"If they want a microwave they can't just go down to Target and buy one. They have to solicit bids from three approved vendors and MUST go with the lowest price for the item."
That must have been one heck of a microwave. Back in a previous life, I worked for the State of Ohio. You had to go through a bidding process for things that cost $1K or more. (That may be different nowadays but that was the way things were back in the '80s. And it was amazing how many quotes for $980 or $995 you would get from suppliers; they knew the rules as well as we did.) For a microwave oven, we probably would have taken up a collection in the department. (We actually had a microwave back then. Wonder how it was paid for? I doubt it cost a grand, though.) I know that when I was in grad school, a bunch of us collected the money for a decent coffee maker for the lab; no bidding process required.:^)
We had to deal with approved vendor lists as well. They work as long as the people who made the list of vendors knew what they were doing. Back in the day when 8-inch floppies ruled the earth, there were as many formats as there were manufacturers (it seemed). After three failed attempts to use the approved vendors to get a single stinking box of floppies that would work in a PDP-11 floppy drive -- with each attempt taking about ten days from placing the order through the arrival of the wrong media -- I ordered some from the office supply store we walked past on the way back from lunch. Accounts payable was going to refuse to pay the store because they weren't "on the list". After we explained that they were holding up a federally funded research project, they backed off and paid the invoice.
As for bids, I doubt that they must accept the lowest bid. There was an established procedure we could go through to justify selecting a bid that was not the lowest cost. We didn't use it often because it was a pain to write up the justification but it was possible. Again, times may have changed so my experience may not apply any more. And California's budgeting process is infamous for being impossible to deal with. Ohio's may be just as bad now as far as I know.
Yeah. Speaking of wasting the taxpayers' money: what about all those NTP servers that are being operated by state Universities? I need to change all those "server" records in my network's NTP setup immediately.
"I don't want my tax dollars being used for a mirror server."
Hmm... I regularly download Linux patches from a mirror server located at a federally-operated site. I personally don't have a problem with that use of the taxpayers' money. Perhaps because I'm not one of those "turn everything over to the private marketplace" loons. That's not to say there aren't some uses of tax dollars that I find offensive. Things like blowing up civilians in foreign countries that really don't want us to be there, for example. But, hey, we all have our little eccentricities.
... that the Error Console window now pops up before the main browser window begins rendering. It's almost that fast now in Opera 10.10. Now I rarely even begin reading a web page because that window is bound to pop up in the middle of my reading the first paragraph of text. It used to be annoying as all get out until I realized if I merely minimize it, instead of closing it, I only have to look at it once per browser session. Making it possible to control how sensitive Opera is to minor errors should be possible so users can avoid having to deal with the annoying error console. Either that or allow us to choose to route all the error console messages to a log file and not even open the darned console window. IMHO, that would be a more welcome feature than having a built-in web server.
"The fact is, we gave them billions of dollars to upgrade their infrastructure and they used the money inappropriately and now they have the nerve to complain that they can't meet demand?"
Exactly. Haven't all phone users in the U.S. been paying a charge on their monthly bill that was supposed to be used for rolling out Internet access for rural areas? One can't help but wonder where that money wound up going. My guess is that it funded the re-building of Ma Bell from all the Baby Bells and Whittaker's (sp?) flights to and from Washington to complain about unfair it was for Google and other large sites to not have to pay ATT for all the hits they get.
Sure, Niesluchowski screwed up by installing the Seti@Home software on the district's computers without permission. I would expect that his lawyer is now going over the district's AUP with a fine-toothed comb to see if there was an actual policy violation to justify his firing. A reprimand should have been the first step; firing should have been the final step. I'd tell the guy to take the software off all the systems on his own time before I'd fire him. I'm betting that there must have been some long-term friction between the two for this to come to a firing.
The claim that it cost a boatload of money to fix the "problems" sounds familiar, doesn't it. There is rarely a computer break-in or misuse that hits the news that doesn't claim that it cost millions to restore the system to working order. (Really? Does it really cost one's employer that much money when a server is restored from am backup tape? A couple of those and I could retire.) Makes you wonder if she went and hired some overpriced consultant to click through to the Windows Remove Software menu selection to get Seti@Home off the systems.
The funny side of this is some of the wild assertions that the Superintendent made about the side effects of running the software. For example, one has a very difficult time thinking how leaving the computers on 24hr/day can cause the processors to wear out. Hell, I've got a Pentium MMX motherboard that has been running nearly continuously since it was purchased back in the mid-90s. Damn thing won't die.
