Ticket systems can be transparent: just post the ticket logs on a public web site. But a ticket system is totally inappropriate for generalized complaints like these. If 100 different people complain about having to take out their electronics, then that's 100 different tickets that require individual actions. To say nothing of "TFA sucks" posts, political rants, and wonky folks who think they spotted Bin Laden driving a cab. Whose going to process all these tickets?
A ticket system would require dozens of people working full time. This blog is run by a half dozen TSA employees in their spare time. Do the math.
The fact that Facebook has broken IPv6 records is noteworthy all by itself. That sort of problem is going to come up a lot, as more and more users make the move to IPv6.
And can we skip all the crap about whose fault it is? Yes, Facebook screwed up. But if a leading OS can't access a leading web site, people need to know about it, and don't really care whose fucking fault it is.
I'm sure a lot of people are tired of hearing about How Vista Sucks. But the issue isn't going to go away. It's getting harder and harder to buy new machines that run XP, and Microsoft wants to make it impossible. This is stuff I want to hear about, especially when the writer covers problems I hadn't heard about before, like this guy did. As it happens, these issues are key for me, because I desperately want to get Vista's improved handwriting engine for my tablet; that makes Vista problems of extreme interest to me.
If you don't share that interest, well, nobody's forcing you to read TFA.
This is why I hate "+1 Funny": people can't resist trolling for it, usually with some lame sarcasm like the above. In this case, you're actually repeating something TFA itself said.
Just curious: are there any popular WPs that can't do Hawaiian? It's simple Unicode left-to-right, isn't it? Of course, you'd have to install the necessary font.
The XO still has no independent power source? That's a significant omission. Have you considered attaching one of those solar cell kits? Should be able to draw power from the fluorescent lights in an airplane.
The whole USB driver issue is a pain. I work for Sun, and like everybody else we've mostly abandoned RS-232 in favor of USB. Which isn't a big deal if you're running Windows or a well-supported Linux distro. But there aren't a lot of Solaris drivers for USB devices.
Except this guy is looking for standard laptop functions that the OLPC doesn't have, like a DVD burner.
If we ignore the guy's demand that he have every standard laptop function, then the obvious solution is one of those GSM cell phone/pda combos. Only weighs a few ounces, supports word processing, and he can use GPRS or EDGE to send his data home. And it's cheap, so it's not a disaster if it's lost, stolen, or obliterated. If he has to have a full-sized keyboard, then yeah, the OLPC XO is a good option. But if he wants all the fancy options, he's going to have to pay.
That works if they're willing to sell and the price is affordable. I'm dubious about either. Selling the code is probably more hassle than it's worth to the company. And even if the price is nominal, it's got to be in the thousands. Does Mr. OS think so highly of his own code that he's willing to spend a couple week's salary to open it up? Unless it's really good code, probably not.
The question: I want to open source some code I wrote for work that the company is scrapping.
That's not the question, that's background information. The actual question was, Where can I find a form that I can fill out and make myself safe.
That's actually worse than the usual request for legal advice. Not only is he making the usual assumption, that Slashdotters are competent to give legal advice, but he's making an additional assumption, that he already knows the general legal issues. Both assumptions are wrong.
And that's why you don't go to non-lawyers for legal advice, or trust your own knowledge of the law, not when the consequences of getting it wrong are serious. People who consider themselves experts on the law, but haven't actually passed the bar, usually know just enough to get themselves (or anybody foolish enough to listen to them) in serious trouble. I speak from personal experience.
If the issue is a parking ticket or a small-claims action, then OK, play the amateur lawyer, it's not that big a deal. But if you're in a situation where the wrong move can cost you your job, make it hard for you to get a new one, cost you civil penalties, or even earn you jail time (all are possible if you're accused of stealing from your employer) then you need to be fucking careful. Put your ego away and go talk to an expert.
Not a good analogy. The company doesn't know that the code has commercial value, only that it might.
This is the usual IP hoarding scenario, and there's no point in running through all the issues yet again. Except maybe this one: SLASHDOT IS THE WRONG PLACE TO GO FOR LEGAL ADVICE.
Here's some practical advice: go to your boss and say, "OK, you don't want to this code, why not give me permission to open source it? It will make the company look good." They might well say, "Hey, that's a good idea! Go over to the legal department and have them do the paperwork for you, so you don't get in any trouble."
