TAKES THE MONEY FROM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT* without your authorization
1. You don't grant access to your account on a transaction-by-transaction basis; you grant access to your account PERIOD. I'm sorry if your buddy didn't understand this fact of banking. Kind of an expensive way to learn it; clearly you've learned from his mistakes.
2. If someone defrauds you, you prosecute them. I'm sorry if your buddy's DX7 keyboard and his $350 weren't worth his time; that was his choice. It's not PayPal's problem if you are defrauded; it's your problem.
I use PayPal. I know the risks. If they foul up my account I will pursue fraud charges against them. If someone else rips me off, I'll pursue fraud charges against THEM. Everybody needs a hobby, and from time to time it becomes my hobby to make people responsible for their actions.
That's exactly my point. If I break into a business, I can't steal the whole business. If I break into a server, by your logic, if the company is dependent on the server, I have potentially caused damage or stolen information equivalent to the value of the entire business. If the script cost $1,000 in consultant time to produce but has generated $1,000,000 in sales but has been obsoleted by a competitor's script that cost $100,000 to produce, then what's the value of the script?
good call...I figured they used the scripts to catch him "red handed" and why didn't the defense attorney explain to the DA that his sole piece of incriminating evidence was a text file on a computer controlled by the prosecutor. This ain't a bloody glove...it only takes a few seconds to plant a log file and NO ONE can tell the difference.
This sounds like a classic Dilbert situation...the sales and marketing group has let slip "Oh, yeah, and what's really greate about our product is it produces hot water, too! The second generation of our product will use this to realize 70% efficiency!"
Poof...there go the sales from the first gen product, there goes the revenue stream needed to develop the second gen product, there goes the business plan, there goes the business.
True. HOWEVER...in the REAL WORLD, if you steal a dime-store necklace, you're charged with petty theft. If you steal a diamond necklace, you're charged with grand theft. The difference is a misdemeanor and a felony conviction.
In this case, Mr. West got away with a misdemeanor charge, but what if the prosecutor had decided the damages were $50,000? $100,000? What's the value of a PERL script? What's the value of a closed security hole? Dunno...but I can see how easy it would be to twist a small breakin into looking like a large one. This is scary stuff.
- If you don't own the software you have licensed, do you own the car you have "licensed" as well ? You buy the car and own it outright. The license gives you the non-transferable right to operate the car on public roads.
- Who owns your time and goods, if you need a "license" to engage in business? You do. The license gives you the non-transferable right to operate the business. I'll granted that the gubmint controls your time and goods, but they do not own them.
Interestingly, South Africa is not part of the United States and its communications capabilities (or inabilities) have NOTHING to do with the original goal of the internet. In fact, as a potential enemy of the US (no offense, but y'all have nukes and don't have US military posted on you, right? So by definition...) I'd suggest that making YOUR communications dependent on OUR well-being is a Good Thing (tm).
Taking their cue from kindergarten (a German word; note that Germany was home to the Nazis) classes, many colleges are now requiring students to "raise their hand" before speaking during class. Civil libertarians are outraged. "This procedure will have a chilling affect, a chilling...affect...on discourse in the very institutions that were founded to encourage it," an ACLU spokeswoman stated. When asked whether the ACLU would file suit, she refused to comment. "This is a violation of my first amendment rights!" complained a stupent at a major university. "I should be able to discuss last night's episode of 'Friends' any time I want to! Fascists!"
I was thinking more of a situation where a company pays all debts possible then files for bankruptcy. This is particularly nefarious when a single shareholder or VC owns an interest in the bankrupt dotcom as well as the company that loaned money to the dotcom, rented a building to it, etc.
Yeah...but if they pay off legitimate debts, like the telco provider and the hardware vendor and the building lease-holder and the bank, there's not much you can do. Naturally, the VCs in this case know they'll have to do business with all those people again, but employees are just so much garbage...
The most common items stolen from tech companies by employees are laptops and handheld computers that cost less than $1,500 per item, asset managers say. But they are also seeing an increase in big-ticket theft. The writer gives ZERO facts in support of this.
One anecdote cites someone who lifted $445,549 of equipment The anecdote refers to a MOTOROLA (hardly a dot-bomb) employee. The employee used his "security clearance" to steal a lot of stuff; I'd infer that there were multiple thefts over time while still employed. Either that or Motorola is too stupid to disable employees' access cards when they fire them, or maybe their security guards let people cart out half a million dollars' worth of equipment whenever they feel like it.
