Media Player Classic. Just keep repeating those words. Open source, free, faster, more versatile, and just plain better! One media player to rule them all!
Thanks for the pointer. Just downloaded it, tried it. My current beef is that I can't find a media player/codec combination that will run on Windows and play back DVB-T (Terrestrial digital tv) files grabbed from a DVB-T PCI card in a Gentoo linux box. Every windows player, including this one, can't handle the files. (I wanna make a home-grown PVR with digital free-to-air tv and a linux box, but I can't sell the idea to She Who Must Be Obeyed until the content can be played back, at will, with a Windaz box). I'm open to suggestion.
for the record, I sacrificed a box to the evil WMP9 today, and even that couldn't handle DVB-TS streams:-/
Did somebody point a gun at them and force them to use common components between IE and the explorer shell? Sure, it might make things easier for them
Hey, colour me a cynic, but I don't think all those common components and un-uninstallable stuff does make it easier for them. I reckon it probably makes things a *heap* more complicated than simple discrete applications would be.
What it does do is help make their OS more restrictive, more anti-competitive, and more difficult for end-users to exercise a bit of free will.
As an earlier poster said, Microsoft are convicted monopolists, they do stuff the hard way to further their monopoly. They're too dumb to see how good it could be for them if they played nice, and folks actually liked them.
That'll only force people to build upon non-MS operating systems, such as Linux or MacOS.
Speaking-o which, any new news on that rumour that Apple were going to port the OSX gui to run on the x86 version of Darwin?
I have no particular motivation to change to the Macintosh platform, but golly-gee-by-jingoes, if I could buy OSX for the x86, I'd be there like a rat up a drainpipe. I'd pay money for it too!
That kinda thing would certainly put the wind right the hell up Billy Boy and his cronies too.
This is my personal favourite. NASA's reply to the troll. Basically, they call him a "roaring fucktard" in fifteen different ways, all of them polite, and all of them effectively telling him to 'go to hell' in such a way that he'll look forward to the trip. Awesome!
Gotta give this guy credit... I mean, people troll slashdot and usenet every day of the week, but this dude is trolling the US Federal Court, *AND* NASA, in one fell swoop!:-)
This smells like exactly the same business model that the mob who made the cueCats came up with, and failed dismally at. This tims around is different though, because back in the cue cat days, you 'mericans didn't have a DMCA to deal with.
I like those little cue cats, they're really usefull. I have one here on my desk at work, and several at home too. When we have projects that use lots of forms, I write-up code that lets the data entry folks scan in the answers with bad codes, etc. Lots o fun.
Another point (back to the cameras) that occurrs to me is that the DMCA doesn't stop those of us who mirrored the site and the software from sticking it online somewhere else in the world '-)
I don't know if proximity SMS spamming is common in Europe, but to me, an American, it was quite novel.
I got it the last couple-o times I stepped off an aeroplane in Singapore and Hong Kong. Made a point of replying to them. Words to the effect of "thanks for your unsolicited 'welcome' to your country. As per your implied request, you have been added to my 'absolutely do not buy from you or your advertisers under any circumstances' list. f*ck you very much... [blah][blah] I'll be picking me another GSM provider from the list my telephone has just offered up... bfn..."
I do the same thing with fax-spammers... email/fax-them-back, even call them with voice if I have to to get the point across. Basic deal with me is make it very clear that I'm not buying your product specifically because you chose to spam me, notwithstanding that I'd be a high-likelihood potential customer for your product otherwise.
It's a personal policy thing. I don't buy from spammers, ever.
If someone is already in the store they are less likely to walk straight out again.
Colour me more likely maybe, but I'm a big one for walking right out when the 'mood' changes. I have no issue with turning my back and walking out on a human salesdroid who pushes the wrong buttons *even* when the droid works for the store with the best price and/or the last stock in the land. I have no more issue with doing zactly the same for a bluedroid who pulls the same stunt.
Man, if this were usenet, I'd be posting you to alt.humor.best-of-usenet already. As it stands, I'm just gonna beg those with points to mod you +7 Funny. (Oh, and you owe me a keyboard, you bitch... one without beer and snot sprayed all through it!!!)
