a US taxpayer or you're a domain name holder anywhere in the world... we're paying for this, what the hell are we getting out of this?
A domain name dispute resolution process universally regarded as unfair outside the Fortune 500? It would be more cost effective and equally fair to require disputants to disclose their net worths and award the domain to the party with the greater net worth.
It's time for some Congressman to carry a bill to unplug their funding... and resume contracting with Verisign to run the root via NSF pending figuring out a better solution.
The clueless reporter decided to treat bandwidth as a controlled substance.
The "clueless reporter" is in the employ of THE CABLE COMPAMY, which owns the newspaper that printed it and I would guess the local TV and at least one radio station as well.
The user's side of this will never be told.
If you're thinking of getting a cablemodem, just remember that you're switching from an ISP who can't put you to jail to one that can.
That's the fine print you won't see in the agreement. If you don't like this, don't connect to the Net via cable.
HOW much bandwidth is $250K at the wholesale level? Based on a published estimate I saw around here:
$175 = 150G/month (wholesale)
$1.16/G/month
213675 G
divide by 23 users
9400 G per user per month
My, people must have one hell of an appetite for porn in that area... However, nobody in the local press will be questioning the numbers, since the local newspaper IS the cable company providing service.
Nor will anybody have a problem with the local ISP using jail to enforce its AUP.
Personally, I think the bandwidth use was quoted either at retail or imaginary rates, the equivalent of the old methods used to trumpet $1 billion dollar drug busts over a product that cost the drug deal $100K.
They're using laws which were intended to cover people physically connecting to their cable service, not attack people who already have accounts with them... write a few lines of code, go to jail.
Easy to make people look like evil criminals when one owns the only newspaper likely to be observing this. And probably the local radio and TV stations as well.
I won't be buying cablemodem. Ever. I'm used to being subject to account cutoff and lawsuit if I really fuck up equipment. Buying ISP service from someone who can put me in jail and villify me in the press... It's not worth it. I'd rather roll my own DSL than put up with the increasing amount of crap that goes with cablemodem service.
I'm just glad I got the warning... I won't do business with an ISP that can have my door kicked down by the police.
The RIAA and MPAA really do believe that buying politicians can protect them against the consequences of their own actions. They believe that the FBI can track down the origins of any DOS or defacement or database or other attack against sites that they are interested in and that the 'evil, terrorist hackers' will be put in prison, end of problem.
Depends on the specific law in your state. In California and several other states, a contract which essentially forbids you to work in your profession after leaving your previous place of employment is illegal.
All I can say is check what the law really is in your state and do NOT take as fact either what your employer tells you or what your employer's attorney says, neither is working for you.
Never said I was a Libertarian. In fact, I did a bit of Libertarian-bashing in passing a few days ago.
While I wholly agree with the "no censorship" and "eliminate victimless crime laws" part of their political agenda... and I think that their definition of taxes is useful... I don't regard what they've got as a substitute for either a religion or ideology.
With respect to victimless crimes... marijuana has been decriminalized and enforcement of other drug laws is minimal and uses a medical model, not an enforcement model. Instead of an increase in other kinds of crimes, the Dutch get safe streets. Prostitution is legal in defined areas in large parts of Europe... and in Nevada. Where are the problems? I can speak about Holland directly because I've been there and seen this work in person.
Speaking as someone whose Net experience started in 1991, the place worked better before idiots tried censoring it.
Crime drops in US areas where concealed weapons permits are easy for non-criminals to get. somewhere on my personal site
The burden of proof for the idea that if personal freedom is legalized, other kinds of crime will increase drastically, has necessarily to be on the head of the person who asserts it. Extraordinary statements require extraordinary proof.
If you're buying Windoze, you get either the OEM version or the full retail box... (plus driver disks), NOT the "disk recovery image" provided with name brand computers. If the shop you buy from won't provide this, buy with no OS or buy somewhere else.
Much nicer if you decide to upgrade or otherwise change hardware.
Yes. I've got a white box. Bought it 2 1/2 years ago. Had to replace the HD, but I don't think the shop can be blamed for that. The shop I got mine from is Spectrum Peripherals in San Francisco.