The second largest number mentioned is $100,000...
somebody had cut a hole through the wall and stolen $100,000 worth of computers. This is a flat-out case of robbery robbery. The writer carefully worded it to make it look to a casual reader like an ex-employee had stolen it but gives ZERO evidence for this proposition.
The only news here isn't news...laptops and PDAs walk off. If you call someone and say "Don't bother coming back," they'll take you at your word, even if they've got a company laptop at home.
Actually, criminal statutes have to be pretty explicit. You can't convict someone of a crime unless it's on the books. If goose-whacking is a crime, and you try but fail to whack a goose, they can't convict you of attempted goose-whacking, because there's no law against attempted goose-whacking. If you talk to people about your plans to whack a goose, they can't convict you of conspiracy to commit goose-whacking because there's no law against conspiring to goose-whack.
Naturally, it takes a politically-connected DA about a month to remedy the situation, particularly if goose-whackers are a mostly misunderstood minority...
> [I] don't find fragments to be a "good way to communicate".
But you'll put your period outside your quotes...:)
I'll bet you communicate verbally in fragments all the time verbally. Ever answer a yes/no question with only one word? Online communication is becoming a fascinating compromise between written and spoken English.
I will beat my dead horse again: rules of grammar are guidelines, and historical ones at that. They report how the language has been written in the past. Remember that there used to be four second person pronouns...and then they went away.
True, but sentences are merely one form of expression.
A sentence fragment.
Another.
Good way to communicate.
You understood that, didn't you? You were not the least bit confused, and you probably also saw the humor in it. You are, if truly a pedant, now annoyed by my use of the second person.
***NEWS FLASH!***
Formal written English is a dialect that is not commonly used by human beings in informal communications. Furthermore, its rules are guidelines often violated by good writers.
The next American revolution will be fought over corporatism. The next Bill of Rights will extend the prohibitions on governmental restrictions to corporate restrictions.
Wasn't it Sirius Cybernetic Corporation that Douglas Adams mentioned in HHGG that was predicted to be the first against the wall in the next revolution? He was a prophet...
Ad hominem attacks asside, anyone who knows anything about protection will tell you, it has to be about control. You cannot protect that which you do not control.
We've got one of these where I work, and I've been administering it (if you can call it that - the thing's as close to maintenance free as I've ever seen) for about eight months. There are logs accessible from the HTML front-end. If you reboot the box and examine the logs, you can see that it's running Linux. At least, that's what I inferred from the fact that "Linux" appears in the logs.
The post office should be privatised. All this would really require is to repeal the laws making it illegal to compete with it in first-class mail.
I agree completely. I would add only one caveat: If you want to compete with the USPS, then you truly have to compete with the USPS. You can't just compete with the local branch office; you must agree to provide the same basic services to the EXACT SAME CUSTOMER BASE as the USPS. you must deliver mail to Alaskan villages above the Arctic circle in the middle of winter. You must service rural customers in Wyoming who are miles away from each other. And don't forget, you must negotiate with ALL foreign governments to deliver mail from their citizens to ALL U.S. citizens.
If someone will agree to do that, to provide all the letter-delivery services to all the people that the USPS services., then yes, they should be allowed to compete. Otherwise, all you're doing is providing more corporate welfare. There are parts of the USPS that are profitable; those parts (mostly) support the unprofitable parts. When most people propose competition with the USPS, what they're really talking about is permitting private corporations to take profitable business away from the USPS and stick taxpayers with the bill for the unprofitable parts.
Applying this to the topic at hand (and it is applicable, assuming the U.S. government ever decides to guarantee an "IP dialtone" to all its citizens) is left as an exercise for the reader.
Microsoft's revenues in the last fiscal year were $25.3 billion; their net income was $7.72 billion. The total value of Microsoft stock is $309 billion, though that could change as soon as the markets re-open. Microsoft's "book value" is $47.3 billion.
Approximately 25,000 die annually in traffic accidents. There have been reasonable estimates of deaths in the tens of thousands in this attack. We'll know how bad it was in a week or so; it always looks worse than it really is right in the middle of a crises.
Slashdot Mirror
TAKES THE MONEY FROM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT* without your authorization
1. You don't grant access to your account on a transaction-by-transaction basis; you grant access to your account PERIOD. I'm sorry if your buddy didn't understand this fact of banking. Kind of an expensive way to learn it; clearly you've learned from his mistakes.