Yes, my university uses Chalk, a product by Blackboard. It was deployed last year, and horrified us all. I will grant that, to the best of my knowlege, no open-source alternative exists, but to say that this is supposedly quality software is mind-boggling.
ACK. We use the same crapola, a rose by any other name as it were. Called "*university acronym*Online" where I work.
There are several alternatives, I've stumbled across many whilst freshmeating for other stuff. No names spring to mind and, since I'm on my time right now, you'll have to email me in the morning to get me to search them out for you! (we education/gummint employees, such lazy lazy freaks!). One in particular looked like a very good alternative. Search. There are options that suck far less than Blackboard does.
A person (or persons) who drives (rams - uses the car to break the window and/or security gates) a car (usually not their own) through the front window of a shop that sells jewelry (sp?), electronic good, or other expensive stuff, loads the car up with said expensive goodies, and does the Harry[1]. They like the fast cars, because they can outrun the police.
[1]"The Harry" == "a runner", "the bolt", "the harry holt bolt" - named for the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt who, one day, when swimming at a seaside beach somewhere in Australia, and was never seen again. True story.(ie: he did the bolt, a runner!)
For whatever reason, no, they don't. I see a lot of stuff about US State cops kitting themselves out with proceeds from crime, etc, etc. That doesn't happen here - proceeds from crime go straight back into gummint coffers.
At various times they have dabbled with whatever was the latest/greatest/fastest. 10-15 years ago, when the Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo was the dogs nuts of fast small cars, the police in my state (NSW) got a few of them and let the Highway Patrol group use them. Apparently the Cordia went fast in a straight line, but couldn't go around corners particularly well. They quietly and quickly dissapeared.
More recently, the aforementioned Subaru Impreza WRX made an appearance. I saw a couple of those painted up in police colours in active use just a few years ago. Again, they have quietly dissapeared from the scene, dunno why.
Somehow, I always picture them having souped-up V8's with 'INTERCEPTOR' printed on the back...
Well, you're close-ish to the truth. NSW police have pretty much always had the Holden Commodore and/or the Ford Falcon (sorry, lots of evil javascript and flash there, couldn't find an alternative) de jour. They're low quality, fuel guzzling Australian built hunks-o-junk, but the manufacturers have probably backed the government into a support-local-industry corner, and they're probably only paying three-fiddy apiece for them (that's all they're worth!!!).
Both of those cars have a V8 in the model range, and I think the Highway Patrol at least get V8s. Most of the common-or-garden police cars I see around at the moment seem to be Holden Commodores, but Ford have an 'SV6' and 'SV8' model, gofasta ones that they're using in some police applications. No "Intruders" tho!
Here, I googled, and found a few pictures...
This is a pretty standard NSW Police card right now. (a holden commondoor)
This is an example of a Subaru Impreza WRX in NSW Police colours...
... In fact, several (5-6-ish?) years ago, I made enquiries with insurance companies about premiums and conditions to cover a (then) late model Subaru ImprezaWRX car. (The Impreza WRX has the dubious distinction of being very popular with ram raiders, etc, in Australia because it is wideley known to be able to outrun anything the Police have. It's popular enough that a bunch of guys tried to steal one from it's owner and passenger at gunpoint just this week)
Anyhoo, most insurance companies either flat-out weren't interested in covering the car, or asked for incredibly high premiums. One *did* offer a premium in-line with other similar cars *but* with the condition that I have satellite tracking fitted by one of a couple of companies nominated by them. IIRC, at the time, the cost of installing the kit would have been circa AUD$1000-$1500. There was an annual monitoring fee too, don't remember what it was, but it was at least a couple-o hundred bucks.
This whole business of locating a car, waiting for the police to catch up, then disabling the vehicle at a point when the orificer on the scene advises that it is safe to do so is something that has been advertised in car/bike 'enthusiast' circles here for quite some time.
I give it 48 hours before Apple shoves a C&D right up their ass.
Why go to all the hassle and bad publicity of a C&D when, with a little extra effort, they could just quietly refuse to sell gift certificates to anyone who orders more than a couple at a time, or just pull the gift certificate product altogether for a month or so. Anyone want to take bets on it happening that way?
