They sure didn't rise from independent (read: internet) media. That didn't exist when they came took power.
Once all the people over 40 die (sorry mom and dad!), independent media will have a chance of competing with the Rupert Murdochs and CNNs of the world. In such a future, a columnist will no longer have to suck up to some corporate sponsor to be heard.
Of course, we still haven't determined whether empirically-based reason (science and philosophy) will beat out emotively-based manipulation (racism, religion) on a planetary scale. It is possible that the average human brain is so fundamentally flawed that the judeo-christian-islamo-fascists will halt technological progress or lead humanity to some other bleak effective-nonexistance (on a universal scale).
But, if our brains really ARE more receptive to empirical reason than to emotive manipulation, the Internet, and the "blogging" phenomenon, could lead to a world where the Locke's and Thomas Jeffersons of the world really DO command popular support. Such a future would require a description that far surpasses the word "renaissance" in terms of human advancement.
Redesigning a web app that uses a significant amount of AJAX functionality is going to take hundreds of hours of developer time. Suppose the average AJAX developer costs $50/hr. For 600 hours of work, we would need to make MORE THAN $50x600 = $30,000 worth of developer time to redesign!
For the redesign to be worth it, we would need to pull more than $30,000 in AFTER TAX, AFTER RISK profit! Not revenue--profit.
Since web businesses have lower margins than "traditional" businesses, we are going to require many hundreds of thousands of potential iPhone-only dollars being spent at our site before we consider it.
Show me the study with killodollars (per site) of potential iPhone purchases, and have it coming from Gardner, or Forester, or whichever "reputable" BS analysis company--and we'll start to consider it.
S/MIME is end-to-end. The email servers, the routers, the blackberry server--they just see ciphertext. It can only be read by the sending and receiving email clients (blackberry handhelds in this case).
Yeah, that'll stop the NSA from dropping a box into their network and snooping that way.
Actually, yes, S/MIME would stop the NSA from being able to read their email via sniffing. Please don't post unless you know what you are talking about.
Blackberries can't do S/MIME? Every other email client on the planet can do that. If RIM just built S/MIME support into their products, then it wouldn't matter at all who routed through what and where.
What's more interesting is the way he did it. Locke (Peter) was basically a blogger who became so popular he amassed real political power. That may seem unlikely today, but thirty years or so, when the distinction between TV and internet vanishes, it seems conceivable that someone could rise up from the media/infotainment realm into the political realm.
measuring IQ is like measuring whether or not a million angels can dance on the head of a pin. A difference of three IQ points seems almost within the margin of error and this says nothing of possible increase in co-morbid disorders with a higher IQ
Uh-oh. Sound's like somebody is jealous of his older brother!:-)
Of course that's true, but is it also the case that a black hole can hold a stargate open, slowly sucking all of the surrounding area around the other gate into its time dilation bubble? Really, as a taxpayer funding this research, I want answers.
You are extremely lucky to have the chance to work somewhere which has a well-funded security group and a management that takes security seriously.
Compared to government and some software shops, though, it sounds like you have fewer apps to protect, and fewer clueless desktop users. Still, it sounds like you did an exceptional job. You should apply for a job with DHS.
Most companies' security strategies primarily rely on two things: patching and virus scanning.
Maybe break-ins are rare for you, and you think you are doing security really well. In reality, your success is based primarily on the fact that nobody good is targeting you. The people who discover flaws, write the exploits, and create the effective viruses do NOT target your pissant little company. They target governments and financial institutions.
Once the flaws and viruses are discovered by the primary targets, you get the luxury of updating your software and signature files before anyone gets around to target you.
DHS may have security a million times better than yours, but they are a primary target, so they get hit a billion times harder.
As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Are you serious? You think XP "ain't broke?" Have you ever used it?
XP is full of annoying bugs and really really stupid design decisions. In my brief experience with Vista, it seems to have fixed some of those bugs and many of those stupid design decisions. It is also easier on the eyes--a good trait for anything you must look at for hours per day.
XP IS broke. Vista is less broke. If you have no show-stopping compatibility problems, you will enjoy Vista more.
That said, my primary desktop and my server are Ubuntu. Windows is for laptops and gaming rigs.
VoIP (vonage) + prepay cellphone (virgin mobile) gives me the best of both worlds for about $25/mo. I have no contracts. I get VoIP rates on international calls. I can have headsets in every room in my house. VoIP audio quality beats cell quality any day. I have redundancy. I have no contracts.
Having only a cellphone would only make sense if I spend a large amount of my time away from home talking on the phone. I don't. Maybe you do, but my cell phone convos are like "hey, where are you? be there in a minute." The long talks with the family happen only while I'm home.
