In Westlaw it's called "People Search." Type in a name and some other information, such as what state the person lives in and Westlaw will give you the persons current address, past addresses, social security number, phone numbers, what elections they voted in, pretty much everything. I had a chance to play around with it about a month ago and was able to find all of the above information about myself. I was pretty blown away. You could even find the above info on Congressman and other high ranking government officals.
The problem is that a lot of information that you think is private it not and its already inside a computer somewhere. For instance if you have a listed phone number, your name, phone number, and address is inside a computer, thus it just takes a simple SQL query to retieve all of your past addresses and phone numbers. And of course since you chose to have a listed phone number all of that information is public.
It just was a matter of time until Lexis and Westlaw linked all the databases. They are very good at that type of thing. The only way I see to truly protect your identity is to have a really common name.
The Firefox and Mozilla Suite product homepages do not directly link to a page that has concise information on security issues or security updates. This makes it really hard to know if you have to install a patch or not.
Look, it was dumb for the person to open a file from an untrusted source.
However, why are OS's designed to let such a small mistake have such a dire consequence? It's like a car having a big red self-destruct button next to the radio dial.
Maybe it's time that OS makers (Mac, MS, and Linux et. al.) realize that computers aren't just used by sys admins, but real people, which includes kids, morons, and the gulliable.
Perhaps a better way to look at the EU's decision is to ask: Does the EU's decision correct the wrongs that Microsoft has perpetrated on the EU's citizens?
To me, the $613 million fine is retribution/revenge for some past wrong. Fines don't stop a person or a corp. from doing bad things, they only make it more expensive.
For instance, fining a Corp for releasing radioactive waste into a school swimming pool doesn't clean up the pool nor help the sick kids. It may provide resources to help clean up the pool or help the kids, if the Gov chooses to spend the money on such an endeavor, but unless bundled with some other remedy does not it ensure that tomorrow the corp will stop dumping its waste in the pool.
Requiring MS to offer a version of Windows free of the media player seems to be a way of ensuring that in the future, MS won't be able to abuse its current monopoly on OS's to prevent people from using Quicktime, RealPlayer, or some other media player. However, the EU will still allow MS to sell Windows bundle with the Media Player. Since most people will want a Windows that has the player, all this provision will do in the short term is ensure that will be a very dusty box of the striped down Windows in every software store in the EU.
Requiring MS to release some of their API's also ensures that in the future, MS will play nice with its rivals. Of all the remedies in the EU's decision I think this was the most appropriate given MS's past acts.
On balance, I think the EU made some good decisions and we will all be better off for it. However, seeing that there are numerous choices in the Media Player market, most of them free, I don't think the large fine was appropriate.
Don't be worried about the Casino tracking your betting habits. With all the cameras and employees they have, the Casinos are already watching your every move.
However, putting RFID's into every casino chip would make it very easy for the IRS to tracking your winnings or losses.
Look, it was crappy that they went back on their word but this isn't the beginning of some totalitarian state. The TTB normally receives around 20 comments for something like this and this time they received close to 15,000. They got slahdoted.
The TTB announced their plans to publish the full content of the emails and letters on Dec 2, 2003. They gave everyone who contacted them a way to prevent their addresses from being published. Granted, not many people read the Federal register but given the budgetary constraints that the TTB has this was the best way.
Also, everyone is assuming that it is the emails that are the problem. TTB also received 4,800 letters and faxes. Normally they receive about 20 comments. It's really easy to redact information from 20 comments but 4,800 letters, that will take a lot of time and manpower. Taking the info out of the emails requires a technical know-out that maybe out of reach of the person who's main job is dealing with 20 comments at a time. Is the TTB supposed to put out bids for a contractor to come in a write a Perl script to do a job that a person normally does in two minutes with a marker and hitting a few control x's? Is it worth the delay in the public posting the comments?
While in many cases the odds of a lottery may be against you, it still can make sense to buy a ticket because of opportunity cost.
What the hell else are you going to get with that $1. Buy gum, candy, or even worse, cigarettes which are almost guaranteed in the long run to cause cancer which is expensive to cure.
In short, if you are going to spend your lottery money on something that in few days will guaranteed to be worthless or like cigarettes, which will cost you money in the long run, then it makes perfect economic sense to buy a lottery ticket since it at least has the possibility of getting you big bucks.
The real problem with Gerrymandering is not the politicians, their only acting as any rational person would to save and prolong their jobs, it's voters.
Congressional districts, in most States, are drawn by State Legislators, so there is no national solution to this problem. Many Americans don't have a clue about who their State Senator or Assemblyperson is, yet these people are responsible for the everyday laws and policies that effect people the most. This apathy allows politicians to do pretty much do whatever they want.
If you don't like how your State has redrawn their congressional districts, send your State legislator a letter, or better, vote them out of office. After a few lose their seats, the rest will learn
However, just blaming "the system" doesn't get anything done, we as citizens have to be more informed about our government.
This is not a free speech issue. If anything, this an issue about control over your own property, personal and intellectual.
From the user's perspective, they are not required to install this software and can remove it from their computer at any time. So if a person disagrees with Symantec's blocking certain website, all they need do is uninstall the software. That's it, problem solved. This is hardly the oppressive boot of a totalitarian regime.
However, the alternative the poster advocates is the regulation Symantec software production. I don't think this is right.
Just as people have the right to publish books about politics that only one present one side of an issue, programers should have the right to make applications that allow you to view a particular portion of the web. The alternative is a place where no one can say or program anything without the approval of the government or even worse some special interest group.
