You are too kind when you say "guessing it would still be useful". Those people are fucking idiots and should not be programming when they obviously have no clue about the basics of a freaking 201-level college CS course.
I'm going to remember your anecdote next time I need to justify why people need to actually know how computers work instead of being API gluebots.
I know your pain. I used to program embedded systems in ASM langauges (I actually have programmed in 5 different dialects for a multitude of processors - including ones with NO STACK). When you tell people about that they shudder. I actually found it quite fun. Learning how to optimize code by HAND, you learn how to efficiently code loops, etc. So that you can make efficient use of things (knowing when the registers were zero, etc.).
To do that type of programming you needed to know how to design and code efficient data structures. As well as how to implement an algorithm efficiently.
I've always been amazed at the IDE Junkies who insist that they need them to do their job. I've been programming for around 20 years now, and I STILL don't use an IDE. Granted my job is less programming now (but I still have an opensource project or two that I work on). I always feel that the IDE is too restrictive.
Hey, I might be moving soon, so I might actually have a choice. Is there anyone decent out there?
If you really don't want to deal with that crap, find a company that does BUSINESS DSL. I've been with One Communications for years. Their service has been really good. 99% of the problems I've had were the direct result of Verizon borking my DSL line. I had my modem die at 1am, and they had me a new mode by 5am and I was back up and running.
And those people get bored and want to surf the internet from their monitoring station. So they bring in a bit of cat5(or a USB wireless dongle) and get themselves a connection to the outside world. 6 months later, someone gets paid to figure out why a computer with no internet connection has popups, trips over the cable and says "WTF".
You want to bet ? They are in a montored room. DHCP in our company only allows registerd MAC's to get addresses. If they have a machine making requests, our IT team know what port the requests are on they investigate it. If someone did that they'd be walked out the nearest door before they could go "But ?"
Hearing shit like that at work has nearly convinced me to buy a real generator.
What type of work ? A general office or a Power Control Center ?
If you have segregated networks, all the spy needs to do is find a single place to tap into your "secure" one, and you're toast. You thought it was secure, so you didn't lock it down properly. And somebody, somewhere left a way in, an unguarded terminal, or cheated and put a cross-connect to the public net for his own convenience, thinking it would never be found.
Tha WOULD require them physical access to the facility. None of the control centers are going to just "allow" someone access to their network, let alone physical access to the facility. We are told to notify security (who will notify the police officer in the guard shack) if we see anyone who isn't badged.
If it's all on the public net, but thoroughly locked down with good security and encryption protocols, and tight firewalls, you may be in better shape. You know it's dangerous to let your guard down. And we're also pretty confident we have protocols which, when applied to spec, are truly cryptographically strong, and so forth.
The Control Centers aren't supposed to take that risk. Its separate the control centers from the company network AND from direct access to the internet.
Plus it's a lot cheaper than building out a whole nother net, including access for your critical engineer who's off at a conference somewhere when the unpredicted crisis with the unique system in your plant that she's the genius about requires immediate attention. Sometimes making sure the right people have solid access from anywhere they are is also essential to security. The public net - with the right protocols - does that.
Is it ? Can you honestly say that even the remote possiblity of a compromised system is worth the cost savings if it affects that existence of your company (as a control center) ?
You have THAT room connected to specific routers that only allow "limited" access and ensure that the users can't install software that would compromise that system. You block their access to ANYTHING that they don't need for business reasons. PERIOD.
how else is a power station operator on a remote plant supposed to work? You don't expect them to go to the plant if it is hours away from anything. Stay at the plant, away from families? Forget it. operators telecommute too!
Do you REALLY think that a "properly" run allows "any" connections to their control units or SCADA systems ? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that they have people there 24/7 to handle any type of contingencies.
People always say these things aren't connected to the internet and there are supposed to be seperate control and communication and PC networks but I bet few plants actually have that. Maybe super critical ones like nuclear, but your average small hydro or peaking gas plant...