Except that email encryption is generally done with public key encryption. That means that every recipient has a public/private key pair; the public key is used to encrypt the message and is known by everybody who wants to send them email; the private key is used to decrypt the message and is only known by the recipient. When I say "known by" I really mean known by the user's software — few people bother memorizing umpteem-bit key values.
If the lawyer had been encrypting his messages, his email would have automagically used the specified recipient's public key, just as it automagically used the specified recipient's email address. So the reporter would still have gotten the leak — but it would be a secure leak!
Note that I hate the cutesy cliche word "automagically". But it serves a certain sarcastic purpose in this context!
The user played a role, certainly (and I suspect that particularly lawyer is now unemployed). But when badly-designed software facilitates user error, then yes, the software deserve primary blame.
Good software takes into account the various flaws in the ad-hoc heuristic programming of carbon based units. Geeks never seem to grasp this, which is why so much end-user software is as usable for day-to-day tasks as a 50-pound hammer. Mail clients are particularly horrible. I use Thunderbird, not because it lacks usability bugs (hah!), but because it has fewer of them than any other email client.
IANAL, but I very much doubt that it is illegal, at least in itself. TFA states that typosquatting is illegal, but doesn't cite any laws. Not very professional.
Another stupid error: this is not typosquatting. Where's the typo? Nobody ends up at "dellbatterrogram.com" because they mistyped the domain name. This is better described as search engine spamming. Which I actually find much more obnoxious than typosquating, since it's harder to avoid, and a bigger waste of time.
When Google turns up a site like this, I always click on the "Help us improve" link at the bottom of the search results page and report the spamming. Not sure how much good that does.
The candidates were the exact opposite: not a single one answered emails we sent to their "media inquiry" links or email addresses. Slashdot has more readers than all but a handful of major daily papers, so that's kind of strange.
Strange, how? In case you hadn't noticed, this is the busiest part of the primary/caucus season. Especially today, with 23 states holding primaries at the same time. (Is that why it's called "Fat Tuesday"? Just kidding.) I'll bet even the major news organizations are having trouble getting answers to any serious questions. If you wanted to stage a serious Q&A, you should have done it a couple of weeks ago. Or better yet, before the New Hampshire primary.
Hey, if you'd done that, maybe Fred Thompson would still be in the race. Now he'll probably sign up for another lame TV show. If it turns out that he's the big cheese behind the Dharma Initiative, I'm holding you guys responsible!
Which explains why belongs to the Republican party rather than the Libertarian party. What it doesn't explain is how he can justify calling himself a Libertarian when he belongs to a party known for its authoritarian values.
When I first heard of Ron Paul, the first thing I did (being a geek) was to google him. His various web sites used the word "Libertarian" many times and the word "Republican" not at all. Made me wonder if the Libertarian Party had finally gotten a seat in Congress.
Of course, it's wishful thinking for the editors try to restrict the conversation to leading three candidates, given Paul's rabid following amongst geeks. But it's also wishful thinking for his fans to think they can talk around Republicans to Paul's POV. Libertarianism has lots of good, kewl-sounding buzzwords, but it's never had mainstream appeal.
And there's good reason to do so! VBA still doesn't have a binary-coded decimal data type. So people use binary floating point to handle currency values. Do enough transactions, and you can easily misplace $7.2B through rounding errors!
so mark this up as an unintended consequence of ridiculously strong labor unions
I'm not current on the French labor scene, but somehow I doubt that there's a union for financial analysts. The strong labor unions in France are more of an effect than a cause: French society is suffused with an us-versus-them mentality that makes Rush Limbaugh look like a Quaker.
Then again, Americans have their share of anti-business, pro-Robin Hood prejudice. One reason everything we do is so bound up in liability concerns ("Do not iron clothes while wearing them!") is that American juries love to sock it to defendants with deep pockets. That attitude is also reflected in a lot of popculture.
It's true that French labor-laws are a little too worker-friendly. (Just as, IMHO, U.S. labor laws are a little too employer-friendly.) But I have to point out that in this particular case the rules aren't that different. In the U.S., an employer can't just walk into an employee's office and tell them "You're fired" without jumping through a few hoops first. Failure to counsel the employee on what they're doing wrong can have various consequences, ranging from a termination-for-cause being converted to a layoff (meaning the employer has to cover unemployment benefits, something they can avoid with a little effort), to getting sued on a civil rights violation, to a hefty fine. And yes, that's even happened when somebody's accused of costing their employer big bucks, either through malfeasance or incompetence. Especially then, because then you have the libel laws and the "innocent until proven guilty" principle come into play.