Oh, well. Yet another data point that further confirms my theory that the cluefulness of school district superintendents is inversely proportional to their salary.
Rare is the Linux software that even supplies a man page any more. And when they do there, typically, is no "examples" section as one finds in most of the commercial UNIX OSes you encounter.
I especially love the packages that do supply a man page that consists of one line that informs you that the real documentation is found via "info". Then there are the info pages that seems to be nothing but the old man page. This doesn't need to turn into a Gnome Vs. KDE war but I can't think of anyone who'd argue that we can't freakin' pick a single documentation model. I'd, humbly, suggest the old man page style. It's fairly portable so anyone writing software that can be run on UNIX or Linux can write the documentation once and be done with it. (Jeez, is nroff markup really harder than creating an info page or setting up a wiki. And let's not get started on how you even read the support wiki when you're working on a system that doesn't have the network up and running.) And please add an "EXAMPLES" section if some of the command options are arcane enough that a simple memory jog isn't enough to let one know why you'd want to use the "-xyz" switch.
Apart from the man/info page vs. Google problem is the problem of really crappy installation instructions. I've run into too many that leave out significant steps. I'm sure they were obvious to the developers but, since Linux software developers often change the way they develop their code and the installation options often change at the same time, it's really important to make sure the lowly INSTALL file actually contains all of the steps needed to install the package. (Hey, not everything comes in a handy RPM or whatever your package manager of choice uses.) And you developers that write fancy web-based installers that ask all sort sorts of detailed questions: Make sure you are actually using that information. For example, if you ask for the database administration password, your installer has the means of checking for and, if necessary, creating the database, users, etc. your software uses. If you ask that sort of question of the user, s/he's far more often than not going to assume that you needed that information in order to do a bunch of tasks as that administrator. Asking for that information and then leaving it up to the user to perform all those tasks and then not even mentioning that in the INSTALL file is one reason why Open Source software has a bad reputation. (I won't give commercial software a pass on this either. I know of one package that made a big deal about their software running on a particular flavor of UNIX. Technically that was true but not until you editted a half dozen scripts and configuration files to correct the errors that prevented Java from running. While their support critters were insisting that it ran "out of the box", I had already started modifying the company's SOP for installing that package to include the list of files that had to be fixed before turning the system over to end users.)
BTW, Carla's blog entries on this were spot on in several areas. Suggested reading if one hasn't done it yet.
... if there really is one (it's more of a privacy issue isn't it?), isn't that Wikileaks got a hold of the pager messages. It's who leaked them to Wikileaks.
This strongly echoes the Pentagon Papers fracas. Let's not go after the people who leaked the Pentagon Papers information in the first place. Let's go after the people who let the rest of the wolrd see them. That King wants to go after the people who are making the messages available and not so much those who leaked them is yet another example of history repeating itself.
Well, the article did say there were "hundreds" of bug fixes. Maybe you'll find yours was fixed. What I hadn't noticed before, and was actually surprised to see, was that the version number was still so far away from a 1.0 release. I used the program for the first time in a long time yesterday and it crashed on me after just a few minutes. I can't quite recall what I did to tick it off -- I seem to recall trying to use a View menu selection sometime just before things went South -- but it popped up a window telling me that it was having a problem and, after a few seconds, proceeded to off itself. I'm doubtful that I'll be able to recreate the problem let alone recognize in the release notes whether the problem that caused it (whatever it was) was fixed. I hope so as I'm finding xfig a little clunky. I know it's been around for what seems like forever but I've been hearing that, when you want to create SVG images, Inkscape was the way to go. If that turns out to more hype than promise, well, I can get used to clunky but I'll never get used to crashing.
"the compiled binary data that can be run raw on an x86 processor -- looks like English text."
I had brought something like this up during an after-work, Friday night beer session back in the late '80s when a co-worker mentioned the odd snippets of text that one would see while examining programs using the debugger. (No... we weren't talking about strings of text defined in the source code.) I wondered whether it was possible to come up with a program whose machine code formed English text that actually performed a useful function; like some bizaare entry in an Obfuscated Assembly Language contest. Looks like it was possible though I still am not sure that malware actually meets my definition of "useful". Eye of the beholder, I guess.
I haven't figured what all the fuss over Ubuntu is all about anyway. I have a collection of fairly plain-vanilla systems at home that use run-of-the-mill motherboards (from the likes of Gigabyte and Asus) and, on some of them, I haven't been able to get Ubuntu's CDs to even boot. And in those system that will boot the Ubuntu CD the hardware detection fails and nothing will install. Funny that I don't have this problem with Red Hat, SuSE, or even Solaris.
