"we will be re-booting the cloud today,,,in order to protect your 3,2 petabytes of data, you should download it to local storage in case of a fail event. thanks for using cloud storage on computing. have a great day."
That this inane post is moderated as "3, Insightful" is why I do not visit/. anymore.
Choosing providers is a function of the value of your files and your ability to pay. Choose providers with strong financials and replicate critical files among providers.
This is true - it is a market of freedom. Now, I use *only* FOSS for my server-side development and deployment and have done so since the mid-to-late 90's. There is also no doubt that the influence of FOSS continues to keep closed systems like Apple, MSFT and even Facebook in check. We'll never return to the days of Windows de facto monopolization or even pre-Web strangleholds on online connectivity such as CompuServ, Prodigy, AOL.
We're all better off with FOSS, even if not directly using it.
I'm not as pure a FOSS adherent as you — all my personal computing devices are from Apple — but I definitely agree that without FOSS we'd have less freedom and innovation in computing today.
As the richness of the web experience increases due to interactive technologies available on the client-side unscrupulous people work to catch people off-guard for their own advantage. At the most benign level this is done by advertisers seeking to gain attention. At the worst thieves use client-side scripting as a virtual pickpocket tool.
When possible I remind my family members to stay on alert when on-line (or even off-line). This includes not clicking on links in email, of course. It also includes not logging into a service unless they have entered the URL themselves or used a bookmark they have set up. Yes, this does not prevent MitM attacks and will not protect them from a scheme that changes a browser's bookmarks. But it solves the bulk of the phishing attacks to date.
One reason I prefer specialized apps for important services (banking, on-line status update services, email) over using a generic web interface is that specialized apps are less prone to be faked by XSS, phishing look-a-like pages, etc. This is especially true of closed platform apps like iPhone/iPad apps that undergo an approval process by a third party.
Sad as it is to admit one benefit to the lack of "freedom" on the iPhone/iPad platform is protection from scammers.
What is an open alternative to protecting the unaware from these scams? I'm all ears.
I probably watch too many cop shows but when a suspect says, "No proof exists", it's usually a sign of moral guilt. Maybe even of distruction of evidence. Regardless, this is weak and should be treated as a serious infringement against the privacy of the students and their families.
IMHO, of course. Oh, and IANAL but I do watch Law and Order.;)
While it's true iPad cannot doesn't allow me to do everything my laptop does, I find that for most of the things I do with a laptop the iPad excels. Especially consuming content. Creating content is getting better (I'm more used to the keyboard and use an external BT keyboard for long writing sessions), iSSH makes it bearable to manage my servers remotely (the only servers I use anymore are "remote"), and when off work the iPad is a fantastic movie and gaming platform.
So, I am finding myself using my iPad more and my laptop less. (Ironically, I'm writing this from my MacBookPro:)
So, ever since family and friends found out I could help with arcane errors and problems with their Apple ][+ computers (did I mention I'm old? That was back in the early 80s) I've been standing between computers and users and trying to reconcile both to each other.
Eventually, this turned in to a great opportunity for me to help people with their use of current technology. Are computers and software packages irritating? You bet! But being in the middle position between the user and CPU has been something I've enjoyed for more than a decade.
Sure, I've been a developer and struggled directly with computers on one hand and produced software that unintentionally frustrated users on the other. But it's standing in the gap between the technology and humanity that I find myself the most valuable.
As long as computers and software suck there will be a need for people like me. And, as it turns out, people prefer to turn their problems over to other people -- not wizards, FAQs, etc. -- for assistance.
The trick is not considering users as the problem but oneself as a key to the solution.
Not an advert (we do run ads on Slashdot, of course) but a badge indicating I'm one of a few Rackspace employees here on Slashdot and willing to be helpful if someone has questions, etc. If you check my bio you'll notice I'm a Linux Sr Sys Engineer, not sales (though "There's nothing wrong with that" if someone is in sales:) ).
I do the same thing for Rackspace elsewhere. We're able to do this due to our relationship with Slashdot.
:) Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.:)
Kidding!
I use GMail for a lot of my personal (i.e., non-essential) accounts. I still use Hotmail, AOL mail and Yahoo Mail for other things, too. Of course, my business mail is running at Rackspace.