I use Vonage. I registered my address for 911. I also have a cell phone, which works for 911. Also, I've never in my life needed 911. Your argument is absurd.
You seem to think I should be spending hundreds more per year just in case my 0.001% chance of needing 911 occurs during the 0.001% of the time VoIP+cell service is down while landline is up.
Using your same argument, I think YOU she be spending hundreds of dollars on one of those "i've fallen and i can't get up" emergency monitoring services. I'll laugh if you die in a death that could have been saved by such a service.
Vonage has a 500min plan for $15. Virgin Mobile has prepay cell phones with no contracts for $0.18/min. It's a good combo. My total phone bill is $25/mo.
Do you have a cell phone? For the 2 hours per year your power is out, you can use that. If that's not enough for you, you can buy a UPS and put your modem, VoIP router, and phone on it. So, now that you have enough clue to realize that availability is a non-argument...
VoIP like Vonage has EVERY feature you can possibly imagine with a landline, plus some that just aren't available at all for landline proles.
I'm talking voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, advanced call forwarding, the ability to take your phone number (including area code) with you when you travel or move... Oh, and did I mention simulcall? When someone calls my Vonage number, it rings my cell phone and my work phone at the same time. Sweet.
So, yeah, VoIP is better than landline in every conceivable way.
I don't live in Chicago. I live in an area which has very little regulation. ATT here requires an installation fee (and forcing you to buy a modem really IS a fee). It also required buying their landline phone service. It also REQUIRED a one year contract.
This was a former SBC state. It may not be the same everywhere, but when the local government doesn't hold them back, the phone company bundles and contracts the shit out of you, whether you like it or not.
To get ATT DSL, you need to sign up for a 1 or 2 year contract, pay an installation fee, and buy their landline service.
Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point, these terms basically mean their $10 DSL costs $35 (=$10 for DSL + $25 for worthless phone service) PLUS the amortized cost of installation and the effective cost of an illiquid 1-2 year contract.
Note: Last time I priced DSL, these were the requirements. They may have changed, and if so, feel free to correct me. Until T unbundles their services, though, I'm sticking to cable.
Wow. That was completely incomprehensible. You are saying people "twink" their "toons" out with gold at blue prices? What, is that some kind of new show on MTV or something?
Slashdot Mirror
They sure didn't rise from independent (read: internet) media. That didn't exist when they came took power.
Once all the people over 40 die (sorry mom and dad!), independent media will have a chance of competing with the Rupert Murdochs and CNNs of the world. In such a future, a columnist will no longer have to suck up to some corporate sponsor to be heard.
Of course, we still haven't determined whether empirically-based reason (science and philosophy) will beat out emotively-based manipulation (racism, religion) on a planetary scale. It is possible that the average human brain is so fundamentally flawed that the judeo-christian-islamo-fascists will halt technological progress or lead humanity to some other bleak effective-nonexistance (on a universal scale).
But, if our brains really ARE more receptive to empirical reason than to emotive manipulation, the Internet, and the "blogging" phenomenon, could lead to a world where the Locke's and Thomas Jeffersons of the world really DO command popular support. Such a future would require a description that far surpasses the word "renaissance" in terms of human advancement.
Redesigning a web app that uses a significant amount of AJAX functionality is going to take hundreds of hours of developer time. Suppose the average AJAX developer costs $50/hr. For 600 hours of work, we would need to make MORE THAN $50x600 = $30,000 worth of developer time to redesign!
For the redesign to be worth it, we would need to pull more than $30,000 in AFTER TAX, AFTER RISK profit! Not revenue--profit.
Since web businesses have lower margins than "traditional" businesses, we are going to require many hundreds of thousands of potential iPhone-only dollars being spent at our site before we consider it.
Show me the study with killodollars (per site) of potential iPhone purchases, and have it coming from Gardner, or Forester, or whichever "reputable" BS analysis company--and we'll start to consider it.
S/MIME is end-to-end. The email servers, the routers, the blackberry server--they just see ciphertext. It can only be read by the sending and receiving email clients (blackberry handhelds in this case).
Did you read the article? They are concerned about routing their messages through the US, not about the devices themselves being boobytrapped.
Blackberries can't do S/MIME? Every other email client on the planet can do that. If RIM just built S/MIME support into their products, then it wouldn't matter at all who routed through what and where.
The distinction is that he was from independent (internet) media, not hollywood or nyc.
What's more interesting is the way he did it. Locke (Peter) was basically a blogger who became so popular he amassed real political power. That may seem unlikely today, but thirty years or so, when the distinction between TV and internet vanishes, it seems conceivable that someone could rise up from the media/infotainment realm into the political realm.