They aren't the "power grid", they are power stations. The "power grid" are the master control centers (Like NYISO, CalISO, Midwest ISO, PJM, etc) and the local control centers. There are FERC requirements for how THEY must be configured/setup (like the control room's network must be separated from the rest of the companies network, etc).
Time, Budget, the need to get that sensor or remote control connected to something, anything, whatever is near by so we can talk to it *now* and then the temporary fix becomes permanent
Nope. Not likely. If anything it is a PRIVATE network managed by the local control center.
Ha! Police!?! Keeping checks on themselves?!!. Ohhh, you're so cute.
Fine, Make it a civilian entity (someone who reports to the Mayor/etc. of a city/town). Hold the police accountable, the worst part will be getting the rights to do this put it into their contracts (since they have a very strong union).
But as a 2nd. I see the police brake the law a few times a week. They will pull up to a stop light, Stop, turn on their lights, go thru the Stop light, then turn their lights off. All this with out any need to. They Interpret the laws when they want too for their own good. You don't report them, or you will start getting speeding tickets.
I still think that whenever a police car has its lights turned on, the station house should be notified. If he doesn't immediately call in, they assume its an issue and send backup (they pretty much ALL have a GPS now, right ?)
If it isn't a REAL issue then the office is written up for improper use of his police siren (or something).
If my DNA isn't part of my person, I don't know what is. If you find it at a crime scene, that's one thing, but the bar for compelling the collection of a DNA sample should be at least as high (and probably higher) than the bar for a warrant for a home search.
What about the 5th amendment (the right to not self incriminate) ? Isn't taking your DNA without any other proof a violation of that ? Or taking it without a court order ?
However if they start requiring a court order, they'll just get a judge who'll rubber stamp the requests.
What happened to only getting DNA evidence from felons? This seems insane, there's no reason at all that someone ACCUSED of a misdemeanor crime should have to submit (and, most likely, pay for!) DNA samples unless it was important to the court case. If this goes through, I can only wonder what they'll be asking for next. Getting DNA from children to put into a database, like they've done with fingerprints in some places?
Next it will be, "I'm sorry, I believe you were speeding. Please give me a blood, urine, hair and DNA sample."
It means that if you use a browser other than IE to try to access this product, nothing works. Not even the navigation works. It's like buying Photoshop, touching up a.jpg file and then ONLY being able to open it again using Adobe Acrobat.
Actually, we use sharepoint at work and so far the only functionality I've found that requires IE is creating or modifying MS Office documents "directly" from Sharepoint instead of downloading, editing and then uploading again.
I wish it did work with something other than IE where I work with Firefox and Linux (that isn't the case here - I can't even get INTO sharepoint if I don't use IE). Its part of why I've had to convert BACK to using Windows from using a Linux box and a Windows VM (the other part is Office 2007). Yes, I know that I could use Office 3 but that's a band-aid.
More and more stuff where I work is being "integrated" with Active Directory and the like. So its back to using a Windows Laptop at work (but I still will only use Linux at home).
Information shouldn't kill trees. While I don't claim to be very green, I see this as a good next step. The publishing industry will survive, they just need to stop fighting the changing face of the reader and work with the flow. I seem to remember Hollywood boo-hooing how the VCR would destroy them.
I don't think this is REALLY about anything other than declining subscriptions. I used to subscribe toDr. Dobbs (and had been a regular subscriber for 14+ years) until I sat down and figured out the ad pages to article pages ratio and got disgusted. It was mostly ads and I'm NOT going to pay to read ads for Microsoft, et. al.
And sadly, I haven't missed it. If I need to figure something out, I go online and google it.
This attitude is common with the older generation who aren't used to the net. "Free" rings alarm bells and this is an issue I rarely hear mention of when people talk about the problems linux has spreading.
Maybe this analogy might work.
Your neighbor has a garden where he grows all sorts of vegetables with seeds that he gathered from friends or he saved from previous crops. So his cost to do the garden is essentially nothing. He grows the garden because he likes growing the garden. When he gives away the vegetables, is he breaking the law or scamming ?
