Throughout history there has been a lag between scientific discovery and the mainstream acceptance of the moral conundrums presented by that discovery, from the Earth is round, to xenotransplantation, to current stem cell research and cloning. Our systems of morality and ethics morph at a much slower rate than does scientific theory.
Science Fiction is a fantastic mechanism for exploring the possibilities presented by new technologies, and their ethical repercussions, to say "This is where our science may take us, and are we okay with that?" It allows us to begin adapting our ethics in advance of the technology becoming available.
Apple is the largest corporation in the world. The iPhone is notorious for being produced by slave labor (google foxconn suicides). How many of the occupy wall street protesters use Apple products?
If you want to make a difference, vote with your dollars. Demand that the companies you do business with behave ethically. Humane treatment of employees and subcontractors instead of sweat shops. Reasonable CEO compensation with bonuses based on creating value, instead of huge payouts regardless of performance. Holding vendors and subcontractors accountable for their actions, instead of turning a blind eye because the price is right. The 1% has our money BECAUSE WE GAVE IT TO THEM.
I find it ironic that these folks are protesting corporations, to whom we voluntarily give our money in return for products and services, instead of the government who takes it by force.
A potential investor will look at four potential areas of risk: Market, Team, Finance, and Technology.
Most software folks do GREAT on the team and technology stuff. It's what we live for. Unfortunately, it's the market and financials that get investors fired up.
Part of building your team is finding folks who know how to talk to customers and turn that into a financial forecast. This is called MARKETING, and is crucial to any new venture. If you can't get anyone to stand up and say "Hey, if you build this, I'll buy it!" it will be nearly impossible to get funding. No one wants to put dollars in to a business unless they have a very clear idea of when dollars will start coming out. So go find yourself a great marketing person, and an accountant.
You can try to build your own company without outside funding. It's a lot like getting a home-schooled MBA. Even if it doesn't work out, you'll learn a LOT and will at least have had the opportunity to work at a level above what's available in an established company. Sharpening your chops is always a good thing.
You can also get a great team together and find a company who needs your services, who would be willing to deal with the business issues (paychecks, infrastructure, marketing, sales, finace) in return for your contribution as employees. Getting a pre-formed team is a company's dream. Unfortunately most companies can't affort bulk hires right now, but if you can show that the work your group will perform for the company will pay for the investment the company makes in the group, you'll have a chance.
If you can find a great team, try starting your own group or company. It'll give you something to do other than watch the History Channel. The worst that will happen is you'll learn something while looking for a job. The upside is the potential for creating your own opportunity, your dream job, the company you always wanted to work for. I highly recommend it.
Here's a good place to start for the how to of doing your own thing. Good luck!
CNN has an article (Spanish only, but babelfish does a reasonable translation) quoting an ex-KGB agent saying the CIA and FBI need to focus on less high-tech espionage, and get back to the nuts and bolts of infiltration and direct observation.
Over the past few weeks I've noticed an increase in the number of port scans and telnet attempts to my home network, which is connected to the net via cable modem (I'm not cool enough for DSL).
My buddy with DSL said someone tried to hack his home network as well.
How many folks with DSL or cable modem connections have a firewall? How many actually look at the connection logs and try to figure out who's trying to gain access?
Think of how many unprotected hosts are out there on the net. Makes sense a hacker would take advantage of the influx of newbies to untraceably install a DoS attack program on thousands of hosts.
It'll be interesting to see if the FBI traces the source addresses to the perpetrators, or hordes of clueless broadband users.
Maybe we should go back to fighting hand-to-hand, with each party involved in a given dispoute dispatching a small group of champions to decide the outcome of the battle.
Didn't we beat this subject to death the first time Scud posted an article?
I agree with Scud's observation that every time there's a cry of 'where all the women at?' there's a pretty good turnout of females yelling 'We're here!'. Perhaps we're ignoring the women in our midst?
I don't agree with the idea that women are 'differently abled' than men. I do believe that contributions made by women are typically not valued as highly as those made by men. Female dominated professions such as nursing or teaching are not as prestigious or high paying as male dominated professions such as hacking. Men are typically paid more than women even in the same careers.
