Fine quality aside, it's still a work-for-hire. The person paying for the work should retain the copyright.
I've always hated the photography business model. And I was a semi-pro myself.
What turned my stomach the most was what happened when my photography mentor died: His widow threw out all of his storage boxes of negatives (50 years worth). Hundreds of his former customers lost the ability to ever get a reprint of their photos (without a copystand and before digital scanning). The right thing should have been to return the negatives to the customers, but that was too much work.
For my own wedding, I insisted on retaining the copyright. I hired only professionals who understood what that meant. I have the negatives and the right to make reprints whenever I want from whatever lab I chose.
I agree. Integrating the browser with the OS is an invitation for the OS users to get hacked.
What program designer thought it was a neat idea for a website to be able to alter your registry (via Active X)? That program designer deserves all the scorn and derision the IT industry can heap their way.
Since when is wanting privacy dishonest?...and not wanting to be flooded with spam....and not having to pay "protection" to the registrar so they don't disclose your personal information to every marketing scumbag who wants it.
I was taught that proper hard drive disposal is as follows:
The employee will: - run the company approved wipe program - remove the hard drive and open its case - remove the disk platter - break the platter with the hammer by the disposal bin
The company disposal crew will: -handle the contents of the secure disposal bin -send the platter through the grinder suitable for that purpose (a circuit board shredder) -incinerate all output of the grinder.
... and that is how it's done at a place that takes security seriously.
Re:Good Quality Cuts down or out Testing
on
QA != Testing
·
· Score: 1
I disagree.
Good software requires less testing. The parent comment is correct.
The only reason that you require complete regression for 1000+ files after one small change is that the software quality indicates that one small change could likely effect 1000+ files.
High quility software would need a change in a class that is inherited by hundreds of other classes. That would indicate a profound functional change late in development.
If there is a deadline, it means that an implicit compromise is being made on quality. Testing to an acceptable level of risk is done on the "risk" scale (decreasing risk as testing proceeds), not the "time" scale (decreasing time as testing proceeds). When a testing deadline is reached, there is a resultant point on the risk scale. The resultant point on the risk scale verses the desired point on the risk scale is the measure of the quality compromise.
It has always been true in my experience that when the testing deadline is reached, the level of risk has not been reduced to the desired level. But "the business" will release the software anyway just because the deadline has been reached.
This is golden: "Customers don't distinguish between conformance to specification and conformance to expectation."
It's almost not funny, but to a lot of corporations Ferrari is not a high quality car. They define quality as having minimal variation from the design. Corporations think that they are getting high quality when they outsource to Asia because every part comes out identical (according to the specifications). But a hand made car like a Ferrari has all kinds of variation.
Corporations would rather get consistant crap than inconsistant, but better stuff (according to the customer expectation). The same thinking is driving software outsourcing to India.
.. and no company will ever have a security breach again.
If you make the penalty for security breaches so severe, at the very first sign of a breach, a company will wipe all trace of it and pretend that nothing ever happened.
A lot of companies already do this for the sake of "saving face" in the marketplace. No company wants it to be widely known that they don't know how to secure sensitive data.
I bet that ChoicePoint was caught red-handed, otherwise we would not be hearing (and complaining) about this.
Watch out if you use long passwords for some accounts.
I used a nice long password/passphrase for a mainframe that I worked one. When it came time to change it 30 days later, I had a very hard time because of a requirment that there be at least 3 characters that were not in the old password. I guess this was to deter people from using only slight variations of their old password.
I had a hell of a time finding 3 characters that I has not used before.
The secret to picture passwords is speed and diversity. Meaning that you have to type it fast and spread it out all over the keyboard (not just a few adjacent keys).
If you have to hunt and peck the keys, than a shoulder-surfer can get your password easily.
Also, I'd guess that many brute force programs use common picture sequences, like using linear keys.
I use "dual" picture passwords quite a bit. I start with both hands on the touch typist position. The passwords use characters from both the right and left hands. I can blast off my passwords in less than a second.
I have no idea what I'm typing. I just type the sequence.
The thing I hate is passwords that require uppercase letters. That really slows down the password entry. There is no way to precisely time the shift key press in the middle of a typing burst.
That said, I much prefer using an RSA token over any password. I have far too many passwords, especially web passwords.
This is a *HUGE* issue. Even joe consumer can get concerned when his personal info is bouncing around third-world countries.
What does it tell you that this is not being reported in the mainstream press? Is the issue too complicated? Are people not interested?
I think that there would be a strong reaction from the populace if this was reported in the national media. This might cause the goverment to step in on the off-shore outsourcing issue.
Congress, the White House, and many state legislatures are far more serious about privacy and security than ever before. Expect more privacy laws to be passed by state legislatures.
Every CIO should be concerned about willful violations (willful intent to skirt the privacy regulations) as well as negligent violations when considering moving data offshore, even if only for software development.
You would give up HDTV (with cool games) in the office in order to play with your two year old son and snuggle with your wife? Hmmm - more than snuggling if another child is on the way.