No. He isn't. The same thing with free software. A lot of people write software because they LIKE IT. And they aren't doing it for profit (although that's nice sometimes), they do it for love of writing software to serve a purpose.
So long as the level of enforcement is insufficient to enforce the law, the law is irrelevant. In economic terms, if the supply of illegal behavior is not met with equivalent demand for enforcement, the illegal behavior above the supply/demand equilibrium will go unpunished...
You have a good point but, its because so many people have demonized some behavior or products. Think about Hemp, its cheaper than many products, grows relatively easily and can be grown where other crops cant. Unfortunately it has some bad "by products" (i.e. Marijuana), so all of its benefits be damned.
I still think that if they legalized drugs (and managed it like they do alcohol) there would be major benefits from doing that.
Drug quality could me managed - no more people dying because it has been mixed with Drano.
Drug Cost could more easily available. This would neuter the drug cartels and gangs because they'd lose their biggest source of income.
People would be able to buy real decongestant again (without feeling like a criminal - having to present ID to purchase it)
Instantly having more police officers available to do REAL police work (murder investigations, etc.).
Cutting the court cases down drastically because there would be no possession related cases
NOTE: I am not a drug user (other than using decongestant for a decongestant, not to make anything else). I'm just sick of the waste of police efforts on something that could be used more efficiency.
I have one too and I love it. The only negative is that if I use Calibre (the Linux software) I cannot use the Windows software (that comes with the ebook).
It isn't that important but having the ability to sync with my Vista Laptop and my Linux desktop would be nice.
That/.'s consensus analysis of this bill is completely incorrect. The immunity portion of the bill doesn't change anything other than preventing a bunch of lawyers from getting rich, since the telecoms would have won any lawsuits anyway. I know that this is going to be wildly unpopular, but the truth is, if the government tells a business to do something, and tells the business that they have legal authorization to do it, and in fact threaten the company if they don't comply, the business is going to be off the hook in court. Who should be held responsible? The government agencies that did the bullying and misleading in the first place.
So what does change? Going forward, there will be stiffer penalties for groups that violate FISA requirements, either knowingly or through a lack of due diligence.
Guess what, if it was "legal" or "ordered", Why didn't QWest do anything. Why did the govt back down when Qwest asked for a WARRENT to perform the wiretaps ?
Guess what ? It WASN'T LEGAL (no warrent = NOT LEGAL, regardless of the twit ordering it done)
The police are really clueless when it comnes to this as well as cyber crime.
A few years ago a had a debit card number stolen from a site where I purchased a CD. All of a sudden we started seeing odd charges (for body piercing jewelery). Within 24 hours, I had contacted the places where the purchases were made and had the person's name, home address, and home phone number. I did nothing illegal since he had put my name on the orders as the person paying the bill. I managed to get most of the money refunded to my account in a day but the police did NOTHING.
The bank still insisted that I fill out a theft report - which the cops did even they didn't quite understand why. I gave them the information when I filled out the report and they were kinda stumped what to actually do about it.
So this seems to be the norm (not having cops understand what to do with technology).
1) Corporate contributions directly or indirectly are banned from politics.
2) Only individuals can donate, and there are limits placed on how much one person can donate.
2.3) Lower the max amount that an individual can contribute to $ 250 instead of $ 1000. (forces them to get 4 x the contribution)
2.5) An State level board investigates the contributions (i.e. opensecrets.org) and it investigates/fines where you see more than 1 contribution from a single address using variations of the same Name (Alan Smith, A. Smith, Alan B. Smith, A. B. Smith, A. Bob Smith, etc). If any irregularities are found, the politician is fined 5x the amount of the contribution and the contributer is subjected to an IRS Audit.
It should be No Vote, No contributions to a campain.
3) Politicians become honest.
4) Pigs grow wings and fly.
Adobe Reader - Using open source PDF reader "Evince Document Viewer" instead. Result? Software does not annoy.
For Linux, Agreed. But when is Evince going to work in Windows ? Oh. Never ?? So what choice does a person using windows have ?