In other news, does anyone know of a web-based manager for/etc/aliases where I can give users accounts, and allow them to create their own entries in/etc/aliases, etc. Something like ulimit.com/en?? Ta.
We didn't accept the return. I explained that my supplier would laugh me out of business if I tried to return it with chisel marks.
I came in at the funny end of a hard disk DSAA (Dead Shortly After Arrival) story a few years back. Cuntstomer bought a new HDD from the computer story where SWMBO worked. Took it home, set stuff up. HDD went unserviceable within a day or so. Just plain bad luck in that respect..
Unfortunately, aforementioned cuntstomer had a Friend Who Knows About Computers(tm) handy. Somehow or other, the FWKAC managed to convince him that he could recover the data by opening the disk.
Trouble was, the disk didn't have common-or-garden phillips head screws, it used some new-fangle torx thingamy. No problem, FWKAC simply took to it with a battery powered drill, and drilled out the torx screws to get the case open.
A bit like a dog chasing a car I suspect - no idea what he was going to do with it when he got it open.
Anyway, the after all this, the cuntstomer brought the disk back expecting warranty replacement.
Owner of the shop was an astute, but somewhat unorthodox HK Chinese cum New Zealander cum Australian (and last time anyone checked, living in China). He took one look at it all, and laughed. Right in the cuntstomer's face.
And laughed. And laughed, and laughed. Funniest effing thing that any of us had ever seen. History doesn't record the cuntstomer's reaction, but it does state that he didn't get his warranty replacement.
shall not - according to the manual - be used in the shower or bathtub...
That's my Stupid Sign Theory(tm). The reason that really stupid sign/instruction manual is there is because some stupid bastard actually tried it already.
I'm not your mate, and it's not absolute rubbish. Much of the defensive hoo-haa that you're spouting is though.
> I work for Local Government in Queensland, and up until recently worked in the information management department, mostly dealing with privacy obligations and freedom of information.
So you work(ed) in a non-customer-facing area, yet you're an authority on the behaviour of *all* customer-facing government employees, Australia-wide?
By law, they are required (and do) provide their own name if asked. What they cannot do,
Law, shmaw. What you *think* your staff are doing, what they're doing when they know you're watching them and/or monitoring their calls, and what they're *actually* doing in real life are three very very different things.
You seem quite confused about this so-called mantra of "Oh, I can't tell you that, for privacy reasons"
I'm not at all confused actually. I'm very aware of the way customer-facing government employees behave, at all levels of government, particularly when they know what they're doing, or the advice they're giving isn't strictly kosher and/or they're dodging work.
Get a Telstra employee on the phone and ask him something he doesn't know. When he gives you an answer that is plainly wrong, ask him for his name. The answer will be "I can't tell you that." or alternatively, "I don't have to tell you that". Ask him why, he'll say "for privacy reasons". Ask to speak to his manager, and his manager will either be out of the office right now, or the line will suddenly drop.
Also, your attack stating that this mantra is dragged out every time somebody feels "backed into a corner or when they might be held accountable for their actions", leads me to believe that not only were you obviously asking for information you have no right to be made privvy to, but were probably quite combatative when dealing with the customer service staff anyway.
In your best customer-focused approach, you're trying very hard to make me the bad guy. Fact is, no-one needs to back any customer-facing government employee into a corner to prompt their standard run-of-the-mill behaviour. It happens, everywhere, every day, with all customer-facing government and quasi-government employees.
The key is accountability. When you're not standing over your staff with a big stick, they're busy fighting like mad to run accountability out of town (for privacy reasons, of course).
as it only applies to disclosing information on other people or their dealings with the government.
It applies in all situations where the current customer-facing staff member (a) isn't being directly monitored by a senior, and (b) they're being asked to provide some degree of accountability for their actions.
By law, all police are required to provide their own details if asked, and all government staff, whether behind the counter or out dealing with the public directly are required to display correct identification at all times.
Sadly, your vision is clouded by the law. "By Law" is another convenient little accountability dodger. I know all about the law, and what you people are *supposed* to do. I also know that police working alone at night on country roads handing out unwarranted and or illegal infringement notices will be very careful to obscure that name badge with a hand or a notepad or something for the course of the interaction with the 'customer'. I know that telephone
lines suddenly become unreliable when accountability is called into play, and I know that bad decisions suddenly get relaxed when lazy and incompetent customer-facing government employees are asked to account for their actions.
