Well, clearly the laws must be differenty in those two states. Try that with MA, and if you get a response at all it will be the sound of distant, riotous laughter from Boston.
I don't think I could make such a claim stick. Even though my tax home was in Nevada, I did rent a place in Mass during my stay at Motorola. I believe they could make a case that I had a nexus with the State, and make it stick. Not like my stint with California, where I did the work in Nevada for California companies.
But I may get another chance, and this time I'll do the work from this side of the Rockies. If Mass wants to confiscate my money, they can try. I've never tried to appear in proper person in US District Court before...:)
In fact, any state can tax you, representation or not. For example, I live in New Hampshire but have to pay income tax in MA because I work there. The fact that I have no representation in MA doesn't make a damn bit of difference to them, they're happy to take my money without giveng me any say in how it's spent.
Well, I got about $1,500 back from California, from the Franchise Tax Board, when I was working in that state but living in Nevada. (Still do, as long-time SlashDot readers know from my postings.) How did I do it?
"You are making me pay state income tax. Please tell me where I vote, and who my representative is."
I would like more information on these so-called "strip joints" in Reno. Are they cheaper than California too?
There are four "adult entertainment" places north of the Virginia Street Casinoplex that I'm aware of. There's The Men's Club in downtown (it's advertised in the airport terminal walkways), Fantasy Girls (features full nudity) on 4th Street, a hole in the wall called Spice House that also features full nudity but far more intimate about it, and a real dive on Mill Street that's interesting because it's so bad. There are other places listed in the telephone book that I didn't know existed, as well as outcall services -- be damn careful about those, you could get into medical and legal trouble with them.
Many of the girls that dance in Reno are UNR students working their way through college. Some are drifters who needed a way to make money, and their bodies was about the only asset they have. Some just enjoy being exhibitionistic, and this is a legal way to flash themselves.
Then there are, um, "other" places that might be of interest, if you like to be up close and personal about it, and can afford it.
Seriously, you make a compelling case, but why would you WANT more Californians to move near you?:-)
Because some of my best friends are Californians?
Ok, enough jokes. We could use the business here in Nevada. The state is working very hard to diversify its economy. The gaming [gambling] focus is becoming a losing game, because of the rise of Indian [Native American] gaming and the growth of casinos in more and more states. We've played for 140 or so years, and it's time to grow up.
Also, if more Californians move to the Sierras and stay here full time, they might learn how to drive on snow and ice. I'm tired of hauling out my shovel to dig out yet another California-plate car out of the snowdrift, especially when it's an SUV with some of the best tires available. My poor Jeep Cherokee is running on POS tires the prior owner picked up at a fire sale, but I don't end up with snow up my crankshaft.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Intel VP who lives in Incline Village didn't have to commute to Santa Clara? Less pollution, less wear and tear on his car, and his family could see more of him. Win Win Win all around, except for Santa Clara, I guess.
The final answer: nothing wrong with Californians once they understand that Mama don't live here, and you have to pick up your own toys.
an interesting effect would be to see allot of E-Tailers move out of California if this were enacted.
Maybe say to Oregon or Texas, just somewhere more buisness friendly.
Then they would be screwed out of alot more than sales tax.
San Francisco considers the Sierras "their" playground, so why not move closer to where you play? Nevada welcomes any and all e-business. Indeed, there is a pool of high-tech workers already in place, sufficient housing that is considerably less expensive for employees that move with the companies, crime rates that compare very favorably when compared with the Bay area (for example, there have been seven murders where I live in the past 11 years), an international airport that is underutilized right now, and Internet bandwidth almost for the asking. South Reno is where many e-tailers have already set up shop...but there is plenty of room for more.
One reason that some e-tailers came here is that Nevada has no reciprocal arrangement with any other state regarding sales tax. (Don't believe me. Check it out for yourself.) With less than 2 percent of the population of the United States, our sales tax situation is much more friendly. Instead of hundreds or thousands of taxable areas to track, you only have to worry about 17 areas -- the Nevada counties. Out of state taxes? Right now, you don't sweat it if you are completely in Nevada. Let the other states deal with the problem as they see fit. Until the Feds step in, don't expect Nevada to force the burden of collecting other states' taxes on you. (But get rid of all ties to all other states to make this work.)