Apple iTunes - Using open source music program "Amarok". Result? Software does not annoy (and works much better than iTunes as well).
For Linux, Agreed. But when is Amarok going to work in Windows or with people's iPods? Oh. Never ?? So what alternateive choice does a person using windows have ?
Windows Update - Using Genuine Linux Distro "Ubuntu". Result? No licensing restrictions, no DRM, no repeated system restarts, no service packs to fix the previous service pack, that fixed the previous service pack, that fixed months old critical bugs.
No repeated system restarts, but none ? What about when your kernel is updated ? What about VMWare needing to be recompiled once you HAVE rebooted ?
RealPlayer - Avoiding RealPlayer like the plague it is (using "Amarok" for the same functionality, if not the same file format). Result? No privacy leaks, no ads, no reporting back to Real on what I listen to or where I visit on the web.
See above comments for Amarok.
Java - Using Sun's Java without the Yahoo toolbar. Result? Java is reasonably well behaved. Looking forward to truly open-sourced Java in the near future. True.
Yahoo - Use Yahoo's maps to check up on Google results. Use Yahoo throw-away email when I need to be a little bit stealthy. Otherwise avoid Yahoo.com like the plague it is. Result? Happy camper. You are kidding right ? What do you do when you have a company that USES Yahoo for its "approved" IM provider ?
Norton Antivirus - Using upgraded OS "Linux" so that viruses are not a problem. Result? Viruses? I don't have no stinking viruses!
True. However if you do filesharing with Windows, you should consider something like Avast which has a free Windows AND Linux version.
Just say no and hope that it sticks. Seriously. I find that so many people in the workforce noadays don't know how to say that simple word. No.
Are you for real ? Management doesn't know that word when it comes to customers.
Sometimes its hard to make a case for it if management at your company thinks that you are being unreasonable. However if you are a reasonable person and skilled in your profession, management should trust you to do your job. I'm of the opinion that if management can't trust employees in their area of expertise and to give good advice, then it is not a good place to work. My first tech job became this way, the new management that came along had a distrust of us and it made everything sour. Anyways, that's getting away from your question.
Reason doesn't apply to mangagement, didn't you know that ? And before you say that, I'm almost 41 and have been an IT professional for 20+ years.
But being a sysadmin, I think you have to stand up for your opinion when the time is right to do so. People who aren't in the know always have requests like this to grant more access, make things easier, keep the customer's demands first. Its your job to draw a line in the sand that says you can't go past that point. Some people don't like that, but honestly it doesn't matter. Rules are there for a reason. They are guides to providing good service for all customers, not just one.
If you are lucky and do have semi-clued in mangement. Explain that there is the potential for the one customer who is analizing your data to figure out things (or SELL that data to someone else) that could allow them to perform your company's job better than you). That is something they "might" understand.
One, the subprime mess. That's the fault of people buying houses they knew they couldn't afford, and banks lending them money they couldn't pay back. But why were the banks lending them that money, then? Because politicians decided that it wasn't fair that people with bad credit couldn't get home loans, so they created laws authorizing subprime mortgages, and indeed pressed banks to give these loans to "disadvantaged" borrowers. That's right, your beloved government regulations helped create this mess. And now these same politicians are promising to spend taxpayer funds to bail out these irresponsible people and banks, while people that played by the rules... the ones that only bought houses they knew they could afford, or when they couldn't, rented instead... well, your beloved regulators are about to stab those people in the back. The ones that played by the rules? Suckers and chumps, apparently, because they could have gone hog wild and let Uncle Sugar bail them out. THATS the fruits of your nanny regulation, not true free market economics.
Go rent the movie Maxed Out and you'll get even MORE disgusted with the banks because the KNOW that these people can't pay the bills but they make most of their profits from them.
When they sue people Only $ 1 out of $ 3 is principle. The Other $ 2 are fees and charges.
It even mentions a new type of Credit Card that will go against your pension plan !