Really hoping this rumor is true - not that I need to buy another "pad" device (yes, I stood in line for an iPad) - but I'd really like to see how the Closed vs. Open platform models play out. Best case: Apple revises its Closed stance in response to a thriving gPad ecosystem.
I really like my iProducts, but having been a proponent of open platforms for so long I am uneasy at the tight hold Apple holds over developers and users.
For example, why hasn't Apple approved the Opera Mini yet? I'd welcome a choice in browsers, personally.
I too offer my congratulations to PJ and the hard working Groklaw community. When I started reading her blog in the Spring of 2003 there was a lot of confusion as to the future of Linux and even the GPL. How a company that owed it's existence to Linux and the GPL (I'm referring to Caldera which became The SCO Group) could turn on the whole community as it did was a dark time in business.
Of course nearly every claim was proven false (with the possible exception of errno.h and some drivers submitted by SGI, IIRC) due to the unrelenting research by PJ and so many others in the Groklaw community. She and they proved that an open community can be more powerful than elite lawyers and companies funded by deep pockets.
This work truly belongs in the LOC and should be studied and emulated.
I watch Social Media mentions of things I care about very closely. I've explained to others how I've come to realize there is a definite "canary effect" with the mass sentiment seen via real-time opinion/view venues such as Twitter.
In fact, for items related to "down time" of sites people are routinely faster at registering their dismay at a service being unavailable than expensive site monitoring tools. This isn't exactly predicting future outcomes, but it is an "early warning" indicator that businesses should tap into.
Personally, I use simple scripts that hit the Twitter Search API and send alerts to me and others via IM, email, etc. Not as pretty as $2000/mo monitoring systems, but quite effective.
Slashdot Mirror
Logged in for the first time in a while to see if friend/foe stuff was still set up. Yup. I had forgotten all about F/F...
Big 6-digit ID number here...it's what I get for waiting to sign up until long after I started visiting and stopped pouring hot grits down my...
"we will be re-booting the cloud today,,,in order to protect your 3,2 petabytes of data, you should download it to local storage in case of a fail event. thanks for using cloud storage on computing. have a great day."
That this inane post is moderated as "3, Insightful" is why I do not visit /. anymore.
Thanks for ruining my awesome iPad experience. :)
Choosing providers is a function of the value of your files and your ability to pay. Choose providers with strong financials and replicate critical files among providers.
Is the lone red dot remaining in the Sick & Poor quadrant North Korea by chance?
This is true - it is a market of freedom. Now, I use *only* FOSS for my server-side development and deployment and have done so since the mid-to-late 90's. There is also no doubt that the influence of FOSS continues to keep closed systems like Apple, MSFT and even Facebook in check. We'll never return to the days of Windows de facto monopolization or even pre-Web strangleholds on online connectivity such as CompuServ, Prodigy, AOL.
We're all better off with FOSS, even if not directly using it.
I'm not as pure a FOSS adherent as you — all my personal computing devices are from Apple — but I definitely agree that without FOSS we'd have less freedom and innovation in computing today.
As the richness of the web experience increases due to interactive technologies available on the client-side unscrupulous people work to catch people off-guard for their own advantage. At the most benign level this is done by advertisers seeking to gain attention. At the worst thieves use client-side scripting as a virtual pickpocket tool.
When possible I remind my family members to stay on alert when on-line (or even off-line). This includes not clicking on links in email, of course. It also includes not logging into a service unless they have entered the URL themselves or used a bookmark they have set up. Yes, this does not prevent MitM attacks and will not protect them from a scheme that changes a browser's bookmarks. But it solves the bulk of the phishing attacks to date.
One reason I prefer specialized apps for important services (banking, on-line status update services, email) over using a generic web interface is that specialized apps are less prone to be faked by XSS, phishing look-a-like pages, etc. This is especially true of closed platform apps like iPhone/iPad apps that undergo an approval process by a third party.
Sad as it is to admit one benefit to the lack of "freedom" on the iPhone/iPad platform is protection from scammers.
What is an open alternative to protecting the unaware from these scams? I'm all ears.
Then we're all good! :)
I was told there would be no Latin on Slashdot... :)
Well, that's all that matters, right? :)
I probably watch too many cop shows but when a suspect says, "No proof exists", it's usually a sign of moral guilt. Maybe even of distruction of evidence. Regardless, this is weak and should be treated as a serious infringement against the privacy of the students and their families.