The body of Nevada law is MUCH simpler, and the taxes are low. (Governer Quinn is trying to raise business taxes, but the level is nowhere near where California has staked a claim on yourrevenue.) Traffic jams? Where?
The advantage that Reno/Sparks/Carson has over Las Vegas/Henderson is that we don't have an upcoming water shortage. That makes Reno more attractive to businesses currently in the Southland who want to move east to avoid Sacramento's nose in their tent.
Think Reno is too expensive? Consider Carson City. Fallon (Amazon.com and the Navy did). And other places in the Silver State.
If you are worried about the morals of Reno and vicinity, you need not be. During the past decade, the southern part of Reno has become family-friendly. For example, by law there are no brothals in Washoe County, and the "strip joints" are all in the northern, industrial part of the city. There are some parts of Reno where Bay area people would feel right at home, as we have many of the same chain stores and amenities -- but in addition our houses have open space and lawns, instead of the alleys that characterize many of the housing developments in places like Mountain View or the "row houses" of 19th Avenue. You can find schools in which the parents have a lot of say in what is taught in them. Parks? Yes. Ask a Realtor for more information on what Reno and vicinity has for the kids.
If you are rich and clean, consider coming to my home, Lake Tahoe, to set up shop. Incline Village has many people like me just waiting for you to bring your business and succeed. Or, if you prefer a louder lifestyle, consider coming around Wayne Newton's land on the East side of the lake and give Stateline and Zepher Cove a look-see.
It's four hours from where you are now (less if you are on the East side of the Bay) so you can still easily go to the places you know and love, and see the friends that decide to stay behind.
All you have to lose are the individual income tax payments -- Nevada has a personal income tax rate of 0.000%, and even the current Governer isn't asking for a change in that tax rate. Sales taxes are less, at 6.0-7.5% throughout the state. Property taxes are less than those in the Bay area or Los Angeles, according to people who own houses here and "there".
Could someone also explain why releasing the same virus on a weekday would have blocked access to 911?
Sounds a lot like unfounded scaremongering by people who should know a lot better to me. 911 not only runs on a separate network (telephone != internet), but is just as busy on a Saturday (if not more so) than weekdays.
Part of the problem is that writers write one thing and editors try to "tighten up" the verbage by removing words, and sometimes they end up changing the meaning. The article talked about the back end of E911, the communication of needs to the service people. Slammer/Sapphire could block the communication because many systems now use VPN over the Internet (DSL or fract T1) to eliminate the cost of point-to-point leased circuits. This is especially important when you have co-operative responses from resources in neighboring areas. (Think forest fires, for example).
Now, the rumor-mongering involved here is that the primary method of communication would be blocked. Nothing prevents an E911 operator from picking up a phone and dialling to the dispatcher for the necessary resource, but it slows response and reduces the number of calls the E911 operator can handle.
As for Saturday vs. Weekend, the article was referring to applications using the Internet that would have been affected, specifically on-line stock trading. The markets are closed on the weekends.
I'm one of those people who have had several "careers" during his career, and until the current economic downturn I was able to slide where the work was. I started in embedded programming, moved to technical writing, managed a QA group, built and ran a couple of testing labs, got into the software publishing business, and right now I'm a product maintenance and tech support specialist and part-time security guard (two jobs).
My choice? Not really. Companies kept dying on me, and I would have to move on. [This is nothing unusual when you are at the "bleeding edge" of a field -- I've heard the refrain time and time again as friends/colleagues tell about their experiences, "...and then IT died!"] In most cases, I was able to recognize the leading indicators of impending job expiration and "jump ship" before the blow landed. (In one case, Black Friday happened three weeks after I left a company; management there got sticky about recognizing my contributions...and the reason was that the parent company was dropping the axe on the subsidiary and didn't want to bother.)
In spite of all this, I have received exactly one unemployment check, and that because I didn't act quickly enough before being pink-slipped by a company positioning itself to be purchased -- and the company suffered a near-death experience only to rise Phoenix-like in the UK a few years later -- but not with me anywhere near it.
Unlike a number of my colleagues, I didn't job-hop per se; I tended to stay as long as the company, or project, stayed alive.
One bad effect: the deaths of so many of the companies I worked for left me with no pension, none at all. This was before the days of IRAs and other instruments of retirement benefits that follow the employee even with the demise of the company that offered them. Because I followed the call of the job and not of money, the coffers are not exactly bulging at the moment. Indeed, when you strike the side of the money tank, the ring lasts for a long, long time...