You make it sound like they lose all their protection for the software. That isn't the case. It will STILL be under a copyright.
And if something can be easily re-implemented (i.e. CSS/deCSS), then does it really deserve the ability to stifle all competitors like patents do ? Shouldn't the best software/best value be the winner instead of whomever got to the patent office first ?
Neither software nor should processes be copyrighted. How do you think the world would have been if Ford had patented the assembly line ? Do you think we would have been able to advance manufacturing if he had ? Do you think he would have licensed it to his competitors ?
2. Show management incentives. Do you help out the new guys by being a mentor to them? When you go to meetings bring up your own ideas. Talk to management outside of meetings about your ideas? The latter part of this point basically did it for me. Assuming you're competent, then provide them with so much valuable feedback about all areas of the business and deliver so much value that they have no choice but to invite you to be on the management team.
You wanna bet ? There are many in management who see their tech people as techies and will NEVER see them as anything BUT a techie. You can give honest constructive criticism and feedback but you'll get labeled "abrasive".
And even if you are able to start pursuing the management track, you'll get asked left and right, Are you sure that this is what you want to do ? You've always been a technical kinda guy and I just don't see you happy in that manager role.
I'm at a point in my career where it seems that the only way for me to advance is to either leave my company (where I've been for 10 years) OR change careers altogether. My company doesn't really have any clues about advancing people in IT. And sadly, I have a feeling that most companies have no clue about advancing people in IT positions either.
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You are too kind when you say "guessing it would still be useful". Those people are fucking idiots and should not be programming when they obviously have no clue about the basics of a freaking 201-level college CS course. I'm going to remember your anecdote next time I need to justify why people need to actually know how computers work instead of being API gluebots.
I know your pain. I used to program embedded systems in ASM langauges (I actually have programmed in 5 different dialects for a multitude of processors - including ones with NO STACK). When you tell people about that they shudder. I actually found it quite fun. Learning how to optimize code by HAND, you learn how to efficiently code loops, etc. So that you can make efficient use of things (knowing when the registers were zero, etc.).
To do that type of programming you needed to know how to design and code efficient data structures. As well as how to implement an algorithm efficiently.
I've always been amazed at the IDE Junkies who insist that they need them to do their job. I've been programming for around 20 years now, and I STILL don't use an IDE. Granted my job is less programming now (but I still have an opensource project or two that I work on). I always feel that the IDE is too restrictive.
Hey, I might be moving soon, so I might actually have a choice. Is there anyone decent out there?
If you really don't want to deal with that crap, find a company that does BUSINESS DSL. I've been with One Communications for years. Their service has been really good. 99% of the problems I've had were the direct result of Verizon borking my DSL line. I had my modem die at 1am, and they had me a new mode by 5am and I was back up and running.
I found this story on huffington post.
According to the article it was a glitch that "Caused Site To Strip Sales Rankings From Gay/Lesbian Books".
Should be interesting to see how fast they back pedal on this one.
And those people get bored and want to surf the internet from their monitoring station. So they bring in a bit of cat5(or a USB wireless dongle) and get themselves a connection to the outside world. 6 months later, someone gets paid to figure out why a computer with no internet connection has popups, trips over the cable and says "WTF".
You want to bet ? They are in a montored room. DHCP in our company only allows registerd MAC's to get addresses. If they have a machine making requests, our IT team know what port the requests are on they investigate it. If someone did that they'd be walked out the nearest door before they could go "But ?"
Hearing shit like that at work has nearly convinced me to buy a real generator.
What type of work ? A general office or a Power Control Center ?
If you have segregated networks, all the spy needs to do is find a single place to tap into your "secure" one, and you're toast. You thought it was secure, so you didn't lock it down properly. And somebody, somewhere left a way in, an unguarded terminal, or cheated and put a cross-connect to the public net for his own convenience, thinking it would never be found.
Tha WOULD require them physical access to the facility. None of the control centers are going to just "allow" someone access to their network, let alone physical access to the facility. We are told to notify security (who will notify the police officer in the guard shack) if we see anyone who isn't badged.