You can sit in your dark little office and convince yourself, and probably even convince the Minister, that because The Law says your people are giving out their names, they are, and that because The Law says the
We need only ensure that the public has the same oversight tools as the government to ensure that the watchers don't overstep their bounds.
Here in Australia, all local, state, and federal government departments have a mantra that they repeat verbatim every time they feel they're being backed into a corner, or they might in some way be held accountable for their actions.... Here, any time you ask for the name of the person advising you over the counter, or the ID of the Police Officer who just stopped you in the street, or the name of a parking cop who just wrote you a dodgy ticket, or the call-centre rep who just overcharged you on a telephone service, they all bring out their little mantra...
Oh, I can't tell you that, for privacy reasons
That phrase is the Australian Public Servant's Get Out of Jail Free card, and you'd better believe, they use it at every available opportunity. No watching the watcher in this town, for privacy reasons.
National Geographic aren't exactly the good guys..
on
Watching You
·
· Score: 1
It kinda surprises me that National Geographic will do an article on this subject. Aside from the fact that it's quite a departure from their normal range of subject matter, they also run the risk of being shown up for being well less than squeaky clean in matters of privacy themselves.
I subscribed to National Geographic magazine in late 2002 so that I would receive the magazine for the whole of the 2003 year. I was careful to tick the "don't give my details to anyone" boxes, and I used a variant on my name and mailing address that was unique to them.
So far, the National Geographic Society has sold my personal details to 'Readers Digest', 'Doubleday Books' (a large Australian publisher/viral marketer - rough equivalent for Readers Digest here in Oz), and another third party whose name escapes me.
This behaviour has certainly changed my familiy's perception of the Society. We always held them in high regard, considered them to be above the general riff-raff of magazine publishing and book selling. Turns out, they're just more of the same.
Usually the arrival of the latest National Geographic magazine in our house is met with good-natured squabbles, and competition over who gets to read it first. This month, when it arrived (Here in Australia we've just received the issue with the Saudi story on the front cover), it sat unheeded on the junk mail pile for days before anyone bothered to pick it up. Even then, it only migrated to the bathroom, where it sits beside the toilet. The bubble has certainly burst for National Geographic in this household. They're just common spammers to us now.
They have serious quality issues too: Their packaging assures that magazines often arrive damaged, and at best covered with a sticky gum that is designed to keep the ends of the paper envelope sealed, but in practice releases, then drags gum across the covers of the magazing in transit. Some issues just don't arrive too. February, for example, still hasn't arrived here.
No prize for guessing that my 2003 subscription was my first, and my last.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for the pointer. Just downloaded it, tried it. My current beef is that I can't find a media player/codec combination that will run on Windows and play back DVB-T (Terrestrial digital tv) files grabbed from a DVB-T PCI card in a Gentoo linux box. Every windows player, including this one, can't handle the files. (I wanna make a home-grown PVR with digital free-to-air tv and a linux box, but I can't sell the idea to She Who Must Be Obeyed until the content can be played back, at will, with a Windaz box). I'm open to suggestion.
for the record, I sacrificed a box to the evil WMP9 today, and even that couldn't handle DVB-TS streams :-/
Hey, colour me a cynic, but I don't think all those common components and un-uninstallable stuff does make it easier for them. I reckon it probably makes things a *heap* more complicated than simple discrete applications would be.
What it does do is help make their OS more restrictive, more anti-competitive, and more difficult for end-users to exercise a bit of free will.
As an earlier poster said, Microsoft are convicted monopolists, they do stuff the hard way to further their monopoly. They're too dumb to see how good it could be for them if they played nice, and folks actually liked them.
Speaking-o which, any new news on that rumour that Apple were going to port the OSX gui to run on the x86 version of Darwin?
I have no particular motivation to change to the Macintosh platform, but golly-gee-by-jingoes, if I could buy OSX for the x86, I'd be there like a rat up a drainpipe. I'd pay money for it too!