Today, I'm told I'm too old. Oh, no one wants an age discrimination suit, so they don't say it right out loud, but I get the message anyway. So I continue to chase the crumbs and send in resumes, waiting for the day that I have to auction everything off and try a nomadic lifestyle.
Retirement? I don't think so.
Can one find a lifetime career in IT? Don't bet on it.
Sysadmins who have been running "mostly-open" filter configurations may want to consider moving to a "mostly-closed" configuration: deny everything except services that have been cleared for use. Don't allow arbitrary connections.
Anyone who claims to be a "sysadmin" worth a damn should be doing this already.
Oh, boy. Is this ever a religious argument. There are sysadmins out there who are afraid to block any port because of customer backlash when "their" favorite port is blocked. I recall a CCIPP certified network guy who lambasted me for running a mostly-closed configuration at a conference -- he wanted to use SSL on an alternate port, and HATED it when I blocked access to it. (Further details withheld intentionally.)
Then there are people who will not use ISPs who block ports, for whatever reason. "'Internet service' means 'internet service', not 'some internet service.' DON'T BLOCK MY PORTS. If I need protection, I'll buy 'Depends'." And so forth.
That's part of the nature of the marketplace, so don't go blasting the competence of sysadmins who, for business reasons, have to do something they would rather not do. He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules.
(Damn, that's what I get for running out of coffee this morning.)
Zero defects is not an attainable goal; it's too expensive and no one wants to pay for it.
This article shows just what happens when you expect zero defects in the infrastructure of a large organization like Microsoft Corporation. It's not going to happen. And before someone says I'm Microsoft-bashing, I will say that this is true for the vast majority of corporations, universities, foundations, and governments. That would include Sun, IBM, Red Hat, even the *BSD folks and LKML participants.
There is a damn good reason we won't see zero defects: employees are not measured by it. Their survival, pay raises, and promotions are based not on the number of defects they don't have, but on their contribution to the "bottom line." If you preach zero defects as Job One, then prove it by firing the people who generate defects, without exception -- including the CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, and other top brass, when they screw up.
So now that the myth of zero defects has been exposed for what it is, what do we do about it?
System administrators are going to have to re-think their perimeter access controls. This may require router upgrades to add processing power to support additional filtering.
Sysadmins who have been running "mostly-open" filter configurations may want to consider moving to a "mostly-closed" configuration: deny everything except services that have been cleared for use. Don't allow arbitrary connections. Many unknowing MS SQL servers were protected from participating in this little exercise because the firewall upstream of the desktop system wasn't allowing connections to get through, even if the desktop system had a globally-routed Internet address.
Computer mail order houses and computer stores should consider carefully whether they should bundle appropriate software firewall products with the computers they sell. Software configured to require the user to say "Yes, I want to make SQL server available for public access!" before 1433 and 1434 would be open.
We need to ask the reporters and editors of mainstream publications to be more responsible when reporting problems like Sapphire/SQL. The facts were pretty well known, and available to those who tried hard enough to get them even at the height of the packet storm, so that reporters could make their deadlines and get the facts straight. [Names of the guilty withheld, at least for now -- they know who they are.]
Tier 1 and Tier 2 bandwidth providers need to consider modifications to their Acceptable Use Policies to require some basic filtering of packets in both directions. These AUP changes have been discussed before; perhaps now is the time for them to go into effect:
Upstream packet source addresses must be verified at the perimeter such that the packet's return address points to a host in the network, and not to a random IP address or to broadcast addresses
Downstream packet destination addresses must be verified at the perimeter such that the packet is directed to a single host in the network, and not to a random IP address or broadcast address (other than multicast addresses, if such are allowed in the network)
As one drills down the levels of networks, packet source/destination verification must be done at all levels -- no exceptions (the excuse "It costs too much" doesn't wash when you consider that suitable packet filter technologies are available in both *BSD and Linux flavors, running on hardware that costs less than your standard business power lunch for four)
"Small services" (TCP 0:19 and UDP 0:19) must be blocked at the perimeter, both as source and destination ports.
A small number of other, specific ports must be blocked at the perimeter, those ports being identified as services that are intranet in nature instead of "global" services. The specific ports to be blocked should be determined co-operatively to avoid denying essential services to customers.