While I'm happy with the company and the service (had to take the computer in once), next time I'd spend a few more dollars and buy from a small shop local to me... where taking it in for service is a lot less work.
I got a good deal on an OK computer. If I'd been able to afford great, they would have been happy to sell it to me. I'm satisfied, and any of you readers who live around SF could do far worse than to check them out yourself.
I think it's time to tell manufacturers that if they sell Palladium boxes, that we will NOT buy them.
Who the hell needs insecure, buggy boxes that ONLY run Windows? The "only runs Windows" is in the article. As for insecure, remember that M$ has proven its inability to protect it's own proprietary information. Their proprietary DRM scheme as embodied in WPA is so weak that it ONLY inconveniences the honest end user who wouldn't think of going to a cr4cKs/w4r3z site to get the key needed so he can use his own legally acquired software.
Who the hell needs DRM whose only purpose is to keep the "pigopoly" at MPAA/RIAA happy?
Where the hell does anybody get the idea that Microsoft DESERVES another chance?
That's why they want to test it... To prove that it is reliable, accurate, and secure.
The opposite has already been proven, and the hard evidence is available to anyone who can work a search engine. Admittedly, this is something that it's unfair to expect a PHB or you to do.
This stuff just isn't ready for its intended use yet. I think the problems are solvable and we'll begin to see workable solutions in a few years. It would be seriously cool to stick my eye up to a scanner and to have my access to a secured network or physical area enabled.
Oh yeah, I'd much rather have you and Timothy do my thinking for me. I think for myself.
Perhaps you are better off having the mass media do your thinking for you at that. You really seem woefully ill-equipped to think for yourself.
So fuck off.
Temper, temper. This is as much time as I really want to put in on your education... ok, on my using you as a chew toy at this point. Have fun, I'm sure you'll demonstrate your ignorance again in a sufficiently public way to provide me and hopefully, the rest of the slashdot crowd with more entertainment at your expense.
No, you fall into another category. The technical term for it is tard. Other words for what you are... moron, imbecile, and other things you are doubtless accustomed to hearing yelled at you on a daily basis.
While I would ordinarily tell you to pull your head out of your ass, I don't think you would profit from actually being aware of your surroundings and you probably have more entertainment value as you are.
Where is the word "retinal" used in the article?
Where did you get the idea that biometric technology is reliable, accurate, or secure?
Where did you get the idea that being falsely identified as a criminal or as a terrorist was safe for the innocent victim?
If you're content to have what passes for your thinking done for you by the mass media, that is necessarily your problem. However, I really don't think you have any business in an adult public policy discussion, whether or not it involves technology.
Perhaps if you ever learn abstract concepts like getting your facts straight before exposing your idiocy in public, you might be able to contribute.
For a bunch of technophiles we sure are afraid of new technologies...
These technologies are dangerous to us whether they work or they fail.
We are afraid of being attacked by uniformed thugs at airports and soon, bus stations and shopping malls because the biometric system came up with yet another false positive. Like to be mistaken for bin Laden and have your shopping trip be interrupted by a SWAT team?
We are concerned because we know that this stuff is NOT ready for prime time but is being sold to PHB types who can easily be scammed and to journalists who don't have the tech skills or knowledge to be know when they're being snowed as a "solution" to protect us from terrorists and criminals. The biometrics companies aren't doing this out of interest in public safety, they are doing this in hopes of an IPO and a quick cash-out..
Which category do you fall into? PHB? Tech-illiterate journalist? Or are you a shill for a biometrics company?
Given that manufacturers without Internet experience generally don't think of security when Net-enabling their appliances, you are probably fairly close to the literal truth in your description.
The password, if there is one, is probably password and can't be changed by the user.
Has Spielberg broken with MPAA? Has he stopped funding anti-Internet and anti-privacy politicians like Feinstein and Boxer? Has he done anything which would cause a reasonable person to assume that he really is putting his money where his mouth is? As for his choice of actors, I think this speaks about his real personal priorities.
He's just another phony liberal in the great Hollywood phony liberal tradition. When he finds another set of buzzwords and social concerns that'll pull in his target demographic, he'll use them, i.e. don't be surprised if he sounds like Rush Limbaugh someday.