So if Ubuntu wishes to be another Outer Limits type operating system, a la Apple, ("We control the vertical. We control the horizontal"), let 'em. The GIMP takes up space on the CD? What else do they want that CD space for? Crimeny! They're making that one up, right?
As someone with poor enough vision to have to deal with this every day, let me tell you: Icons are the least of one's problems with many applications. It's the use of tiny fonts -- the sort that used to be seen (heh) only in legal disclaimers that vendors didn't want you to read anyway -- and applications that don't allow that font size to be increased. (I'm talkin' to you Mr. Java programmer!) I thank $DIETY that I can use Linux for much of my work and on that system, font re-sizing is a snap. The Windows workstation that I have to use already has the font sizes in IE cranked up to max and it's still a huge strain to read the text in many of the web-based applications I need to use. Hmm... and yet we keep hearing that Windows is supposed to be the better desktop.
I cannot recall any astronomical events being visible from the Chicago area in recent years. Shuttle flyovers? Not a chance. Lunar eclipses? You must be joking. It is always hazy or cloudy when anything interesting is going on. In fact, I'm sure that, aside from the freak Northern lights show we had a few years ago, the only other notable astronomical shows we've been lucky enough to see was when a couple of comets passed by back in the late '90s. This area is just awful for seeing anything.
A clear night sky free of light pollution is one thing I miss about the days I lived in out in rural Ohio when I was in grad school. The closest neighbor was several hundred yards away (the next closest after that was nearly a half mile) and when they turned in for the night they killed all their lights (none of those damned dusk-to-dawn lights). The night sky was awesome. Even though we now live far enough from Chicago that the light pollution is minimal we can see most of the constellations and planets, it's the freakin' weather that kills any chances of seeing all the seasonal meteor showers.
"I don't think Google should even bother waiting for him to do something; just remove him from Google and Google News completely."
"Hello, Rupert? Sergey here. I just wanted to let you know that we've decided to stop listing all of your web sites in our search results. Yeah, it turns out it was pretty easy to do. Say, can you do me a favor Rupert? Can you get back to me next month and let me know how your advertisers feel about this? No, no... nothing important. I just have a bet with Larry about that. You have a good one, okay Rupert. Talk to ya later." [click]
Getting a little desperate in the Marketing Dept. for ideas on what to use GPS for?
Personally, I can't see the benefit for our household. The cats are either in the cat box, under a bed sleeping, or eating, or staring out a window at leaves rustle or at birds. If we had outdoor cats (unlikely seeing as how coyotes have moved into the area) it might make some sense if we had extra money laying around and we couldn't think of anything better to use it on. For most people, though, I think this a laughable idea.
Now if I were a cattle rancher, I could see maybe spending some money in order to track the cattle but I have a feeling it might be cheaper to just have the cowhands track 'em. They'd have to be around anyway to round the critters up in the event they were to go astray.
I'd guess that this will wind up getting sold in some high-end catalog. I could easily see J. R. Bigbucks buying one of these in order to brag to his friends at the country club that they know where little Fluffy is to within 3 meters.
Some company like Monsanto will come up with plants like these (available only from them, of course) and patent the whole idea just so they can make a buck off of saving the planet.
Why the heck isn't someone reaming out the employee/staffer who used his government computer system for personal use? A screw-up like this in the private sector would get him/her fired from many companies for violating company policy regarding the allowed use of the computer system. If that member of congress's office didn't have an acceptable use policy, I'll bet they have one by Monday. It may not be popular to write this on Slashdot but if your employer provides you with a PC for use in your work, it's not really a "personal" computer and you really shouldn't be placing anything on it more personal than, say, a favorite wallpaper.
... if he's considering patenting this thing: The Bone Fone.
I got one back in the '80s from DAK. Still have it and it still works. Just add a jack for a sound card to plug into and I think you pretty much have the same game interface. There's not a lot of bass response -- certainly nothing one could call "chest thumping" -- but making it bigger would help in that area. (Comfort might be questionable, though.) So, exactly how radical an idea is this really?
... even have enough money and a computer to even be able to do online banking? I imagine they're far more interested in having potable water, something to eat, and a roof over their heads before they even think about needing a computer or a broadband connection.
Geez. The folks that come up with these studies need to get out a little more.