That kinda thing would certainly put the wind right the hell up Billy Boy and his cronies too.
He's got balls the size of 433 Eros.
I like those little cue cats, they're really usefull. I have one here on my desk at work, and several at home too. When we have projects that use lots of forms, I write-up code that lets the data entry folks scan in the answers with bad codes, etc. Lots o fun.
Another point (back to the cameras) that occurrs to me is that the DMCA doesn't stop those of us who mirrored the site and the software from sticking it online somewhere else in the world '-)
I got it the last couple-o times I stepped off an aeroplane in Singapore and Hong Kong. Made a point of replying to them. Words to the effect of "thanks for your unsolicited 'welcome' to your country. As per your implied request, you have been added to my 'absolutely do not buy from you or your advertisers under any circumstances' list. f*ck you very much... [blah][blah] I'll be picking me another GSM provider from the list my telephone has just offered up... bfn..."
I do the same thing with fax-spammers... email/fax-them-back, even call them with voice if I have to to get the point across. Basic deal with me is make it very clear that I'm not buying your product specifically because you chose to spam me, notwithstanding that I'd be a high-likelihood potential customer for your product otherwise.
It's a personal policy thing. I don't buy from spammers, ever.
Colour me more likely maybe, but I'm a big one for walking right out when the 'mood' changes. I have no issue with turning my back and walking out on a human salesdroid who pushes the wrong buttons *even* when the droid works for the store with the best price and/or the last stock in the land. I have no more issue with doing zactly the same for a bluedroid who pulls the same stunt.
Man, if this were usenet, I'd be posting you to alt.humor.best-of-usenet already. As it stands, I'm just gonna beg those with points to mod you +7 Funny. (Oh, and you owe me a keyboard, you bitch... one without beer and snot sprayed all through it!!!)
ACK. We use the same crapola, a rose by any other name as it were. Called "*university acronym*Online" where I work.
There are several alternatives, I've stumbled across many whilst freshmeating for other stuff. No names spring to mind and, since I'm on my time right now, you'll have to email me in the morning to get me to search them out for you! (we education/gummint employees, such lazy lazy freaks!). One in particular looked like a very good alternative. Search. There are options that suck far less than Blackboard does.
A person (or persons) who drives (rams - uses the car to break the window and/or security gates) a car (usually not their own) through the front window of a shop that sells jewelry (sp?), electronic good, or other expensive stuff, loads the car up with said expensive goodies, and does the Harry[1]. They like the fast cars, because they can outrun the police.
[1]"The Harry" == "a runner", "the bolt", "the harry holt bolt" - named for the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt who, one day, when swimming at a seaside beach somewhere in Australia, and was never seen again. True story.(ie: he did the bolt, a runner!)
For whatever reason, no, they don't. I see a lot of stuff about US State cops kitting themselves out with proceeds from crime, etc, etc. That doesn't happen here - proceeds from crime go straight back into gummint coffers.
At various times they have dabbled with whatever was the latest/greatest/fastest. 10-15 years ago, when the Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo was the dogs nuts of fast small cars, the police in my state (NSW) got a few of them and let the Highway Patrol group use them. Apparently the Cordia went fast in a straight line, but couldn't go around corners particularly well. They quietly and quickly dissapeared.
More recently, the aforementioned Subaru Impreza WRX made an appearance. I saw a couple of those painted up in police colours in active use just a few years ago. Again, they have quietly dissapeared from the scene, dunno why.
Somehow, I always picture them having souped-up V8's with 'INTERCEPTOR' printed on the back...
Well, you're close-ish to the truth. NSW police have pretty much always had the Holden Commodore and/or the Ford Falcon (sorry, lots of evil javascript and flash there, couldn't find an alternative) de jour. They're low quality, fuel guzzling Australian built hunks-o-junk, but the manufacturers have probably backed the government into a support-local-industry corner, and they're probably only paying three-fiddy apiece for them (that's all they're worth!!!).
Both of those cars have a V8 in the model range, and I think the Highway Patrol at least get V8s. Most of the common-or-garden police cars I see around at the moment seem to be Holden Commodores, but Ford have an 'SV6' and 'SV8' model, gofasta ones that they're using in some police applications. No "Intruders" tho!