You are far too level-headed to be an super elite geek.
I bet your software isn't cool either, just reliable and stable.
Software specs universally suck. Software specs are primitive compared to mechanical drawings, architectural blueprints or electronic schematics. Those things are much easier to outsource. Mostly, you get back what you asked for and it works. From my experience, outsourced software projects fail. And most porjects were not even offshore.
The majority of offshore software development projects will fail, but not before corporations show huge short term savings on their quarterly reports. By the time they have to expense money to fix their mess, it will be many months down the road. WTF do they care about the stock price next year. It's this quarter that matters.
Short term thinking is what is driving this mess...
It's not just the fault of our economic system. It's also the fault of our political/legal system.
There is more than cost savings when moving work offshore. Companies also gain a lot of relief from litigation. They don't have to worry about lawsuits for discrimination, sexual harassment, or wrongful termination.
It's similar to when manufacturing plants went offshore. Corporations loved the relief from unions, OHSA, environmental and child labor laws.
Data is in text files. The bugs are in mySQL. A little work with vi and Bugzilla can be customized easily. Bugzilla runs fine without customization. I've installed Bugzilla in a couple hours (providing all the perl and mySQL support is installed first). The report generation is not the wonderful. But for basic bug tracking, Bugzilla rocks.
Slashdot Mirror
Fine quality aside, it's still a work-for-hire. The person paying for the work should retain the copyright.
I've always hated the photography business model. And I was a semi-pro myself.
What turned my stomach the most was what happened when my photography mentor died: His widow threw out all of his storage boxes of negatives (50 years worth). Hundreds of his former customers lost the ability to ever get a reprint of their photos (without a copystand and before digital scanning). The right thing should have been to return the negatives to the customers, but that was too much work.
For my own wedding, I insisted on retaining the copyright. I hired only professionals who understood what that meant. I have the negatives and the right to make reprints whenever I want from whatever lab I chose.
vb
I agree. Integrating the browser with the OS is an invitation for the OS users to get hacked.
What program designer thought it was a neat idea for a website to be able to alter your registry (via Active X)? That program designer deserves all the scorn and derision the IT industry can heap their way.
vb
Since when is wanting privacy dishonest? ...and not wanting to be flooded with spam. ...and not having to pay "protection" to the registrar so they don't disclose your personal information to every marketing scumbag who wants it.
I was taught that proper hard drive disposal is as follows:
... and that is how it's done at a place that takes security seriously.
The employee will:
- run the company approved wipe program
- remove the hard drive and open its case
- remove the disk platter
- break the platter with the hammer by the disposal bin
The company disposal crew will:
-handle the contents of the secure disposal bin
-send the platter through the grinder suitable for that purpose (a circuit board shredder)
-incinerate all output of the grinder.
I disagree.
Good software requires less testing. The parent comment is correct.
The only reason that you require complete regression for 1000+ files after one small change is that the software quality indicates that one small change could likely effect 1000+ files.
High quility software would need a change in a class that is inherited by hundreds of other classes. That would indicate a profound functional change late in development.
I agree: deadlines reduce quality.
If there is a deadline, it means that an implicit compromise is being made on quality. Testing to an acceptable level of risk is done on the "risk" scale (decreasing risk as testing proceeds), not the "time" scale (decreasing time as testing proceeds). When a testing deadline is reached, there is a resultant point on the risk scale. The resultant point on the risk scale verses the desired point on the risk scale is the measure of the quality compromise.
It has always been true in my experience that when the testing deadline is reached, the level of risk has not been reduced to the desired level. But "the business" will release the software anyway just because the deadline has been reached.
Thanks for your paper.
This is golden: "Customers don't distinguish between conformance to specification and conformance to expectation."
It's almost not funny, but to a lot of corporations Ferrari is not a high quality car. They define quality as having minimal variation from the design. Corporations think that they are getting high quality when they outsource to Asia because every part comes out identical (according to the specifications). But a hand made car like a Ferrari has all kinds of variation.
Corporations would rather get consistant crap than inconsistant, but better stuff (according to the customer expectation). The same thinking is driving software outsourcing to India.
That's my quality rant for today...
If you make the penalty for security breaches so severe, at the very first sign of a breach, a company will wipe all trace of it and pretend that nothing ever happened.
A lot of companies already do this for the sake of "saving face" in the marketplace. No company wants it to be widely known that they don't know how to secure sensitive data.
I bet that ChoicePoint was caught red-handed, otherwise we would not be hearing (and complaining) about this.
I couldn't agree more. If I were to reset the clock and repeat my college years, I would make damn certain to learn basic...
... before I entered the business world.
-accounting
-business law
-econ (micro and macro)
-finance
-sales
-marketing
A tech in the business world who has none of the above knowledge is doomed to a life of a tech drone.
\currently working as a drone
\\formerly in the dot-com boom
\\\working on new business ideas
It's too late to save youth from corruption. They were already corrupted during the previous generation.
Every generation tries to protect the following generation from their own corruption.