2. If someone defrauds you, you prosecute them. I'm sorry if your buddy's DX7 keyboard and his $350 weren't worth his time; that was his choice. It's not PayPal's problem if you are defrauded; it's your problem.
I use PayPal. I know the risks. If they foul up my account I will pursue fraud charges against them. If someone else rips me off, I'll pursue fraud charges against THEM. Everybody needs a hobby, and from time to time it becomes my hobby to make people responsible for their actions.
That's exactly my point. If I break into a business, I can't steal the whole business. If I break into a server, by your logic, if the company is dependent on the server, I have potentially caused damage or stolen information equivalent to the value of the entire business. If the script cost $1,000 in consultant time to produce but has generated $1,000,000 in sales but has been obsoleted by a competitor's script that cost $100,000 to produce, then what's the value of the script?
good call...I figured they used the scripts to catch him "red handed" and why didn't the defense attorney explain to the DA that his sole piece of incriminating evidence was a text file on a computer controlled by the prosecutor. This ain't a bloody glove...it only takes a few seconds to plant a log file and NO ONE can tell the difference.
This sounds like a classic Dilbert situation...the sales and marketing group has let slip "Oh, yeah, and what's really greate about our product is it produces hot water, too! The second generation of our product will use this to realize 70% efficiency!"
Poof...there go the sales from the first gen product, there goes the revenue stream needed to develop the second gen product, there goes the business plan, there goes the business.
True. HOWEVER...in the REAL WORLD, if you steal a dime-store necklace, you're charged with petty theft. If you steal a diamond necklace, you're charged with grand theft. The difference is a misdemeanor and a felony conviction.
In this case, Mr. West got away with a misdemeanor charge, but what if the prosecutor had decided the damages were $50,000? $100,000? What's the value of a PERL script? What's the value of a closed security hole? Dunno...but I can see how easy it would be to twist a small breakin into looking like a large one. This is scary stuff.
- If you don't own the software you have licensed, do you own the car you have "licensed" as well ?
You buy the car and own it outright. The license gives you the non-transferable right to operate the car on public roads.
- Who owns your time and goods, if you need a "license" to engage in business?
You do. The license gives you the non-transferable right to operate the business. I'll granted that the gubmint controls your time and goods, but they do not own them.
No, what he said was "It's all real."
Interestingly, South Africa is not part of the United States and its communications capabilities (or inabilities) have NOTHING to do with the original goal of the internet. In fact, as a potential enemy of the US (no offense, but y'all have nukes and don't have US military posted on you, right? So by definition...) I'd suggest that making YOUR communications dependent on OUR well-being is a Good Thing (tm).
Taking their cue from kindergarten (a German word; note that Germany was home to the Nazis) classes, many colleges are now requiring students to "raise their hand" before speaking during class. Civil libertarians are outraged. "This procedure will have a chilling affect, a chilling...affect...on discourse in the very institutions that were founded to encourage it," an ACLU spokeswoman stated. When asked whether the ACLU would file suit, she refused to comment. "This is a violation of my first amendment rights!" complained a stupent at a major university. "I should be able to discuss last night's episode of 'Friends' any time I want to! Fascists!"
That is the coolest thing I have read in years! Now how can I make some XF6...
I was thinking more of a situation where a company pays all debts possible then files for bankruptcy. This is particularly nefarious when a single shareholder or VC owns an interest in the bankrupt dotcom as well as the company that loaned money to the dotcom, rented a building to it, etc.
Yeah...but if they pay off legitimate debts, like the telco provider and the hardware vendor and the building lease-holder and the bank, there's not much you can do. Naturally, the VCs in this case know they'll have to do business with all those people again, but employees are just so much garbage...
This article is misleading and sensationalistic.
The most common items stolen from tech companies by employees are laptops and handheld computers that cost less than $1,500 per item, asset managers say. But they are also seeing an increase in big-ticket theft.
The writer gives ZERO facts in support of this.
One anecdote cites someone who lifted $445,549 of equipment
The anecdote refers to a MOTOROLA (hardly a dot-bomb) employee. The employee used his "security clearance" to steal a lot of stuff; I'd infer that there were multiple thefts over time while still employed. Either that or Motorola is too stupid to disable employees' access cards when they fire them, or maybe their security guards let people cart out half a million dollars' worth of equipment whenever they feel like it.