Encourate the use of VPN for interaction between two separated locations needing the above-mentioned intranet services over the Internet.
Encourage the use of abuse-prevention methods such as Network Address Translation on all circuits [cable operators take note] to block access to those systems that are NOT intended to be servers.
Update the Best Practices RFCs to incorporate some or all of these suggestions, so that Internet operators around the world can participate in solving the problem.
(N.B.: I want to point out that many USA-based cable operators are contributing to the problem by disallowing the use of NAT and VPN technologies in their apparent [alledged] quest to limit the broadband "Internet service product" to browsing and downloading files. I believe that such an attitude contributed to the problem, not the solution. I understand well the technical and business motivations for this, but I also believe that there are (U.S.) national security implications against such a policy. THINK!)
Are any of these ideas new? NO. The only new idea is to have the Lords Of The Internet use their influence over their customers to implement them more widely.
Good fences make good neighbors. The Internet is a neighborhood.
"The lawsuit also demands that buyers and sellers, who use aliases in eBay transactions, register their screen names with the state of California as fictitious business names, and that eBay be forced to collect state sales tax."
OK, I'm stupid, what's a screen name?
All I know is that I have about 20 e-mail addresses distributed over seven domains, and I never engage in any form of on-line e-chat. (Compuserve's CB system cured me of that right quick a number of years ago.)
I suppose that AT&T is about to start marketing a line of electronic locks with key cards, and this FUD about regular locks is part of the plan.
Then you don't know Matt Blaze, do you?
I do know that he has been looking at mechanical locking systems for years, and probably before he was at Bell/AT&T. Matt isn't the only computer-security guy who decided to take a gander at mechanical locks with the eyes of a crypto-analyst and computer counter-cracker.
My neighbor, who is a locksmith, hasn't heard about any AT&T product announcement, so until a press release pops up, I say "BZZZZT. But thanks for playing.!"
If someone jams a New Yorker in Nevada, what are the odds of them finding their way back to NYC without a subway map;-)
Quite good, actually. Y'see, New Yorkers are attracted to light, and the three brightest places are Reno/Sparks, South Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas. Further, we have no NYC-Zappers to trap and kill New Yorkers who stray from the money-traps, although people do have to be wary of the old silver mines with rotting covers that give way when you step on them. (Around Carson City, we lose about two tourists a year to this problem.) There are smaller bright patches (mostly casinos) that might attract a NYCer who is REALLY off track, but all of them contain helpful people in information kisoks that are happy to guide these wanderers back to the path to home -- after emptying all wallets, of course. TANSTAAFL.
Besides, there are so few roads in Nevada that if you get on one, and keep gas in your car, you WILL find clues to get you home to The Great White Way.
If someone transmits a signal on the same frequency that is an order of magnitude stronger, how can they possibly prevent this from interfering?
Just because the jammer is transmitting a signal several orders of magnitude higher than the received signal doesn't mean that the energy from the transmitter is going to fall on all attennas equally at sufficient level to mask the original signal. This is how diversity works to improve audio quality for a moving wireless microphone: each receiver picks up the signal, and you switch to the receiver that has the best quality signal. No reason that you can't have diversity on GPS.
Also remember that the Phrak jammer is sending a white-noise masking signal, which reduces the S/N of the received signal. Depending on how much work you want to do on the receiver, you can still pick out a usable signal from the noise as the SNR approaches 0 dB. In some testing I did with Bell 103 modems, they could discern a signal with an SNR (white noise interferer) of -3dB!
A Question of Trust
on
SVG On the Rise
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Not mentioned anywhere by anyone so far: should we trust Macromedia's plug-in? One reason I don't allow the Flash plug-in to be installed on my computer is that I don't understand everything that it does, and how an author can mis-use the language to do things they shouldn't. Paranoid? Of course.
So I did a search here on the CERT site to see the kinds of headaches that have been reported with Flash. The returned response shows that the plug-in isn't too awful, but still it is bad enough to tilt the scales in my case to not supporting Flash at all, on any platform. YMMV
The same search of the CERT size for "svg" didn't yield anything, but that just means no one has found the hole yet, if there is one. Separating SVG and the multimedia functions means less opportunity for screwing up, or at least confining the exposure of any screwup. Maybe.