Right now, he's using the right buzzwords for people who pretend to themselves that they still have social concerns while providing the dollars that bought the politicians that enacted obscenities like DMCA passed and worse legislation to follow.
No, if you're pinching pennies, buy from a local white-box reseller. Your customer support is a local phone call, you won't be in voicemail hell trying to find someone willing to talk to you, and if you have to bring it in, you can drive to your vendor instead of shipping, waiting, and praying.
You'll also see the list of components in advance, and if you want another video card, the substitution will only cost you the difference in price. If you want to add a tape drive or something, they can get it for you and install it when they put the computer together, and service it afterwards. Try this with CompUSA or other major retailer. YOU try it.
Your local reseller will also be using standard parts, meaning that repairs or upgrading isn't a problem. They will not be using proprietary parts which you're SOL on if the company tanks and get to pay a premium for if you need to replace out-of-warranty.
You might be able to save a few bucks by buying from Walmart... but if it goes back to the factory, you will either have to ship it yourself or take it back to Walmart, and either way, you wait. Most people here depend on their computers to make a living.
If you want an idea of what name brand buys these days, try HP... the people who make you beg for the privilege of PAYING for recovery disks. (see earlier slashdot thread) Or finding your motherboard can't be upgraded because you can't simply drop in an ATX motherboard.
Thanks for signing this, I will know to discount any further advice I see from you in future. Sorry about this, but you really put your foot in it this time. I know of no advantage that comes with buying a name brand.
This is for the individual or small business where it is less hassle to throw the CPU box in the car and head for your dealer. If you're purchasing for a large company, then it might be time to talk to Dell, etc., because if you're buying quantity 10K, you'll need to deal with a national company big enough to have a network of repair centers and probably one willing to send techs out to do onsite maintenance.
How many years ago did you stop using it? If Windoze is so wonderful, why did you stop? Did you think "plug and pray" referred to some obscure religious practice? Ever tried to deal with what happens when "plug and pray" fails? Ever load a Windoze box with 359M of DRAM and STILL run out of resources frequently?
The average user has Windows on his machine because that's what the OEM put on it, not because of any deep committment to Bill Gates or love for Microsoft or love for how his machine works with Windoze on it.
While I agree that Linux user interfaces and installation and upgrades need improvement, we already have cities and school districts which have switched to Linux. The only bad effects anybody noticed are that the machines are more reliable and stable, that the TCO dropped, and that life got a lot easier for the sysadmins. If the conditions are right (mainly, the organizations communications are primarily internal, i.e. they don't have to send/receive a lot of.DOC e-mail attachments) this should actually work in most places. With respect to the user... as long as he/she can point and click at it, he/she should be happy. Whether the window if generated by Windoze or X-Windows.
Not all of the experiments with this have worked, but in the workplaces where they bothered to train people on the new software and used it in areas where it applied, things generally went well.
If governments can be forced to follow their own rules about not dealing with companies found guilty of monopoly, in most cases, all they have to fear is reduced expenditures and the knowledge that if they need to pull out a word processor document 20 years ago, it'll be readable.
In the areas where this doesn't apply, being able to throw money that's big from the viewpoint of an individual programmer but small compared to Microsoft tax at these problems should result in better software for all of us.
I see this as win-win for anyone not a Microsoft stockholder.
Lobbying by citizens can be safely ignored. Taxpayers' lawsuits can't be.
Re:Problem really lies in the CC system...
on
Ethical Obligations
·
· Score: 2
I personally don't see the sysadmin to be ethically obligated any more than if a similar theft occured at a brick and mortar establishment. For instance, would the security guard be ethically obligated to inform the store's customers that someone may have stolen credit card purchase slips stored in a safe?
Two words.
Professional Responsibility.
A professional has a duty not only to his employer, but to his fellow professionals and to the general public. Duty to one's fellow professionals means conducting yourself when you are doing things relating to your professional responsibilities that will not only bring credit to your personal reputation, but to the professional IT community as a whole.
That's why professionals are treated with respect over and above the high pay. Do you deserve that respect? How would I know, that's the kind of question you ask while looking in a mirror. Do you like what you see?
You want to call yourself a professional and be treated with the same kind of respect as members of the original professions (medicine, law, etc.), it isn't just a matter of acquiring a lot of specialized knowledge, or a degree, it's being expected to use what you know in an ethical manner, To take responsibility for your actions, not say "I know this is wrong, but I was ordered to do this."