Slashdot Mirror
That must have been one heck of a microwave. Back in a previous life, I worked for the State of Ohio. You had to go through a bidding process for things that cost $1K or more. (That may be different nowadays but that was the way things were back in the '80s. And it was amazing how many quotes for $980 or $995 you would get from suppliers; they knew the rules as well as we did.) For a microwave oven, we probably would have taken up a collection in the department. (We actually had a microwave back then. Wonder how it was paid for? I doubt it cost a grand, though.) I know that when I was in grad school, a bunch of us collected the money for a decent coffee maker for the lab; no bidding process required. :^)
We had to deal with approved vendor lists as well. They work as long as the people who made the list of vendors knew what they were doing. Back in the day when 8-inch floppies ruled the earth, there were as many formats as there were manufacturers (it seemed). After three failed attempts to use the approved vendors to get a single stinking box of floppies that would work in a PDP-11 floppy drive -- with each attempt taking about ten days from placing the order through the arrival of the wrong media -- I ordered some from the office supply store we walked past on the way back from lunch. Accounts payable was going to refuse to pay the store because they weren't "on the list". After we explained that they were holding up a federally funded research project, they backed off and paid the invoice.
As for bids, I doubt that they must accept the lowest bid. There was an established procedure we could go through to justify selecting a bid that was not the lowest cost. We didn't use it often because it was a pain to write up the justification but it was possible. Again, times may have changed so my experience may not apply any more. And California's budgeting process is infamous for being impossible to deal with. Ohio's may be just as bad now as far as I know.
Yeah. Speaking of wasting the taxpayers' money: what about all those NTP servers that are being operated by state Universities? I need to change all those "server" records in my network's NTP setup immediately.
Hmm... I regularly download Linux patches from a mirror server located at a federally-operated site. I personally don't have a problem with that use of the taxpayers' money. Perhaps because I'm not one of those "turn everything over to the private marketplace" loons. That's not to say there aren't some uses of tax dollars that I find offensive. Things like blowing up civilians in foreign countries that really don't want us to be there, for example. But, hey, we all have our little eccentricities.
But it's OK for taxpayer dollars to go into the coffers of a corporation? I find that odd.
... that the Error Console window now pops up before the main browser window begins rendering. It's almost that fast now in Opera 10.10. Now I rarely even begin reading a web page because that window is bound to pop up in the middle of my reading the first paragraph of text. It used to be annoying as all get out until I realized if I merely minimize it, instead of closing it, I only have to look at it once per browser session. Making it possible to control how sensitive Opera is to minor errors should be possible so users can avoid having to deal with the annoying error console. Either that or allow us to choose to route all the error console messages to a log file and not even open the darned console window. IMHO, that would be a more welcome feature than having a built-in web server.
Exactly. Haven't all phone users in the U.S. been paying a charge on their monthly bill that was supposed to be used for rolling out Internet access for rural areas? One can't help but wonder where that money wound up going. My guess is that it funded the re-building of Ma Bell from all the Baby Bells and Whittaker's (sp?) flights to and from Washington to complain about unfair it was for Google and other large sites to not have to pay ATT for all the hits they get.
Sure, Niesluchowski screwed up by installing the Seti@Home software on the district's computers without permission. I would expect that his lawyer is now going over the district's AUP with a fine-toothed comb to see if there was an actual policy violation to justify his firing. A reprimand should have been the first step; firing should have been the final step. I'd tell the guy to take the software off all the systems on his own time before I'd fire him. I'm betting that there must have been some long-term friction between the two for this to come to a firing.
The claim that it cost a boatload of money to fix the "problems" sounds familiar, doesn't it. There is rarely a computer break-in or misuse that hits the news that doesn't claim that it cost millions to restore the system to working order. (Really? Does it really cost one's employer that much money when a server is restored from am backup tape? A couple of those and I could retire.) Makes you wonder if she went and hired some overpriced consultant to click through to the Windows Remove Software menu selection to get Seti@Home off the systems.
The funny side of this is some of the wild assertions that the Superintendent made about the side effects of running the software. For example, one has a very difficult time thinking how leaving the computers on 24hr/day can cause the processors to wear out. Hell, I've got a Pentium MMX motherboard that has been running nearly continuously since it was purchased back in the mid-90s. Damn thing won't die.
Oh, well. Yet another data point that further confirms my theory that the cluefulness of school district superintendents is inversely proportional to their salary.
... all that seems to come out is something like: "Damn that Internet. Now what are we supposed to do with all these buggy whips?"