If it's all on the public net, but thoroughly locked down with good security and encryption protocols, and tight firewalls, you may be in better shape. You know it's dangerous to let your guard down. And we're also pretty confident we have protocols which, when applied to spec, are truly cryptographically strong, and so forth.
The Control Centers aren't supposed to take that risk. Its separate the control centers from the company network AND from direct access to the internet.
Plus it's a lot cheaper than building out a whole nother net, including access for your critical engineer who's off at a conference somewhere when the unpredicted crisis with the unique system in your plant that she's the genius about requires immediate attention. Sometimes making sure the right people have solid access from anywhere they are is also essential to security. The public net - with the right protocols - does that.
Is it ? Can you honestly say that even the remote possiblity of a compromised system is worth the cost savings if it affects that existence of your company (as a control center) ?
You have THAT room connected to specific routers that only allow "limited" access and ensure that the users can't install software that would compromise that system. You block their access to ANYTHING that they don't need for business reasons. PERIOD.
how else is a power station operator on a remote plant supposed to work? You don't expect them to go to the plant if it is hours away from anything. Stay at the plant, away from families? Forget it. operators telecommute too!
Do you REALLY think that a "properly" run allows "any" connections to their control units or SCADA systems ? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that they have people there 24/7 to handle any type of contingencies.
People always say these things aren't connected to the internet and there are supposed to be seperate control and communication and PC networks but I bet few plants actually have that. Maybe super critical ones like nuclear, but your average small hydro or peaking gas plant...
They aren't the "power grid", they are power stations. The "power grid" are the master control centers (Like NYISO, CalISO, Midwest ISO, PJM, etc) and the local control centers. There are FERC requirements for how THEY must be configured/setup (like the control room's network must be separated from the rest of the companies network, etc).
Time, Budget, the need to get that sensor or remote control connected to something, anything, whatever is near by so we can talk to it *now* and then the temporary fix becomes permanent
Nope. Not likely. If anything it is a PRIVATE network managed by the local control center.
Ha! Police!?! Keeping checks on themselves?!!. Ohhh, you're so cute.
Fine, Make it a civilian entity (someone who reports to the Mayor/etc. of a city/town). Hold the police accountable, the worst part will be getting the rights to do this put it into their contracts (since they have a very strong union).
But as a 2nd. I see the police brake the law a few times a week. They will pull up to a stop light, Stop, turn on their lights, go thru the Stop light, then turn their lights off. All this with out any need to. They Interpret the laws when they want too for their own good. You don't report them, or you will start getting speeding tickets.
I still think that whenever a police car has its lights turned on, the station house should be notified. If he doesn't immediately call in, they assume its an issue and send backup (they pretty much ALL have a GPS now, right ?)
If it isn't a REAL issue then the office is written up for improper use of his police siren (or something).
What about the 5th amendment (the right to not self incriminate) ? Isn't taking your DNA without any other proof a violation of that ? Or taking it without a court order ?
However if they start requiring a court order, they'll just get a judge who'll rubber stamp the requests.
Next it will be, "I'm sorry, I believe you were speeding. Please give me a blood, urine, hair and DNA sample."
It means that if you use a browser other than IE to try to access this product, nothing works. Not even the navigation works. It's like buying Photoshop, touching up a .jpg file and then ONLY being able to open it again using Adobe Acrobat.
Actually, we use sharepoint at work and so far the only functionality I've found that requires IE is creating or modifying MS Office documents "directly" from Sharepoint instead of downloading, editing and then uploading again.
I wish it did work with something other than IE where I work with Firefox and Linux (that isn't the case here - I can't even get INTO sharepoint if I don't use IE). Its part of why I've had to convert BACK to using Windows from using a Linux box and a Windows VM (the other part is Office 2007). Yes, I know that I could use Office 3 but that's a band-aid.
More and more stuff where I work is being "integrated" with Active Directory and the like. So its back to using a Windows Laptop at work (but I still will only use Linux at home).