The proper response for a professional to an order from a client or employer you know to be unethical and quite possibly illegal is resignation and if the action appears to be in violation of the law as you understand it, finding another professional. . . in the field of law to find out what you should report, if anything, and to whom.
This shouldn't violate your NDA, your relationship with your attorney is confidential by both law and custom and if my understanding of relevant law is correct, a contractual agreement that involves either agreeing to commit or conceal illegal conduct is null and void anyway.
-The other point is that if you feel the need to discuss your duties on the job with an attorney, you are probably already in very serious trouble and your only hope of getting out of it is to find out what you must to comply with relevant law.
This isn't just a moral obligation, a professional is held to a higher standard of conduct by the courts than members of the general public. . . which practically means you might go to jail along with your bosses if the company really is in violation of the law.
The Dutch lawyer who said "And the system administrator certainly isn't burdened with that responsibility" appears not to see IT professionals as professionals and sees IT workers as no more responsible for the consequences of their actions conducted under the direction of a supervisor than a janitor would be.
Are you a professional? You'll have to answer this for yourself. If you don't like the responsibility, don't call yourself one.
DISCLAIMER: IANAL... if you need legal advice about a "dilemna", hire some while you have a choice... and if any attorneys would like to comment on this, have at it, we need some of that perspective in this discussion, if my analysis is incorrect, I'd like to know it.
Slashdot Mirror
Any Cage recording would have been from the analog days... all that has to be done is to demand that the representatives produce the original master recording... crank way up until the noise content which is there regardless of what Cage's intent was is plainly audible, and run a copy of the noise-free recording that's allegedly in breach of copyright.
Silence A != Silence B. Of course, there are even more sophisticated ways to differentiate the two, depending on the conditions that were used to generate the respective "silences".
End of case, and hopefully start of new case where Cage's people get countersued for damages.
One can copyright the concrete expression of an idea. Nobody can copyright an idea, and it looks to me like Cage's people are trying to claim copyright of the idea of silence in the context of a musical composition.
There are certain areas where government regulation to protect corporations from their own short-sighted stupidity and the public from the consequences is a very good idea.
EU regulation forced the national (later private) carriers to standardize on ONE cell phone technology.
As a result, there is effectively one cellular network in EU that the different carriers build towers for, and as a result, an EU mobile user can get dial tone practically anywhere. SMS works everywhere. An EU user who wants to change carriers can do so by swapping the SIM card. EU users don't have to pay for incoming calls.
Meaning that just about everyone has a mobile in the more advanced parts of EU, and the same phone that works in Holland works fine in Spain. I have a close friend in Holland. I take it for granted my SMS messages will get to her no matter where in the EU she goes.
"Let the market decide" has put the US a generation behind the rest of the world for mobile services. The major RBOCs got exactly what they paid for, and not only did the public get screwed, but they are not profiting off cell phones the public can't be bothered to buy. Isn't it wonderful having the best elected officials money can buy?
They're still alive, well, and supporting lots more Linux than any dozen or hundred (depending on mainframe size) Pentium-based boxes can.
As for their traditional roles, check any Fortune 1000 back-office IT operation...
The open source thing reflects a return to IBM's original computing roots. There was a time when the idea of making software proprietary never occurred to anybody and user group contributions were welcomed, as they expanded the range and scope of the then-new commercial and academic computers of the 50s and 60s.
From my resume. I worked there briefly in late 1982.
While it was a very comfortable place to work... one could already see the place had no future. In high-tech, complacence = death. I'm surprised the place lasted as long as it did.
The place had a very nice large hot tub and good food in the company cafeteria.
I take a certain amount of perverse pride in the fact that I was really there. The people who romanticize the place obviously weren't.
ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC are getting pissed at them, and have publically suggested that ICANN restrict its role to whatever it is they're supposed to be doing and leave tech admin to organizations capable of doing it. <p?Their budget is spiraling and for that, we get the same kind of root administration we've been getting from Verisign and probably could get from another vendor with better results and for a fraction of the cost.
Their only real products appears to be hot air and bullshit.