Rare is the Linux software that even supplies a man page any more. And when they do there, typically, is no "examples" section as one finds in most of the commercial UNIX OSes you encounter.
I especially love the packages that do supply a man page that consists of one line that informs you that the real documentation is found via "info". Then there are the info pages that seems to be nothing but the old man page. This doesn't need to turn into a Gnome Vs. KDE war but I can't think of anyone who'd argue that we can't freakin' pick a single documentation model. I'd, humbly, suggest the old man page style. It's fairly portable so anyone writing software that can be run on UNIX or Linux can write the documentation once and be done with it. (Jeez, is nroff markup really harder than creating an info page or setting up a wiki. And let's not get started on how you even read the support wiki when you're working on a system that doesn't have the network up and running.) And please add an "EXAMPLES" section if some of the command options are arcane enough that a simple memory jog isn't enough to let one know why you'd want to use the "-xyz" switch.
Apart from the man/info page vs. Google problem is the problem of really crappy installation instructions. I've run into too many that leave out significant steps. I'm sure they were obvious to the developers but, since Linux software developers often change the way they develop their code and the installation options often change at the same time, it's really important to make sure the lowly INSTALL file actually contains all of the steps needed to install the package. (Hey, not everything comes in a handy RPM or whatever your package manager of choice uses.) And you developers that write fancy web-based installers that ask all sort sorts of detailed questions: Make sure you are actually using that information. For example, if you ask for the database administration password, your installer has the means of checking for and, if necessary, creating the database, users, etc. your software uses. If you ask that sort of question of the user, s/he's far more often than not going to assume that you needed that information in order to do a bunch of tasks as that administrator. Asking for that information and then leaving it up to the user to perform all those tasks and then not even mentioning that in the INSTALL file is one reason why Open Source software has a bad reputation. (I won't give commercial software a pass on this either. I know of one package that made a big deal about their software running on a particular flavor of UNIX. Technically that was true but not until you editted a half dozen scripts and configuration files to correct the errors that prevented Java from running. While their support critters were insisting that it ran "out of the box", I had already started modifying the company's SOP for installing that package to include the list of files that had to be fixed before turning the system over to end users.)
BTW, Carla's blog entries on this were spot on in several areas. Suggested reading if one hasn't done it yet.
... if there really is one (it's more of a privacy issue isn't it?), isn't that Wikileaks got a hold of the pager messages. It's who leaked them to Wikileaks.
This strongly echoes the Pentagon Papers fracas. Let's not go after the people who leaked the Pentagon Papers information in the first place. Let's go after the people who let the rest of the wolrd see them. That King wants to go after the people who are making the messages available and not so much those who leaked them is yet another example of history repeating itself.
This appeal probably more to do with the sort of lawyer drawn to the prosecution field than anything related to the politics of the executive branch.
Well, the article did say there were "hundreds" of bug fixes. Maybe you'll find yours was fixed. What I hadn't noticed before, and was actually surprised to see, was that the version number was still so far away from a 1.0 release. I used the program for the first time in a long time yesterday and it crashed on me after just a few minutes. I can't quite recall what I did to tick it off -- I seem to recall trying to use a View menu selection sometime just before things went South -- but it popped up a window telling me that it was having a problem and, after a few seconds, proceeded to off itself. I'm doubtful that I'll be able to recreate the problem let alone recognize in the release notes whether the problem that caused it (whatever it was) was fixed. I hope so as I'm finding xfig a little clunky. I know it's been around for what seems like forever but I've been hearing that, when you want to create SVG images, Inkscape was the way to go. If that turns out to more hype than promise, well, I can get used to clunky but I'll never get used to crashing.
I had brought something like this up during an after-work, Friday night beer session back in the late '80s when a co-worker mentioned the odd snippets of text that one would see while examining programs using the debugger. (No... we weren't talking about strings of text defined in the source code.) I wondered whether it was possible to come up with a program whose machine code formed English text that actually performed a useful function; like some bizaare entry in an Obfuscated Assembly Language contest. Looks like it was possible though I still am not sure that malware actually meets my definition of "useful". Eye of the beholder, I guess.
That must make interviews rather awkward.
I haven't figured what all the fuss over Ubuntu is all about anyway. I have a collection of fairly plain-vanilla systems at home that use run-of-the-mill motherboards (from the likes of Gigabyte and Asus) and, on some of them, I haven't been able to get Ubuntu's CDs to even boot. And in those system that will boot the Ubuntu CD the hardware detection fails and nothing will install. Funny that I don't have this problem with Red Hat, SuSE, or even Solaris.