Slashdot Mirror
In Westlaw it's called "People Search." Type in a name and some other information, such as what state the person lives in and Westlaw will give you the persons current address, past addresses, social security number, phone numbers, what elections they voted in, pretty much everything. I had a chance to play around with it about a month ago and was able to find all of the above information about myself. I was pretty blown away. You could even find the above info on Congressman and other high ranking government officals.
The problem is that a lot of information that you think is private it not and its already inside a computer somewhere. For instance if you have a listed phone number, your name, phone number, and address is inside a computer, thus it just takes a simple SQL query to retieve all of your past addresses and phone numbers. And of course since you chose to have a listed phone number all of that information is public. It just was a matter of time until Lexis and Westlaw linked all the databases. They are very good at that type of thing. The only way I see to truly protect your identity is to have a really common name.The Firefox and Mozilla Suite product homepages do not directly link to a page that has concise information on security issues or security updates. This makes it really hard to know if you have to install a patch or not.
Look, it was dumb for the person to open a file from an untrusted source.
However, why are OS's designed to let such a small mistake have such a dire consequence? It's like a car having a big red self-destruct button next to the radio dial.
Maybe it's time that OS makers (Mac, MS, and Linux et. al.) realize that computers aren't just used by sys admins, but real people, which includes kids, morons, and the gulliable.
Perhaps a better way to look at the EU's decision is to ask: Does the EU's decision correct the wrongs that Microsoft has perpetrated on the EU's citizens?
To me, the $613 million fine is retribution/revenge for some past wrong. Fines don't stop a person or a corp. from doing bad things, they only make it more expensive.
For instance, fining a Corp for releasing radioactive waste into a school swimming pool doesn't clean up the pool nor help the sick kids. It may provide resources to help clean up the pool or help the kids, if the Gov chooses to spend the money on such an endeavor, but unless bundled with some other remedy does not it ensure that tomorrow the corp will stop dumping its waste in the pool.
Requiring MS to offer a version of Windows free of the media player seems to be a way of ensuring that in the future, MS won't be able to abuse its current monopoly on OS's to prevent people from using Quicktime, RealPlayer, or some other media player. However, the EU will still allow MS to sell Windows bundle with the Media Player. Since most people will want a Windows that has the player, all this provision will do in the short term is ensure that will be a very dusty box of the striped down Windows in every software store in the EU.
Requiring MS to release some of their API's also ensures that in the future, MS will play nice with its rivals. Of all the remedies in the EU's decision I think this was the most appropriate given MS's past acts.
On balance, I think the EU made some good decisions and we will all be better off for it. However, seeing that there are numerous choices in the Media Player market, most of them free, I don't think the large fine was appropriate.
Don't be worried about the Casino tracking your betting habits. With all the cameras and employees they have, the Casinos are already watching your every move.
However, putting RFID's into every casino chip would make it very easy for the IRS to tracking your winnings or losses.
Look, it was crappy that they went back on their word but this isn't the beginning of some totalitarian state. The TTB normally receives around 20 comments for something like this and this time they received close to 15,000. They got slahdoted.
The TTB announced their plans to publish the full content of the emails and letters on Dec 2, 2003. They gave everyone who contacted them a way to prevent their addresses from being published. Granted, not many people read the Federal register but given the budgetary constraints that the TTB has this was the best way.
Also, everyone is assuming that it is the emails that are the problem. TTB also received 4,800 letters and faxes. Normally they receive about 20 comments. It's really easy to redact information from 20 comments but 4,800 letters, that will take a lot of time and manpower. Taking the info out of the emails requires a technical know-out that maybe out of reach of the person who's main job is dealing with 20 comments at a time. Is the TTB supposed to put out bids for a contractor to come in a write a Perl script to do a job that a person normally does in two minutes with a marker and hitting a few control x's? Is it worth the delay in the public posting the comments?While in many cases the odds of a lottery may be against you, it still can make sense to buy a ticket because of opportunity cost.
What the hell else are you going to get with that $1. Buy gum, candy, or even worse, cigarettes which are almost guaranteed in the long run to cause cancer which is expensive to cure.
In short, if you are going to spend your lottery money on something that in few days will guaranteed to be worthless or like cigarettes, which will cost you money in the long run, then it makes perfect economic sense to buy a lottery ticket since it at least has the possibility of getting you big bucks.
I don't know the answer to that specific question. However, the answer to your question hinges on a concept called the "the dormant commerce clause."
Read up and enjoy. I have a final on this on Monday.
The real problem with Gerrymandering is not the politicians, their only acting as any rational person would to save and prolong their jobs, it's voters.
Congressional districts, in most States, are drawn by State Legislators, so there is no national solution to this problem. Many Americans don't have a clue about who their State Senator or Assemblyperson is, yet these people are responsible for the everyday laws and policies that effect people the most. This apathy allows politicians to do pretty much do whatever they want.
If you don't like how your State has redrawn their congressional districts, send your State legislator a letter, or better, vote them out of office. After a few lose their seats, the rest will learn
However, just blaming "the system" doesn't get anything done, we as citizens have to be more informed about our government.
This is not a free speech issue. If anything, this an issue about control over your own property, personal and intellectual.
From the user's perspective, they are not required to install this software and can remove it from their computer at any time. So if a person disagrees with Symantec's blocking certain website, all they need do is uninstall the software. That's it, problem solved. This is hardly the oppressive boot of a totalitarian regime.
However, the alternative the poster advocates is the regulation Symantec software production. I don't think this is right.
Just as people have the right to publish books about politics that only one present one side of an issue, programers should have the right to make applications that allow you to view a particular portion of the web. The alternative is a place where no one can say or program anything without the approval of the government or even worse some special interest group.