In this respect, the French are actually a lot less RH-friendly than we are, since suing people is a lot less profitable there.
What a cliche! Knowing which stocks are poised to crash is harder than most people realize. Really, if you're determined to wipe out your life savings, you've got to be prepared to buckle down and do some work. Gasoline and matches are also useful.
Slashdot Mirror
People can be so mean!
Ticket systems can be transparent: just post the ticket logs on a public web site. But a ticket system is totally inappropriate for generalized complaints like these. If 100 different people complain about having to take out their electronics, then that's 100 different tickets that require individual actions. To say nothing of "TFA sucks" posts, political rants, and wonky folks who think they spotted Bin Laden driving a cab. Whose going to process all these tickets?
A ticket system would require dozens of people working full time. This blog is run by a half dozen TSA employees in their spare time. Do the math.
I flame against +1 Funny, and get modded up as +1 Funny! The horror! The horror!
The fact that Facebook has broken IPv6 records is noteworthy all by itself. That sort of problem is going to come up a lot, as more and more users make the move to IPv6.
And can we skip all the crap about whose fault it is? Yes, Facebook screwed up. But if a leading OS can't access a leading web site, people need to know about it, and don't really care whose fucking fault it is.
I'm sure a lot of people are tired of hearing about How Vista Sucks. But the issue isn't going to go away. It's getting harder and harder to buy new machines that run XP, and Microsoft wants to make it impossible. This is stuff I want to hear about, especially when the writer covers problems I hadn't heard about before, like this guy did. As it happens, these issues are key for me, because I desperately want to get Vista's improved handwriting engine for my tablet; that makes Vista problems of extreme interest to me.
If you don't share that interest, well, nobody's forcing you to read TFA.
This is why I hate "+1 Funny": people can't resist trolling for it, usually with some lame sarcasm like the above. In this case, you're actually repeating something TFA itself said.
Wouldn't it be more effective and efficient to just get a lobotomy and be done with it?
Just curious: are there any popular WPs that can't do Hawaiian? It's simple Unicode left-to-right, isn't it? Of course, you'd have to install the necessary font.
The XO still has no independent power source? That's a significant omission. Have you considered attaching one of those solar cell kits? Should be able to draw power from the fluorescent lights in an airplane.
The whole USB driver issue is a pain. I work for Sun, and like everybody else we've mostly abandoned RS-232 in favor of USB. Which isn't a big deal if you're running Windows or a well-supported Linux distro. But there aren't a lot of Solaris drivers for USB devices.
Not or bad suggestion. Drivers might be an issue.
Except this guy is looking for standard laptop functions that the OLPC doesn't have, like a DVD burner.
If we ignore the guy's demand that he have every standard laptop function, then the obvious solution is one of those GSM cell phone/pda combos. Only weighs a few ounces, supports word processing, and he can use GPRS or EDGE to send his data home. And it's cheap, so it's not a disaster if it's lost, stolen, or obliterated. If he has to have a full-sized keyboard, then yeah, the OLPC XO is a good option. But if he wants all the fancy options, he's going to have to pay.
That works if they're willing to sell and the price is affordable. I'm dubious about either. Selling the code is probably more hassle than it's worth to the company. And even if the price is nominal, it's got to be in the thousands. Does Mr. OS think so highly of his own code that he's willing to spend a couple week's salary to open it up? Unless it's really good code, probably not.
That's actually worse than the usual request for legal advice. Not only is he making the usual assumption, that Slashdotters are competent to give legal advice, but he's making an additional assumption, that he already knows the general legal issues. Both assumptions are wrong.
And that's why you don't go to non-lawyers for legal advice, or trust your own knowledge of the law, not when the consequences of getting it wrong are serious. People who consider themselves experts on the law, but haven't actually passed the bar, usually know just enough to get themselves (or anybody foolish enough to listen to them) in serious trouble. I speak from personal experience.
If the issue is a parking ticket or a small-claims action, then OK, play the amateur lawyer, it's not that big a deal. But if you're in a situation where the wrong move can cost you your job, make it hard for you to get a new one, cost you civil penalties, or even earn you jail time (all are possible if you're accused of stealing from your employer) then you need to be fucking careful. Put your ego away and go talk to an expert.
Not a good analogy. The company doesn't know that the code has commercial value, only that it might.