Here, I googled, and found a few pictures...
This is a pretty standard NSW Police card right now. (a holden commondoor)
This is an example of a Subaru Impreza WRX in NSW Police colours...
An old Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo
They just keep going back to Commodores and Falcons though...
I think this, 'QuikTrak', was one of the companies that the insurance mob pointed me to...
Also, a year-old story from the Sydney Morning Herald on a carjacked porsche recovered within 30 mins with satellite doo-da's...
Anyhoo, most insurance companies either flat-out weren't interested in covering the car, or asked for incredibly high premiums. One *did* offer a premium in-line with other similar cars *but* with the condition that I have satellite tracking fitted by one of a couple of companies nominated by them. IIRC, at the time, the cost of installing the kit would have been circa AUD$1000-$1500. There was an annual monitoring fee too, don't remember what it was, but it was at least a couple-o hundred bucks.
This whole business of locating a car, waiting for the police to catch up, then disabling the vehicle at a point when the orificer on the scene advises that it is safe to do so is something that has been advertised in car/bike 'enthusiast' circles here for quite some time.
Yes yes, you did....
It's fairly unique.
It's for a niche market.
Supplies are limited (as in, one supplier makes it).
Profit!!!
Uhm, 'cos you can't buy food on paypal, and all that money was burning a hole in his pocket? It's gotta be spent somehow!!!
Why go to all the hassle and bad publicity of a C&D when, with a little extra effort, they could just quietly refuse to sell gift certificates to anyone who orders more than a couple at a time, or just pull the gift certificate product altogether for a month or so. Anyone want to take bets on it happening that way?
In other news, does anyone know of a web-based manager for /etc/aliases where I can give users accounts, and allow them to create their own entries in /etc/aliases, etc. Something like ulimit.com/en?? Ta.
You reckon? Fourth or fifth comment down the page says this... You ultra-suck, you copy-pasting foo'. Seen it, dumped it.
ARIA = Australian Recording Industry Association (or words to that effect)
I came in at the funny end of a hard disk DSAA (Dead Shortly After Arrival) story a few years back. Cuntstomer bought a new HDD from the computer story where SWMBO worked. Took it home, set stuff up. HDD went unserviceable within a day or so. Just plain bad luck in that respect..
Unfortunately, aforementioned cuntstomer had a Friend Who Knows About Computers(tm) handy. Somehow or other, the FWKAC managed to convince him that he could recover the data by opening the disk.
Trouble was, the disk didn't have common-or-garden phillips head screws, it used some new-fangle torx thingamy. No problem, FWKAC simply took to it with a battery powered drill, and drilled out the torx screws to get the case open.
A bit like a dog chasing a car I suspect - no idea what he was going to do with it when he got it open.
Anyway, the after all this, the cuntstomer brought the disk back expecting warranty replacement.
Owner of the shop was an astute, but somewhat unorthodox HK Chinese cum New Zealander cum Australian (and last time anyone checked, living in China). He took one look at it all, and laughed. Right in the cuntstomer's face.
And laughed. And laughed, and laughed. Funniest effing thing that any of us had ever seen. History doesn't record the cuntstomer's reaction, but it does state that he didn't get his warranty replacement.
7+ years later, we're all still laughing.
That's my Stupid Sign Theory(tm). The reason that really stupid sign/instruction manual is there is because some stupid bastard actually tried it already.
"Do not return used condom to manufacturer"
That's *my* personal favourite!
I'm not your mate, and it's not absolute rubbish. Much of the defensive hoo-haa that you're spouting is though.
> I work for Local Government in Queensland, and up until recently worked in the information management department, mostly dealing with privacy obligations and freedom of information.
So you work(ed) in a non-customer-facing area, yet you're an authority on the behaviour of *all* customer-facing government employees, Australia-wide?
By law, they are required (and do) provide their own name if asked. What they cannot do,
Law, shmaw. What you *think* your staff are doing, what they're doing when they know you're watching them and/or monitoring their calls, and what they're *actually* doing in real life are three very very different things.