I don't think this is REALLY about anything other than declining subscriptions. I used to subscribe toDr. Dobbs (and had been a regular subscriber for 14+ years) until I sat down and figured out the ad pages to article pages ratio and got disgusted. It was mostly ads and I'm NOT going to pay to read ads for Microsoft, et. al.
And sadly, I haven't missed it. If I need to figure something out, I go online and google it.
This attitude is common with the older generation who aren't used to the net. "Free" rings alarm bells and this is an issue I rarely hear mention of when people talk about the problems linux has spreading.
Maybe this analogy might work.
Your neighbor has a garden where he grows all sorts of vegetables with seeds that he gathered from friends or he saved from previous crops. So his cost to do the garden is essentially nothing. He grows the garden because he likes growing the garden. When he gives away the vegetables, is he breaking the law or scamming ?
No. He isn't. The same thing with free software. A lot of people write software because they LIKE IT. And they aren't doing it for profit (although that's nice sometimes), they do it for love of writing software to serve a purpose.
You have a good point but, its because so many people have demonized some behavior or products. Think about Hemp, its cheaper than many products, grows relatively easily and can be grown where other crops cant. Unfortunately it has some bad "by products" (i.e. Marijuana), so all of its benefits be damned. I still think that if they legalized drugs (and managed it like they do alcohol) there would be major benefits from doing that.
NOTE: I am not a drug user (other than using decongestant for a decongestant, not to make anything else). I'm just sick of the waste of police efforts on something that could be used more efficiency.
My HS offered RPG, COBOL and FoTRAN on Punch Cards that would then be run on the Town's mainframe (which was in our HS too).
I have one too and I love it. The only negative is that if I use Calibre (the Linux software) I cannot use the Windows software (that comes with the ebook).
It isn't that important but having the ability to sync with my Vista Laptop and my Linux desktop would be nice.
Guess what, if it was "legal" or "ordered", Why didn't QWest do anything. Why did the govt back down when Qwest asked for a WARRENT to perform the wiretaps ?
Guess what ? It WASN'T LEGAL (no warrent = NOT LEGAL, regardless of the twit ordering it done)
The police are really clueless when it comnes to this as well as cyber crime.
A few years ago a had a debit card number stolen from a site where I purchased a CD. All of a sudden we started seeing odd charges (for body piercing jewelery). Within 24 hours, I had contacted the places where the purchases were made and had the person's name, home address, and home phone number. I did nothing illegal since he had put my name on the orders as the person paying the bill. I managed to get most of the money refunded to my account in a day but the police did NOTHING.
The bank still insisted that I fill out a theft report - which the cops did even they didn't quite understand why. I gave them the information when I filled out the report and they were kinda stumped what to actually do about it.
So this seems to be the norm (not having cops understand what to do with technology).
1) Corporate contributions directly or indirectly are banned from politics.
2) Only individuals can donate, and there are limits placed on how much one person can donate.
2.3) Lower the max amount that an individual can contribute to $ 250 instead of $ 1000. (forces them to get 4 x the contribution)
2.5) An State level board investigates the contributions (i.e. opensecrets.org) and it investigates/fines where you see more than 1 contribution from a single address using variations of the same Name (Alan Smith, A. Smith, Alan B. Smith, A. B. Smith, A. Bob Smith, etc). If any irregularities are found, the politician is fined 5x the amount of the contribution and the contributer is subjected to an IRS Audit.
It should be No Vote, No contributions to a campain.
3) Politicians become honest.
4) Pigs grow wings and fly.
For Linux, Agreed. But when is Evince going to work in Windows ? Oh. Never ?? So what choice does a person using windows have ?
Apple iTunes - Using open source music program "Amarok". Result? Software does not annoy (and works much better than iTunes as well).For Linux, Agreed. But when is Amarok going to work in Windows or with people's iPods? Oh. Never ?? So what alternateive choice does a person using windows have ?