Whether you're a US taxpayer or you're a domain name holder anywhere in the world... we're paying for this, what the hell are we getting out of this?
A domain name dispute resolution process universally regarded as unfair outside the Fortune 500? It would be more cost effective and equally fair to require disputants to disclose their net worths and award the domain to the party with the greater net worth.
It's time for some Congressman to carry a bill to unplug their funding... and resume contracting with Verisign to run the root via NSF pending figuring out a better solution.
The "clueless reporter" is in the employ of THE CABLE COMPAMY, which owns the newspaper that printed it and I would guess the local TV and at least one radio station as well.
The user's side of this will never be told.
If you're thinking of getting a cablemodem, just remember that you're switching from an ISP who can't put you to jail to one that can.
That's the fine print you won't see in the agreement. If you don't like this, don't connect to the Net via cable.
$175 = 150G/month (wholesale)
$1.16/G/month
213675 G
divide by 23 users
9400 G per user per month
My, people must have one hell of an appetite for porn in that area... However, nobody in the local press will be questioning the numbers, since the local newspaper IS the cable company providing service.
Nor will anybody have a problem with the local ISP using jail to enforce its AUP.
Personally, I think the bandwidth use was quoted either at retail or imaginary rates, the equivalent of the old methods used to trumpet $1 billion dollar drug busts over a product that cost the drug deal $100K.
They're using laws which were intended to cover people physically connecting to their cable service, not attack people who already have accounts with them... write a few lines of code, go to jail.
Easy to make people look like evil criminals when one owns the only newspaper likely to be observing this. And probably the local radio and TV stations as well.
I won't be buying cablemodem. Ever. I'm used to being subject to account cutoff and lawsuit if I really fuck up equipment. Buying ISP service from someone who can put me in jail and villify me in the press... It's not worth it. I'd rather roll my own DSL than put up with the increasing amount of crap that goes with cablemodem service.
I'm just glad I got the warning... I won't do business with an ISP that can have my door kicked down by the police.
It is intended to protect Microsoft and the members of the MPAA and RIAA.
The RIAA and MPAA really do believe that buying politicians can protect them against the consequences of their own actions. They believe that the FBI can track down the origins of any DOS or defacement or database or other attack against sites that they are interested in and that the 'evil, terrorist hackers' will be put in prison, end of problem.
All I can say is check what the law really is in your state and do NOT take as fact either what your employer tells you or what your employer's attorney says, neither is working for you.
While I wholly agree with the "no censorship" and "eliminate victimless crime laws" part of their political agenda... and I think that their definition of taxes is useful... I don't regard what they've got as a substitute for either a religion or ideology.
With respect to victimless crimes... marijuana has been decriminalized and enforcement of other drug laws is minimal and uses a medical model, not an enforcement model. Instead of an increase in other kinds of crimes, the Dutch get safe streets. Prostitution is legal in defined areas in large parts of Europe... and in Nevada. Where are the problems? I can speak about Holland directly because I've been there and seen this work in person.
Speaking as someone whose Net experience started in 1991, the place worked better before idiots tried censoring it.
Crime drops in US areas where concealed weapons permits are easy for non-criminals to get. somewhere on my personal site
The burden of proof for the idea that if personal freedom is legalized, other kinds of crime will increase drastically, has necessarily to be on the head of the person who asserts it. Extraordinary statements require extraordinary proof.
So far the evidence is... freedom works, d00d.
Much nicer if you decide to upgrade or otherwise change hardware.
While I'm happy with the company and the service (had to take the computer in once), next time I'd spend a few more dollars and buy from a small shop local to me... where taking it in for service is a lot less work.
I got a good deal on an OK computer. If I'd been able to afford great, they would have been happy to sell it to me. I'm satisfied, and any of you readers who live around SF could do far worse than to check them out yourself.
Who the hell needs insecure, buggy boxes that ONLY run Windows? The "only runs Windows" is in the article. As for insecure, remember that M$ has proven its inability to protect it's own proprietary information. Their proprietary DRM scheme as embodied in WPA is so weak that it ONLY inconveniences the honest end user who wouldn't think of going to a cr4cKs/w4r3z site to get the key needed so he can use his own legally acquired software.