Besides, I have yet to find any good use of Flash as a customer -- but then again, I'm a proponent that Web pages should inform, not entertain or mesmorize. Corporate America won't like my attitude, I'm sure.
Fair statement. Many of the general-purpose scripting tools are "c-like", such as PERL, BASH, and even a little JAVA now and then.
For one project, though, the "scripting language" I created was a pure rules-based language system. Another scripting language I created for a project was characterized by a colleague as "looking like DNA descriptions" in creating a series of numeric-control sequences. One scripting language was a direct rip-off of OS/360 Assembler's MACRO facility, because it was the best tool for the job and the audience -- banks.
By the way, LEX and YACC are not C tools. They are language processing tools, with most people emitting C code as the actions of expressions and productions. The underpinnings of Unix implementations of LEX and YACC *are* written in and for C, but that wouldn't stop someone from taking the same language and porting the utilities to target code in COBOL, FORTRAN, ALGOL, or PL/I. Or even LISP. Don't confuse implementation with design.
Ever think how to design a scripting language to provide metadata to generate control files for BIND? I'm working on one in my spare time because I want better automation of DNS management. I know people who use Excel for the purpose, and it sort of works. A scripting language, married to make, would mean that I make a single change to a script file and let the whole thing rip.
I wrote one scripting language to generate random text corpus files for studies of text compression in analog modems. This was BNF-like, but includes elements to indicate liklihood of generation percentages so the generate corpus would have characteristics similar to those in real text. My goal was to come up with near-random text that would have the same compression characteristics as real text in the same language (English, French, Russian, and Italian were the target languages).
I use what works for the job at hand. Free-form syntax (like C, PL/I, ALGOL). Strict line organization (assembler, FORTRAN). Even column-based (RPG, Autocoder).
I am very wary of people that list 20 different languages on their resume, or suggest that they know these languages otherwise. Not that I'm in a position to make hiring decisions right now though.
One of the nice things about knowing and using a number of languages is that you get to pick the right tool for the right job. People like you, Kunta Kinte, seem to believe it's a good thing to limit tools; sometimes just because you have a hammer doesn't mean that everything should resemble a nail. Ever tried to write a compiler in FORTRAN, for example? Ever listen to an MSCE extoll the virtues of a certain company's products for every conceiveable problem?
Now, on my resume I list the "languages" LEX and YACC (lately more Flex/Bison), because I have found that applications-specific scripting languages can improve quality and make maintenance far easier than trying to do everything in, say, C. Many of the projects I work on are tools, not end-user apps, so providing a scripting language suited for the task makes it easy for my customers to concentrate on their jobs instead of how to get my software to do something they really want to do. Even when the scripting language is used exclusively internally, I have found that the quality of the resulting program is far higher because I've removed opportunities to screw up by using a level of abstraction. C++ and other object-oriented languages try to create a one-size-fits-all version of this, but sometimes it's just easier to think about the problem with a more free-form syntax without worring about inheretance issues, constructor/destructor conflicts, garbage collection, and the other baggage that seems to come with now-"traditional" OO programming.
How many environments do you work in? I'm equally at home in the embedded space, personal-computer applications, Web applications, secure e-commerce applications, network stuff, and man-rated programming. Each area has its own set of tools -- why shouldn't I mention them as I'm versed in using them?
Or perhaps you are of the school of "jack of all trades, master of none"? Sorry, I like challanges. I may be 50, but I can still write code. Maybe not as fast, but I'll stack the quality of my code against any person here.
Since [h]e wasn't a lawyer, but rather was in the employ of a lawyer, is it possible for him to violate attorney-client privilege (I honestly don't know)?
The correct answer is "it depends on which state we are talking about." Basic agency/principal law would say that the action of the lawyer's employee would reflect on the lawyer himself/herself, and the disclosure is a clear violation of the canons of virtually every state of the Union. The devil is in the details of the Codes of Conduct of the State Bar Association.
One thing is virtually certain: that lawyer is going to have a very bad start to 2003.
I had the misfortune to try to administrate a DLink DI-614+ using Lynx, and couldn't do it. Indeed, I defy anyone to do it exclusively with ANY text-based browser.
Indeed, I suspect (but haven't tried it yet) that every Web-controlled network device can't be administrated in Lynx or any other text-only browser.