Windows Update - Using Genuine Linux Distro "Ubuntu". Result? No licensing restrictions, no DRM, no repeated system restarts, no service packs to fix the previous service pack, that fixed the previous service pack, that fixed months old critical bugs.No repeated system restarts, but none ? What about when your kernel is updated ? What about VMWare needing to be recompiled once you HAVE rebooted ?
RealPlayer - Avoiding RealPlayer like the plague it is (using "Amarok" for the same functionality, if not the same file format). Result? No privacy leaks, no ads, no reporting back to Real on what I listen to or where I visit on the web.See above comments for Amarok.
Java - Using Sun's Java without the Yahoo toolbar. Result? Java is reasonably well behaved. Looking forward to truly open-sourced Java in the near future. True. Yahoo - Use Yahoo's maps to check up on Google results. Use Yahoo throw-away email when I need to be a little bit stealthy. Otherwise avoid Yahoo.com like the plague it is. Result? Happy camper. You are kidding right ? What do you do when you have a company that USES Yahoo for its "approved" IM provider ? Norton Antivirus - Using upgraded OS "Linux" so that viruses are not a problem. Result? Viruses? I don't have no stinking viruses!True. However if you do filesharing with Windows, you should consider something like Avast which has a free Windows AND Linux version.
Are you for real ? Management doesn't know that word when it comes to customers.
Sometimes its hard to make a case for it if management at your company thinks that you are being unreasonable. However if you are a reasonable person and skilled in your profession, management should trust you to do your job. I'm of the opinion that if management can't trust employees in their area of expertise and to give good advice, then it is not a good place to work. My first tech job became this way, the new management that came along had a distrust of us and it made everything sour. Anyways, that's getting away from your question.Reason doesn't apply to mangagement, didn't you know that ? And before you say that, I'm almost 41 and have been an IT professional for 20+ years.
But being a sysadmin, I think you have to stand up for your opinion when the time is right to do so. People who aren't in the know always have requests like this to grant more access, make things easier, keep the customer's demands first. Its your job to draw a line in the sand that says you can't go past that point. Some people don't like that, but honestly it doesn't matter. Rules are there for a reason. They are guides to providing good service for all customers, not just one.If you are lucky and do have semi-clued in mangement. Explain that there is the potential for the one customer who is analizing your data to figure out things (or SELL that data to someone else) that could allow them to perform your company's job better than you). That is something they "might" understand.
Go rent the movie Maxed Out and you'll get even MORE disgusted with the banks because the KNOW that these people can't pay the bills but they make most of their profits from them.
When they sue people Only $ 1 out of $ 3 is principle. The Other $ 2 are fees and charges.
It even mentions a new type of Credit Card that will go against your pension plan !
So.. Since I live close to New Hampshire (No Sales Tax), I shouldn't purchase from there regardless of them having the lower sale price ?
Let NY do what Mass does, Says if your income is $ X, then pay $ Y as an assumed sales tax (usually much less than what I've purchased out of state).
It gives them their money and I still save money over all.
You make it sound like they lose all their protection for the software. That isn't the case. It will STILL be under a copyright.
And if something can be easily re-implemented (i.e. CSS/deCSS), then does it really deserve the ability to stifle all competitors like patents do ? Shouldn't the best software/best value be the winner instead of whomever got to the patent office first ?
Neither software nor should processes be copyrighted. How do you think the world would have been if Ford had patented the assembly line ? Do you think we would have been able to advance manufacturing if he had ? Do you think he would have licensed it to his competitors ?
You wanna bet ? There are many in management who see their tech people as techies and will NEVER see them as anything BUT a techie. You can give honest constructive criticism and feedback but you'll get labeled "abrasive".
And even if you are able to start pursuing the management track, you'll get asked left and right, Are you sure that this is what you want to do ? You've always been a technical kinda guy and I just don't see you happy in that manager role.
I'm at a point in my career where it seems that the only way for me to advance is to either leave my company (where I've been for 10 years) OR change careers altogether. My company doesn't really have any clues about advancing people in IT. And sadly, I have a feeling that most companies have no clue about advancing people in IT positions either.