Wow. Maybe being ignored and undercompensated is driving women away?
Maybe an answer to the problem is to notice and value the women who are already part of the hacker community?
I'd say 'hug a female geek today' but the ones I know would kick my ass.:)
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Throughout history there has been a lag between scientific discovery and the mainstream acceptance of the moral conundrums presented by that discovery, from the Earth is round, to xenotransplantation, to current stem cell research and cloning. Our systems of morality and ethics morph at a much slower rate than does scientific theory.
Science Fiction is a fantastic mechanism for exploring the possibilities presented by new technologies, and their ethical repercussions, to say "This is where our science may take us, and are we okay with that?" It allows us to begin adapting our ethics in advance of the technology becoming available.
Apple is the largest corporation in the world. The iPhone is notorious for being produced by slave labor (google foxconn suicides). How many of the occupy wall street protesters use Apple products?
If you want to make a difference, vote with your dollars. Demand that the companies you do business with behave ethically. Humane treatment of employees and subcontractors instead of sweat shops. Reasonable CEO compensation with bonuses based on creating value, instead of huge payouts regardless of performance. Holding vendors and subcontractors accountable for their actions, instead of turning a blind eye because the price is right. The 1% has our money BECAUSE WE GAVE IT TO THEM.
I find it ironic that these folks are protesting corporations, to whom we voluntarily give our money in return for products and services, instead of the government who takes it by force.
Most software folks do GREAT on the team and technology stuff. It's what we live for. Unfortunately, it's the market and financials that get investors fired up.
Part of building your team is finding folks who know how to talk to customers and turn that into a financial forecast. This is called MARKETING, and is crucial to any new venture. If you can't get anyone to stand up and say "Hey, if you build this, I'll buy it!" it will be nearly impossible to get funding. No one wants to put dollars in to a business unless they have a very clear idea of when dollars will start coming out. So go find yourself a great marketing person, and an accountant.
You can try to build your own company without outside funding. It's a lot like getting a home-schooled MBA. Even if it doesn't work out, you'll learn a LOT and will at least have had the opportunity to work at a level above what's available in an established company. Sharpening your chops is always a good thing.
You can also get a great team together and find a company who needs your services, who would be willing to deal with the business issues (paychecks, infrastructure, marketing, sales, finace) in return for your contribution as employees. Getting a pre-formed team is a company's dream. Unfortunately most companies can't affort bulk hires right now, but if you can show that the work your group will perform for the company will pay for the investment the company makes in the group, you'll have a chance.
If you can find a great team, try starting your own group or company. It'll give you something to do other than watch the History Channel. The worst that will happen is you'll learn something while looking for a job. The upside is the potential for creating your own opportunity, your dream job, the company you always wanted to work for. I highly recommend it.
Here's a good place to start for the how to of doing your own thing. Good luck!
The article is here.
Babel fish is here.
CNN Spanish edition tends to have much broader worldwide content than CNN in English.
My buddy with DSL said someone tried to hack his home network as well.
How many folks with DSL or cable modem connections have a firewall? How many actually look at the connection logs and try to figure out who's trying to gain access?
Think of how many unprotected hosts are out there on the net. Makes sense a hacker would take advantage of the influx of newbies to untraceably install a DoS attack program on thousands of hosts.
It'll be interesting to see if the FBI traces the source addresses to the perpetrators, or hordes of clueless broadband users.
We already have this: It's called football.
Just think, future releases of Quake could be used to wipe out foriegn governments.
I agree with Scud's observation that every time there's a cry of 'where all the women at?' there's a pretty good turnout of females yelling 'We're here!'. Perhaps we're ignoring the women in our midst?
I don't agree with the idea that women are 'differently abled' than men. I do believe that contributions made by women are typically not valued as highly as those made by men. Female dominated professions such as nursing or teaching are not as prestigious or high paying as male dominated professions such as hacking. Men are typically paid more than women even in the same careers.
Wow. Maybe being ignored and undercompensated is driving women away?
Maybe an answer to the problem is to notice and value the women who are already part of the hacker community?
I'd say 'hug a female geek today' but the ones I know would kick my ass. :)