So if Ubuntu wishes to be another Outer Limits type operating system, a la Apple, ("We control the vertical. We control the horizontal"), let 'em. The GIMP takes up space on the CD? What else do they want that CD space for? Crimeny! They're making that one up, right?
As someone with poor enough vision to have to deal with this every day, let me tell you: Icons are the least of one's problems with many applications. It's the use of tiny fonts -- the sort that used to be seen (heh) only in legal disclaimers that vendors didn't want you to read anyway -- and applications that don't allow that font size to be increased. (I'm talkin' to you Mr. Java programmer!) I thank $DIETY that I can use Linux for much of my work and on that system, font re-sizing is a snap. The Windows workstation that I have to use already has the font sizes in IE cranked up to max and it's still a huge strain to read the text in many of the web-based applications I need to use. Hmm... and yet we keep hearing that Windows is supposed to be the better desktop.
I cannot recall any astronomical events being visible from the Chicago area in recent years. Shuttle flyovers? Not a chance. Lunar eclipses? You must be joking. It is always hazy or cloudy when anything interesting is going on. In fact, I'm sure that, aside from the freak Northern lights show we had a few years ago, the only other notable astronomical shows we've been lucky enough to see was when a couple of comets passed by back in the late '90s. This area is just awful for seeing anything.
A clear night sky free of light pollution is one thing I miss about the days I lived in out in rural Ohio when I was in grad school. The closest neighbor was several hundred yards away (the next closest after that was nearly a half mile) and when they turned in for the night they killed all their lights (none of those damned dusk-to-dawn lights). The night sky was awesome. Even though we now live far enough from Chicago that the light pollution is minimal we can see most of the constellations and planets, it's the freakin' weather that kills any chances of seeing all the seasonal meteor showers.
"Hello, Rupert? Sergey here. I just wanted to let you know that we've decided to stop listing all of your web sites in our search results. Yeah, it turns out it was pretty easy to do. Say, can you do me a favor Rupert? Can you get back to me next month and let me know how your advertisers feel about this? No, no... nothing important. I just have a bet with Larry about that. You have a good one, okay Rupert. Talk to ya later." [click]
Tracking our goldfish?
Getting a little desperate in the Marketing Dept. for ideas on what to use GPS for?
Personally, I can't see the benefit for our household. The cats are either in the cat box, under a bed sleeping, or eating, or staring out a window at leaves rustle or at birds. If we had outdoor cats (unlikely seeing as how coyotes have moved into the area) it might make some sense if we had extra money laying around and we couldn't think of anything better to use it on. For most people, though, I think this a laughable idea.
Now if I were a cattle rancher, I could see maybe spending some money in order to track the cattle but I have a feeling it might be cheaper to just have the cowhands track 'em. They'd have to be around anyway to round the critters up in the event they were to go astray.
I'd guess that this will wind up getting sold in some high-end catalog. I could easily see J. R. Bigbucks buying one of these in order to brag to his friends at the country club that they know where little Fluffy is to within 3 meters.
Some company like Monsanto will come up with plants like these (available only from them, of course) and patent the whole idea just so they can make a buck off of saving the planet.
And, it seems, to find the wayward DARPA representitives who are accompanying the balloons.
Why the heck isn't someone reaming out the employee/staffer who used his government computer system for personal use? A screw-up like this in the private sector would get him/her fired from many companies for violating company policy regarding the allowed use of the computer system. If that member of congress's office didn't have an acceptable use policy, I'll bet they have one by Monday. It may not be popular to write this on Slashdot but if your employer provides you with a PC for use in your work, it's not really a "personal" computer and you really shouldn't be placing anything on it more personal than, say, a favorite wallpaper.
... if he's considering patenting this thing: The Bone Fone.
I got one back in the '80s from DAK. Still have it and it still works. Just add a jack for a sound card to plug into and I think you pretty much have the same game interface. There's not a lot of bass response -- certainly nothing one could call "chest thumping" -- but making it bigger would help in that area. (Comfort might be questionable, though.) So, exactly how radical an idea is this really?
The first time I encountered that damned ribbon menu it took me a long time to get anything done, too.
... even have enough money and a computer to even be able to do online banking? I imagine they're far more interested in having potable water, something to eat, and a roof over their heads before they even think about needing a computer or a broadband connection.
Geez. The folks that come up with these studies need to get out a little more.