Who the hell needs DRM whose only purpose is to keep the "pigopoly" at MPAA/RIAA happy?
Where the hell does anybody get the idea that Microsoft DESERVES another chance?
The opposite has already been proven, and the hard evidence is available to anyone who can work a search engine. Admittedly, this is something that it's unfair to expect a PHB or you to do.
This stuff just isn't ready for its intended use yet. I think the problems are solvable and we'll begin to see workable solutions in a few years. It would be seriously cool to stick my eye up to a scanner and to have my access to a secured network or physical area enabled.
Oh yeah, I'd much rather have you and Timothy do my thinking for me. I think for myself.
Perhaps you are better off having the mass media do your thinking for you at that. You really seem woefully ill-equipped to think for yourself.
So fuck off.
Temper, temper. This is as much time as I really want to put in on your education... ok, on my using you as a chew toy at this point. Have fun, I'm sure you'll demonstrate your ignorance again in a sufficiently public way to provide me and hopefully, the rest of the slashdot crowd with more entertainment at your expense.
So I'm going to take the advice in my sig file...
While I would ordinarily tell you to pull your head out of your ass, I don't think you would profit from actually being aware of your surroundings and you probably have more entertainment value as you are.
Where is the word "retinal" used in the article?
Where did you get the idea that biometric technology is reliable, accurate, or secure?
Where did you get the idea that being falsely identified as a criminal or as a terrorist was safe for the innocent victim?
If you're content to have what passes for your thinking done for you by the mass media, that is necessarily your problem. However, I really don't think you have any business in an adult public policy discussion, whether or not it involves technology.
Perhaps if you ever learn abstract concepts like getting your facts straight before exposing your idiocy in public, you might be able to contribute.
These technologies are dangerous to us whether they work or they fail.
We are afraid of being attacked by uniformed thugs at airports and soon, bus stations and shopping malls because the biometric system came up with yet another false positive. Like to be mistaken for bin Laden and have your shopping trip be interrupted by a SWAT team?
We are concerned about our privacy being invaded (ever been stalked?) for personal or political reasons. America is now a land where the government can take anyone, declare that person a "terrorist", and detain that person indefinitely without a trial or even an attorney. Should we want that government to know where we are at all times?
We are concerned because we know that this stuff is NOT ready for prime time but is being sold to PHB types who can easily be scammed and to journalists who don't have the tech skills or knowledge to be know when they're being snowed as a "solution" to protect us from terrorists and criminals. The biometrics companies aren't doing this out of interest in public safety, they are doing this in hopes of an IPO and a quick cash-out..
Which category do you fall into? PHB? Tech-illiterate journalist? Or are you a shill for a biometrics company?
Easy ways to defeat biometrics
Face/iris scanner failures.
The password, if there is one, is probably password and can't be changed by the user.
The only political party with a good record on freedom/personal liberty issues at the national level is the Libertarian Party.
OpenSecrets link to Spielberg's soft money campaign contributors
He's just another phony liberal in the great Hollywood phony liberal tradition. When he finds another set of buzzwords and social concerns that'll pull in his target demographic, he'll use them, i.e. don't be surprised if he sounds like Rush Limbaugh someday.
Right now, he's using the right buzzwords for people who pretend to themselves that they still have social concerns while providing the dollars that bought the politicians that enacted obscenities like DMCA passed and worse legislation to follow.
You'll also see the list of components in advance, and if you want another video card, the substitution will only cost you the difference in price. If you want to add a tape drive or something, they can get it for you and install it when they put the computer together, and service it afterwards. Try this with CompUSA or other major retailer. YOU try it.
Your local reseller will also be using standard parts, meaning that repairs or upgrading isn't a problem. They will not be using proprietary parts which you're SOL on if the company tanks and get to pay a premium for if you need to replace out-of-warranty.
You might be able to save a few bucks by buying from Walmart... but if it goes back to the factory, you will either have to ship it yourself or take it back to Walmart, and either way, you wait. Most people here depend on their computers to make a living.
If you want an idea of what name brand buys these days, try HP... the people who make you beg for the privilege of PAYING for recovery disks. (see earlier slashdot thread) Or finding your motherboard can't be upgraded because you can't simply drop in an ATX motherboard.