This is the usual IP hoarding scenario, and there's no point in running through all the issues yet again. Except maybe this one: SLASHDOT IS THE WRONG PLACE TO GO FOR LEGAL ADVICE.
Here's some practical advice: go to your boss and say, "OK, you don't want to this code, why not give me permission to open source it? It will make the company look good." They might well say, "Hey, that's a good idea! Go over to the legal department and have them do the paperwork for you, so you don't get in any trouble."
Except that email encryption is generally done with public key encryption. That means that every recipient has a public/private key pair; the public key is used to encrypt the message and is known by everybody who wants to send them email; the private key is used to decrypt the message and is only known by the recipient. When I say "known by" I really mean known by the user's software — few people bother memorizing umpteem-bit key values.
If the lawyer had been encrypting his messages, his email would have automagically used the specified recipient's public key, just as it automagically used the specified recipient's email address. So the reporter would still have gotten the leak — but it would be a secure leak!
Note that I hate the cutesy cliche word "automagically". But it serves a certain sarcastic purpose in this context!
The user played a role, certainly (and I suspect that particularly lawyer is now unemployed). But when badly-designed software facilitates user error, then yes, the software deserve primary blame.
Good software takes into account the various flaws in the ad-hoc heuristic programming of carbon based units. Geeks never seem to grasp this, which is why so much end-user software is as usable for day-to-day tasks as a 50-pound hammer. Mail clients are particularly horrible. I use Thunderbird, not because it lacks usability bugs (hah!), but because it has fewer of them than any other email client.
IANAL, but I very much doubt that it is illegal, at least in itself. TFA states that typosquatting is illegal, but doesn't cite any laws. Not very professional.
Another stupid error: this is not typosquatting. Where's the typo? Nobody ends up at "dellbatterrogram.com" because they mistyped the domain name. This is better described as search engine spamming. Which I actually find much more obnoxious than typosquating, since it's harder to avoid, and a bigger waste of time.
When Google turns up a site like this, I always click on the "Help us improve" link at the bottom of the search results page and report the spamming. Not sure how much good that does.
Hey, if you'd done that, maybe Fred Thompson would still be in the race. Now he'll probably sign up for another lame TV show. If it turns out that he's the big cheese behind the Dharma Initiative, I'm holding you guys responsible!
When I first heard of Ron Paul, the first thing I did (being a geek) was to google him. His various web sites used the word "Libertarian" many times and the word "Republican" not at all. Made me wonder if the Libertarian Party had finally gotten a seat in Congress.
Of course, it's wishful thinking for the editors try to restrict the conversation to leading three candidates, given Paul's rabid following amongst geeks. But it's also wishful thinking for his fans to think they can talk around Republicans to Paul's POV. Libertarianism has lots of good, kewl-sounding buzzwords, but it's never had mainstream appeal.
So, you got fired. Do you know everything your employer did before making and implementing the decision to fire you? Obviously not.
And there's good reason to do so! VBA still doesn't have a binary-coded decimal data type. So people use binary floating point to handle currency values. Do enough transactions, and you can easily misplace $7.2B through rounding errors!
Then again, Americans have their share of anti-business, pro-Robin Hood prejudice. One reason everything we do is so bound up in liability concerns ("Do not iron clothes while wearing them!") is that American juries love to sock it to defendants with deep pockets. That attitude is also reflected in a lot of pop culture.
It's true that French labor-laws are a little too worker-friendly. (Just as, IMHO, U.S. labor laws are a little too employer-friendly.) But I have to point out that in this particular case the rules aren't that different. In the U.S., an employer can't just walk into an employee's office and tell them "You're fired" without jumping through a few hoops first. Failure to counsel the employee on what they're doing wrong can have various consequences, ranging from a termination-for-cause being converted to a layoff (meaning the employer has to cover unemployment benefits, something they can avoid with a little effort), to getting sued on a civil rights violation, to a hefty fine. And yes, that's even happened when somebody's accused of costing their employer big bucks, either through malfeasance or incompetence. Especially then, because then you have the libel laws and the "innocent until proven guilty" principle come into play.
In this respect, the French are actually a lot less RH-friendly than we are, since suing people is a lot less profitable there.
What a cliche! Knowing which stocks are poised to crash is harder than most people realize. Really, if you're determined to wipe out your life savings, you've got to be prepared to buckle down and do some work. Gasoline and matches are also useful.