So far. Just wait until spammers start "warspamming". Then they won't even need disposable accounts to dump their spam on the net. (Their web site is usually on another clueless/black hat ISP that denies responsibility because "they didn't send the spam from our network".)
No self-respecting admin would leave port 25 open. Granted, many businesses don't understand the need for a self-respecting admin, let alone pay for one, and so they will find themselves on RBL or some other list.
Frankly, those companies will get what they deserve. Automobile owners who don't fix their brakes, or hire competent mechanics to do so, find themselves with a large settlement when the person on the other side of the accident gets done with them. Why should it be any different for Internet access?
(Ok, I've had too much coffee this morning, and it's strong.)
In reading the opposing (government) brief, I found this interesting point: the CITA was designed to harmonize US Copyright with international copyright. Going back to the original establishment of Federal copyright, the original intent was to unify copyright among the States and common law. The CITA could be argued to continue the tradition by having the United States participate in a world-wide unification of copyright. This means that a content creator would not have to worry as much about the differences between US and European copyright.
Not exactly "something for nothing."
Also, these thoughts are a little late for the government to include in its argument to the court, so I don't feel as though I'm hurting that anti-CITA efforts by discussing them here.
"rest assured that an article from the Economist is worth your time"
Geez, you're not half-pompous, are you?
Actually, in this case I think that Roland is just plain right about the Economist being the best English-language news magazine around today. But then, I've only been writing non-fiction technical articles professionally since 1984, so I doubt that you will give my opinion much credence.
Consider that the Economist articles have far fewer misspelled words and grammer abortions than SlashDot by a wide margin. Never mind the reporting is top-notch.
It's the essence of clear writing, intelligent but not pompous (to use what appears to be your favorite word). Can you do as well?
Slashdot Mirror
And the programmer better have paralegal training so he can read the documents from the 13 lawyers.
I don't think I could make such a claim stick. Even though my tax home was in Nevada, I did rent a place in Mass during my stay at Motorola. I believe they could make a case that I had a nexus with the State, and make it stick. Not like my stint with California, where I did the work in Nevada for California companies.
But I may get another chance, and this time I'll do the work from this side of the Rockies. If Mass wants to confiscate my money, they can try. I've never tried to appear in proper person in US District Court before... :)
Well, I got about $1,500 back from California, from the Franchise Tax Board, when I was working in that state but living in Nevada. (Still do, as long-time SlashDot readers know from my postings.) How did I do it?
"You are making me pay state income tax. Please tell me where I vote, and who my representative is."
I got refund checks three weeks later.
Ah, but is your business rich and clean? By "clean" I mean no nasty exhaust or discharges into the sewers...other than the "usual".
There are four "adult entertainment" places north of the Virginia Street Casinoplex that I'm aware of. There's The Men's Club in downtown (it's advertised in the airport terminal walkways), Fantasy Girls (features full nudity) on 4th Street, a hole in the wall called Spice House that also features full nudity but far more intimate about it, and a real dive on Mill Street that's interesting because it's so bad. There are other places listed in the telephone book that I didn't know existed, as well as outcall services -- be damn careful about those, you could get into medical and legal trouble with them.
Many of the girls that dance in Reno are UNR students working their way through college. Some are drifters who needed a way to make money, and their bodies was about the only asset they have. Some just enjoy being exhibitionistic, and this is a legal way to flash themselves.
Then there are, um, "other" places that might be of interest, if you like to be up close and personal about it, and can afford it.
Because some of my best friends are Californians?
Ok, enough jokes. We could use the business here in Nevada. The state is working very hard to diversify its economy. The gaming [gambling] focus is becoming a losing game, because of the rise of Indian [Native American] gaming and the growth of casinos in more and more states. We've played for 140 or so years, and it's time to grow up.
Also, if more Californians move to the Sierras and stay here full time, they might learn how to drive on snow and ice. I'm tired of hauling out my shovel to dig out yet another California-plate car out of the snowdrift, especially when it's an SUV with some of the best tires available. My poor Jeep Cherokee is running on POS tires the prior owner picked up at a fire sale, but I don't end up with snow up my crankshaft.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Intel VP who lives in Incline Village didn't have to commute to Santa Clara? Less pollution, less wear and tear on his car, and his family could see more of him. Win Win Win all around, except for Santa Clara, I guess.