Thanks for signing this, I will know to discount any further advice I see from you in future. Sorry about this, but you really put your foot in it this time. I know of no advantage that comes with buying a name brand.
This is for the individual or small business where it is less hassle to throw the CPU box in the car and head for your dealer. If you're purchasing for a large company, then it might be time to talk to Dell, etc., because if you're buying quantity 10K, you'll need to deal with a national company big enough to have a network of repair centers and probably one willing to send techs out to do onsite maintenance.
REPENT, YOUR SINS HAVE FOUND YOU OUT!
How many years ago did you stop using it? If Windoze is so wonderful, why did you stop? Did you think "plug and pray" referred to some obscure religious practice? Ever tried to deal with what happens when "plug and pray" fails? Ever load a Windoze box with 359M of DRAM and STILL run out of resources frequently?
The average user has Windows on his machine because that's what the OEM put on it, not because of any deep committment to Bill Gates or love for Microsoft or love for how his machine works with Windoze on it.
While I agree that Linux user interfaces and installation and upgrades need improvement, we already have cities and school districts which have switched to Linux. The only bad effects anybody noticed are that the machines are more reliable and stable, that the TCO dropped, and that life got a lot easier for the sysadmins. If the conditions are right (mainly, the organizations communications are primarily internal, i.e. they don't have to send/receive a lot of .DOC e-mail attachments) this should actually work in most places. With respect to the user... as long as he/she can point and click at it, he/she should be happy. Whether the window if generated by Windoze or X-Windows.
Not all of the experiments with this have worked, but in the workplaces where they bothered to train people on the new software and used it in areas where it applied, things generally went well.
If governments can be forced to follow their own rules about not dealing with companies found guilty of monopoly, in most cases, all they have to fear is reduced expenditures and the knowledge that if they need to pull out a word processor document 20 years ago, it'll be readable.
In the areas where this doesn't apply, being able to throw money that's big from the viewpoint of an individual programmer but small compared to Microsoft tax at these problems should result in better software for all of us.
I see this as win-win for anyone not a Microsoft stockholder.
Lobbying by citizens can be safely ignored. Taxpayers' lawsuits can't be.
Professional Responsibility.
A professional has a duty not only to his employer, but to his fellow professionals and to the general public. Duty to one's fellow professionals means conducting yourself when you are doing things relating to your professional responsibilities that will not only bring credit to your personal reputation, but to the professional IT community as a whole.
That's why professionals are treated with respect over and above the high pay. Do you deserve that respect? How would I know, that's the kind of question you ask while looking in a mirror. Do you like what you see?
You want to call yourself a professional and be treated with the same kind of respect as members of the original professions (medicine, law, etc.), it isn't just a matter of acquiring a lot of specialized knowledge, or a degree, it's being expected to use what you know in an ethical manner, To take responsibility for your actions, not say "I know this is wrong, but I was ordered to do this."
The proper response for a professional to an order from a client or employer you know to be unethical and quite possibly illegal is resignation and if the action appears to be in violation of the law as you understand it, finding another professional. . . in the field of law to find out what you should report, if anything, and to whom.
This shouldn't violate your NDA, your relationship with your attorney is confidential by both law and custom and if my understanding of relevant law is correct, a contractual agreement that involves either agreeing to commit or conceal illegal conduct is null and void anyway.
-The other point is that if you feel the need to discuss your duties on the job with an attorney, you are probably already in very serious trouble and your only hope of getting out of it is to find out what you must to comply with relevant law.
This isn't just a moral obligation, a professional is held to a higher standard of conduct by the courts than members of the general public. . . which practically means you might go to jail along with your bosses if the company really is in violation of the law.
The Dutch lawyer who said "And the system administrator certainly isn't burdened with that responsibility" appears not to see IT professionals as professionals and sees IT workers as no more responsible for the consequences of their actions conducted under the direction of a supervisor than a janitor would be.
Are you a professional? You'll have to answer this for yourself. If you don't like the responsibility, don't call yourself one.
DISCLAIMER: IANAL... if you need legal advice about a "dilemna", hire some while you have a choice... and if any attorneys would like to comment on this, have at it, we need some of that perspective in this discussion, if my analysis is incorrect, I'd like to know it.