You seem quite confused about this so-called mantra of "Oh, I can't tell you that, for privacy reasons"
I'm not at all confused actually. I'm very aware of the way customer-facing government employees behave, at all levels of government, particularly when they know what they're doing, or the advice they're giving isn't strictly kosher and/or they're dodging work.
Get a Telstra employee on the phone and ask him something he doesn't know. When he gives you an answer that is plainly wrong, ask him for his name. The answer will be "I can't tell you that." or alternatively, "I don't have to tell you that". Ask him why, he'll say "for privacy reasons". Ask to speak to his manager, and his manager will either be out of the office right now, or the line will suddenly drop.
Also, your attack stating that this mantra is dragged out every time somebody feels "backed into a corner or when they might be held accountable for their actions", leads me to believe that not only were you obviously asking for information you have no right to be made privvy to, but were probably quite combatative when dealing with the customer service staff anyway.
In your best customer-focused approach, you're trying very hard to make me the bad guy. Fact is, no-one needs to back any customer-facing government employee into a corner to prompt their standard run-of-the-mill behaviour. It happens, everywhere, every day, with all customer-facing government and quasi-government employees.
The key is accountability. When you're not standing over your staff with a big stick, they're busy fighting like mad to run accountability out of town (for privacy reasons, of course).
as it only applies to disclosing information on other people or their dealings with the government.
It applies in all situations where the current customer-facing staff member (a) isn't being directly monitored by a senior, and (b) they're being asked to provide some degree of accountability for their actions.
By law, all police are required to provide their own details if asked, and all government staff, whether behind the counter or out dealing with the public directly are required to display correct identification at all times.
Sadly, your vision is clouded by the law. "By Law" is another convenient little accountability dodger. I know all about the law, and what you people are *supposed* to do. I also know that police working alone at night on country roads handing out unwarranted and or illegal infringement notices will be very careful to obscure that name badge with a hand or a notepad or something for the course of the interaction with the 'customer'. I know that telephone lines suddenly become unreliable when accountability is called into play, and I know that bad decisions suddenly get relaxed when lazy and incompetent customer-facing government employees are asked to account for their actions.
You can sit in your dark little office and convince yourself, and probably even convince the Minister, that because The Law says your people are giving out their names, they are, and that because The Law says the
Here in Australia, all local, state, and federal government departments have a mantra that they repeat verbatim every time they feel they're being backed into a corner, or they might in some way be held accountable for their actions.... Here, any time you ask for the name of the person advising you over the counter, or the ID of the Police Officer who just stopped you in the street, or the name of a parking cop who just wrote you a dodgy ticket, or the call-centre rep who just overcharged you on a telephone service, they all bring out their little mantra...
Oh, I can't tell you that, for privacy reasons
That phrase is the Australian Public Servant's Get Out of Jail Free card, and you'd better believe, they use it at every available opportunity. No watching the watcher in this town, for privacy reasons.
I subscribed to National Geographic magazine in late 2002 so that I would receive the magazine for the whole of the 2003 year. I was careful to tick the "don't give my details to anyone" boxes, and I used a variant on my name and mailing address that was unique to them.
So far, the National Geographic Society has sold my personal details to 'Readers Digest', 'Doubleday Books' (a large Australian publisher/viral marketer - rough equivalent for Readers Digest here in Oz), and another third party whose name escapes me.
This behaviour has certainly changed my familiy's perception of the Society. We always held them in high regard, considered them to be above the general riff-raff of magazine publishing and book selling. Turns out, they're just more of the same.
Usually the arrival of the latest National Geographic magazine in our house is met with good-natured squabbles, and competition over who gets to read it first. This month, when it arrived (Here in Australia we've just received the issue with the Saudi story on the front cover), it sat unheeded on the junk mail pile for days before anyone bothered to pick it up. Even then, it only migrated to the bathroom, where it sits beside the toilet. The bubble has certainly burst for National Geographic in this household. They're just common spammers to us now.
They have serious quality issues too: Their packaging assures that magazines often arrive damaged, and at best covered with a sticky gum that is designed to keep the ends of the paper envelope sealed, but in practice releases, then drags gum across the covers of the magazing in transit. Some issues just don't arrive too. February, for example, still hasn't arrived here.
No prize for guessing that my 2003 subscription was my first, and my last.