Watch out if you use long passwords for some accounts.
I used a nice long password/passphrase for a mainframe that I worked one. When it came time to change it 30 days later, I had a very hard time because of a requirment that there be at least 3 characters that were not in the old password. I guess this was to deter people from using only slight variations of their old password.
I had a hell of a time finding 3 characters that I has not used before.
The secret to picture passwords is speed and diversity. Meaning that you have to type it fast and spread it out all over the keyboard (not just a few adjacent keys).
If you have to hunt and peck the keys, than a shoulder-surfer can get your password easily.
Also, I'd guess that many brute force programs use common picture sequences, like using linear keys.
I use "dual" picture passwords quite a bit. I start with both hands on the touch typist position. The passwords use characters from both the right and left hands. I can blast off my passwords in less than a second.
I have no idea what I'm typing. I just type the sequence.
The thing I hate is passwords that require uppercase letters. That really slows down the password entry. There is no way to precisely time the shift key press in the middle of a typing burst.
That said, I much prefer using an RSA token over any password. I have far too many passwords, especially web passwords.
Just for the record:
.99999 , which is 6 seconds of downtime per week.
Five nine's is 99.999% =
Considering that one Windows virus can knock out a system for many,many,many seconds it's a absurd claim.
I doubt that anyone had a reliability study to back up that claim. It was most likely just marketing fluff.
vb
I use both IE and Mozilla. It is a major pain in the ass that they do not share bookmarks. The above poster is spot on.
I often have to bookmark a site in both browsers since I know I'll be going back to that site, but I don't know which browser I'll be using when I do.
Importing copies does not cut it. I want Mozilla to use my IE bookmarks. This is an important feature to me.
This is a *HUGE* issue. Even joe consumer can get concerned when his personal info is bouncing around third-world countries.
What does it tell you that this is not being reported in the mainstream press? Is the issue too complicated? Are people not interested?
I think that there would be a strong reaction from the populace if this was reported in the national media. This might cause the goverment to step in on the off-shore outsourcing issue.
Congress, the White House, and many state legislatures are far more serious about privacy and security than ever before. Expect more privacy laws to be passed by state legislatures.
Every CIO should be concerned about willful violations (willful intent to skirt the privacy regulations) as well as negligent violations when considering moving data offshore, even if only for software development.
Tell your CIO: Regulated data should stay local.
vb
"Apple's niche is the only one still left open to Sun as a viable business market. Ubergeek, Ubercool, Ubertech, Uberapple."
This is so true. Two of my friends bought ubergeek, ubercool, ubertech Apple OSX Powerbooks ($3,000-$4,000) to do Java development.
Where is a Sun ubergeek, ubercool, ubertech Java development laptop? Why is Sun not in that market? That's money that should have gone to Sun...
vb
You would give up HDTV (with cool games) in the office in order to play with your two year old son and snuggle with your wife? Hmmm - more than snuggling if another child is on the way.
You are far too level-headed to be an super elite geek.
I bet your software isn't cool either, just reliable and stable.
Guys, this is what maturity is all about...
Speaking of specs...
Software specs universally suck. Software specs are primitive compared to mechanical drawings, architectural blueprints or electronic schematics. Those things are much easier to outsource. Mostly, you get back what you asked for and it works. From my experience, outsourced software projects fail. And most porjects were not even offshore.
The majority of offshore software development projects will fail, but not before corporations show huge short term savings on their quarterly reports. By the time they have to expense money to fix their mess, it will be many months down the road. WTF do they care about the stock price next year. It's this quarter that matters.
Short term thinking is what is driving this mess...
It's not just the fault of our economic system. It's also the fault of our political/legal system.
There is more than cost savings when moving work offshore. Companies also gain a lot of relief from litigation. They don't have to worry about lawsuits for discrimination, sexual harassment, or wrongful termination.
It's similar to when manufacturing plants went offshore. Corporations loved the relief from unions, OHSA, environmental and child labor laws.
It's a race to the bottom....
I wonder if this will end the PalmOS browser war? And who will win, Blazer or NetFront (the web browser in Palm OS 5, made by NetFront).
Any guess how will this hit EudoraWeb or Novarra, www.novarra.com ?
vb
> Data is hardcoded in source files.
Data is in text files. The bugs are in mySQL. A little work with vi and Bugzilla can be customized easily. Bugzilla runs fine without customization. I've installed Bugzilla in a couple hours (providing all the perl and mySQL support is installed first). The report generation is not the wonderful. But for basic bug tracking, Bugzilla rocks.
Too bad they wasted a nice display with a WAP browser.
The Treo comes with Blazer browser. And the Kyocera 6035 and Samsung i300 work well with web clipping browser.
Wake me up when RIM has a real browser...
TDMA is dying. AT&T, like most TDMA operators, are mixing GSM into their network as a means to get to 3G.
iStream is a GPRS service. The Treo does not support GPRS right now due to software problems. Handspring has promised a GPRS Treo patch in mid 2002.
>Can you get VoiceStream iStream service on the Treo?