IMHO, of course. Oh, and IANAL but I do watch Law and Order. ;)
Here's a thread that discusses the reason for the logo.
While it's true iPad cannot doesn't allow me to do everything my laptop does, I find that for most of the things I do with a laptop the iPad excels. Especially consuming content. Creating content is getting better (I'm more used to the keyboard and use an external BT keyboard for long writing sessions), iSSH makes it bearable to manage my servers remotely (the only servers I use anymore are "remote"), and when off work the iPad is a fantastic movie and gaming platform.
So, I am finding myself using my iPad more and my laptop less. (Ironically, I'm writing this from my MacBookPro :)
See this comment and follow-up discussion regarding the icon
So, ever since family and friends found out I could help with arcane errors and problems with their Apple ][+ computers (did I mention I'm old? That was back in the early 80s) I've been standing between computers and users and trying to reconcile both to each other.
Eventually, this turned in to a great opportunity for me to help people with their use of current technology. Are computers and software packages irritating? You bet! But being in the middle position between the user and CPU has been something I've enjoyed for more than a decade.
Sure, I've been a developer and struggled directly with computers on one hand and produced software that unintentionally frustrated users on the other. But it's standing in the gap between the technology and humanity that I find myself the most valuable.
As long as computers and software suck there will be a need for people like me. And, as it turns out, people prefer to turn their problems over to other people -- not wizards, FAQs, etc. -- for assistance.
The trick is not considering users as the problem but oneself as a key to the solution.
Maybe I wasn't clear - it didn't expose the contractor to Apple, but to others outside Apple. I didn't like that, either.
Not an advert (we do run ads on Slashdot, of course) but a badge indicating I'm one of a few Rackspace employees here on Slashdot and willing to be helpful if someone has questions, etc. If you check my bio you'll notice I'm a Linux Sr Sys Engineer, not sales (though "There's nothing wrong with that" if someone is in sales :) ).
I do the same thing for Rackspace elsewhere. We're able to do this due to our relationship with Slashdot.
:) Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. :)
Kidding!
I use GMail for a lot of my personal (i.e., non-essential) accounts. I still use Hotmail, AOL mail and Yahoo Mail for other things, too. Of course, my business mail is running at Rackspace.
It's my company's logo - I work for Rackspace Hosting.
My thoughts exactly.
Still, it would be quite embarrassing to be publicly named so that others besides Apple knew who was to blame for the mistake.
For the line party :)
Really hoping this rumor is true - not that I need to buy another "pad" device (yes, I stood in line for an iPad) - but I'd really like to see how the Closed vs. Open platform models play out. Best case: Apple revises its Closed stance in response to a thriving gPad ecosystem.
I really like my iProducts, but having been a proponent of open platforms for so long I am uneasy at the tight hold Apple holds over developers and users.
For example, why hasn't Apple approved the Opera Mini yet? I'd welcome a choice in browsers, personally.
I too offer my congratulations to PJ and the hard working Groklaw community. When I started reading her blog in the Spring of 2003 there was a lot of confusion as to the future of Linux and even the GPL. How a company that owed it's existence to Linux and the GPL (I'm referring to Caldera which became The SCO Group) could turn on the whole community as it did was a dark time in business.
Of course nearly every claim was proven false (with the possible exception of errno.h and some drivers submitted by SGI, IIRC) due to the unrelenting research by PJ and so many others in the Groklaw community. She and they proved that an open community can be more powerful than elite lawyers and companies funded by deep pockets.
This work truly belongs in the LOC and should be studied and emulated.
I watch Social Media mentions of things I care about very closely. I've explained to others how I've come to realize there is a definite "canary effect" with the mass sentiment seen via real-time opinion/view venues such as Twitter.
In fact, for items related to "down time" of sites people are routinely faster at registering their dismay at a service being unavailable than expensive site monitoring tools. This isn't exactly predicting future outcomes, but it is an "early warning" indicator that businesses should tap into.
Personally, I use simple scripts that hit the Twitter Search API and send alerts to me and others via IM, email, etc. Not as pretty as $2000/mo monitoring systems, but quite effective.