The second largest number mentioned is $100,000...
somebody had cut a hole through the wall and stolen $100,000 worth of computers.
This is a flat-out case of robbery robbery. The writer carefully worded it to make it look to a casual reader like an ex-employee had stolen it but gives ZERO evidence for this proposition.
The only news here isn't news...laptops and PDAs walk off. If you call someone and say "Don't bother coming back," they'll take you at your word, even if they've got a company laptop at home.
Actually, criminal statutes have to be pretty explicit. You can't convict someone of a crime unless it's on the books. If goose-whacking is a crime, and you try but fail to whack a goose, they can't convict you of attempted goose-whacking, because there's no law against attempted goose-whacking. If you talk to people about your plans to whack a goose, they can't convict you of conspiracy to commit goose-whacking because there's no law against conspiring to goose-whack.
Naturally, it takes a politically-connected DA about a month to remedy the situation, particularly if goose-whackers are a mostly misunderstood minority...
> [I] don't find fragments to be a "good way to communicate".
:)
But you'll put your period outside your quotes...
I'll bet you communicate verbally in fragments all the time verbally. Ever answer a yes/no question with only one word? Online communication is becoming a fascinating compromise between written and spoken English.
I will beat my dead horse again: rules of grammar are guidelines, and historical ones at that. They report how the language has been written in the past. Remember that there used to be four second person pronouns...and then they went away.
True, but sentences are merely one form of expression.
A sentence fragment.
Another.
Good way to communicate.
You understood that, didn't you? You were not the least bit confused, and you probably also saw the humor in it. You are, if truly a pedant, now annoyed by my use of the second person.
***NEWS FLASH!***
Formal written English is a dialect that is not commonly used by human beings in informal communications. Furthermore, its rules are guidelines often violated by good writers.
Ah, but what if Oracle, Informix, MS SQL Server, et al. had the same terms? Then you'd have grounds for anti-trust action, I'll bet.
The next American revolution will be fought over corporatism. The next Bill of Rights will extend the prohibitions on governmental restrictions to corporate restrictions.
Wasn't it Sirius Cybernetic Corporation that Douglas Adams mentioned in HHGG that was predicted to be the first against the wall in the next revolution? He was a prophet...
Ad hominem attacks asside, anyone who knows anything about protection will tell you, it has to be about control. You cannot protect that which you do not control.
My words! You winnowed away all my lovely words!
But other than that...nice summary.
We've got one of these where I work, and I've been administering it (if you can call it that - the thing's as close to maintenance free as I've ever seen) for about eight months. There are logs accessible from the HTML front-end. If you reboot the box and examine the logs, you can see that it's running Linux. At least, that's what I inferred from the fact that "Linux" appears in the logs.
You had ground? Heh! We didn't even have heavy elements until those blasted supernovae created 'em!
The post office should be privatised. All this would really require is to repeal the laws making it illegal to compete with it in first-class mail.
I agree completely. I would add only one caveat: If you want to compete with the USPS, then you truly have to compete with the USPS. You can't just compete with the local branch office; you must agree to provide the same basic services to the EXACT SAME CUSTOMER BASE as the USPS. you must deliver mail to Alaskan villages above the Arctic circle in the middle of winter. You must service rural customers in Wyoming who are miles away from each other. And don't forget, you must negotiate with ALL foreign governments to deliver mail from their citizens to ALL U.S. citizens.
If someone will agree to do that, to provide all the letter-delivery services to all the people that the USPS services., then yes, they should be allowed to compete. Otherwise, all you're doing is providing more corporate welfare. There are parts of the USPS that are profitable; those parts (mostly) support the unprofitable parts. When most people propose competition with the USPS, what they're really talking about is permitting private corporations to take profitable business away from the USPS and stick taxpayers with the bill for the unprofitable parts.
Applying this to the topic at hand (and it is applicable, assuming the U.S. government ever decides to guarantee an "IP dialtone" to all its citizens) is left as an exercise for the reader.
Microsoft's revenues in the last fiscal year were $25.3 billion; their net income was $7.72 billion. The total value of Microsoft stock is $309 billion, though that could change as soon as the markets re-open. Microsoft's "book value" is $47.3 billion.
Approximately 25,000 die annually in traffic accidents. There have been reasonable estimates of deaths in the tens of thousands in this attack. We'll know how bad it was in a week or so; it always looks worse than it really is right in the middle of a crises.