Vote Wiggin in '38!
It sounds like you think everyone is equally intelligent. That shows how smart you are.
Of course that's true, but is it also the case that a black hole can hold a stargate open, slowly sucking all of the surrounding area around the other gate into its time dilation bubble? Really, as a taxpayer funding this research, I want answers.
You are extremely lucky to have the chance to work somewhere which has a well-funded security group and a management that takes security seriously.
Compared to government and some software shops, though, it sounds like you have fewer apps to protect, and fewer clueless desktop users. Still, it sounds like you did an exceptional job. You should apply for a job with DHS.
"We can put a man on the moon, but we can't build killer robot police?"
Most companies' security strategies primarily rely on two things: patching and virus scanning.
Maybe break-ins are rare for you, and you think you are doing security really well. In reality, your success is based primarily on the fact that nobody good is targeting you. The people who discover flaws, write the exploits, and create the effective viruses do NOT target your pissant little company. They target governments and financial institutions.
Once the flaws and viruses are discovered by the primary targets, you get the luxury of updating your software and signature files before anyone gets around to target you.
DHS may have security a million times better than yours, but they are a primary target, so they get hit a billion times harder.
XP is full of annoying bugs and really really stupid design decisions. In my brief experience with Vista, it seems to have fixed some of those bugs and many of those stupid design decisions. It is also easier on the eyes--a good trait for anything you must look at for hours per day.
XP IS broke. Vista is less broke. If you have no show-stopping compatibility problems, you will enjoy Vista more.
That said, my primary desktop and my server are Ubuntu. Windows is for laptops and gaming rigs.
VoIP (vonage) + prepay cellphone (virgin mobile) gives me the best of both worlds for about $25/mo. I have no contracts. I get VoIP rates on international calls. I can have headsets in every room in my house. VoIP audio quality beats cell quality any day. I have redundancy. I have no contracts.
Having only a cellphone would only make sense if I spend a large amount of my time away from home talking on the phone. I don't. Maybe you do, but my cell phone convos are like "hey, where are you? be there in a minute." The long talks with the family happen only while I'm home.
I use Vonage. I registered my address for 911. I also have a cell phone, which works for 911. Also, I've never in my life needed 911. Your argument is absurd.
You seem to think I should be spending hundreds more per year just in case my 0.001% chance of needing 911 occurs during the 0.001% of the time VoIP+cell service is down while landline is up.
Using your same argument, I think YOU she be spending hundreds of dollars on one of those "i've fallen and i can't get up" emergency monitoring services. I'll laugh if you die in a death that could have been saved by such a service.
See? You are irrational and, well, nuts.
Vonage has a 500min plan for $15. Virgin Mobile has prepay cell phones with no contracts for $0.18/min. It's a good combo. My total phone bill is $25/mo.
Well, Mr. Clueless, I'll tell you.
Do you have a cell phone? For the 2 hours per year your power is out, you can use that. If that's not enough for you, you can buy a UPS and put your modem, VoIP router, and phone on it. So, now that you have enough clue to realize that availability is a non-argument...
VoIP like Vonage has EVERY feature you can possibly imagine with a landline, plus some that just aren't available at all for landline proles.
I'm talking voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, advanced call forwarding, the ability to take your phone number (including area code) with you when you travel or move...
Oh, and did I mention simulcall? When someone calls my Vonage number, it rings my cell phone and my work phone at the same time. Sweet.
So, yeah, VoIP is better than landline in every conceivable way.
I have Vonage. There are no problems with latency or clarity, and I get every feature under the sun with it.
I don't live in Chicago. I live in an area which has very little regulation. ATT here requires an installation fee (and forcing you to buy a modem really IS a fee). It also required buying their landline phone service. It also REQUIRED a one year contract.
This was a former SBC state. It may not be the same everywhere, but when the local government doesn't hold them back, the phone company bundles and contracts the shit out of you, whether you like it or not.
To get ATT DSL, you need to sign up for a 1 or 2 year contract, pay an installation fee, and buy their landline service.
Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point, these terms basically mean their $10 DSL costs $35 (=$10 for DSL + $25 for worthless phone service) PLUS the amortized cost of installation and the effective cost of an illiquid 1-2 year contract.
Note: Last time I priced DSL, these were the requirements. They may have changed, and if so, feel free to correct me. Until T unbundles their services, though, I'm sticking to cable.
Wow. That was completely incomprehensible. You are saying people "twink" their "toons" out with gold at blue prices? What, is that some kind of new show on MTV or something?