The final answer: nothing wrong with Californians once they understand that Mama don't live here, and you have to pick up your own toys.
San Francisco considers the Sierras "their" playground, so why not move closer to where you play? Nevada welcomes any and all e-business. Indeed, there is a pool of high-tech workers already in place, sufficient housing that is considerably less expensive for employees that move with the companies, crime rates that compare very favorably when compared with the Bay area (for example, there have been seven murders where I live in the past 11 years), an international airport that is underutilized right now, and Internet bandwidth almost for the asking. South Reno is where many e-tailers have already set up shop...but there is plenty of room for more.
One reason that some e-tailers came here is that Nevada has no reciprocal arrangement with any other state regarding sales tax. (Don't believe me. Check it out for yourself.) With less than 2 percent of the population of the United States, our sales tax situation is much more friendly. Instead of hundreds or thousands of taxable areas to track, you only have to worry about 17 areas -- the Nevada counties. Out of state taxes? Right now, you don't sweat it if you are completely in Nevada. Let the other states deal with the problem as they see fit. Until the Feds step in, don't expect Nevada to force the burden of collecting other states' taxes on you. (But get rid of all ties to all other states to make this work.)
The body of Nevada law is MUCH simpler, and the taxes are low. (Governer Quinn is trying to raise business taxes, but the level is nowhere near where California has staked a claim on yourrevenue.) Traffic jams? Where?
The advantage that Reno/Sparks/Carson has over Las Vegas/Henderson is that we don't have an upcoming water shortage. That makes Reno more attractive to businesses currently in the Southland who want to move east to avoid Sacramento's nose in their tent.
Think Reno is too expensive? Consider Carson City. Fallon (Amazon.com and the Navy did). And other places in the Silver State.
If you are worried about the morals of Reno and vicinity, you need not be. During the past decade, the southern part of Reno has become family-friendly. For example, by law there are no brothals in Washoe County, and the "strip joints" are all in the northern, industrial part of the city. There are some parts of Reno where Bay area people would feel right at home, as we have many of the same chain stores and amenities -- but in addition our houses have open space and lawns, instead of the alleys that characterize many of the housing developments in places like Mountain View or the "row houses" of 19th Avenue. You can find schools in which the parents have a lot of say in what is taught in them. Parks? Yes. Ask a Realtor for more information on what Reno and vicinity has for the kids.
If you are rich and clean, consider coming to my home, Lake Tahoe, to set up shop. Incline Village has many people like me just waiting for you to bring your business and succeed. Or, if you prefer a louder lifestyle, consider coming around Wayne Newton's land on the East side of the lake and give Stateline and Zepher Cove a look-see.
It's four hours from where you are now (less if you are on the East side of the Bay) so you can still easily go to the places you know and love, and see the friends that decide to stay behind.
All you have to lose are the individual income tax payments -- Nevada has a personal income tax rate of 0.000%, and even the current Governer isn't asking for a change in that tax rate. Sales taxes are less, at 6.0-7.5% throughout the state. Property taxes are less than those in the Bay area or Los Angeles, according to people who own houses here and "there".
Check it out. Many ex-SF people live here now.
Part of the problem is that writers write one thing and editors try to "tighten up" the verbage by removing words, and sometimes they end up changing the meaning. The article talked about the back end of E911, the communication of needs to the service people. Slammer/Sapphire could block the communication because many systems now use VPN over the Internet (DSL or fract T1) to eliminate the cost of point-to-point leased circuits. This is especially important when you have co-operative responses from resources in neighboring areas. (Think forest fires, for example).
Now, the rumor-mongering involved here is that the primary method of communication would be blocked. Nothing prevents an E911 operator from picking up a phone and dialling to the dispatcher for the necessary resource, but it slows response and reduces the number of calls the E911 operator can handle.
As for Saturday vs. Weekend, the article was referring to applications using the Internet that would have been affected, specifically on-line stock trading. The markets are closed on the weekends.
I'm one of those people who have had several "careers" during his career, and until the current economic downturn I was able to slide where the work was. I started in embedded programming, moved to technical writing, managed a QA group, built and ran a couple of testing labs, got into the software publishing business, and right now I'm a product maintenance and tech support specialist and part-time security guard (two jobs).
My choice? Not really. Companies kept dying on me, and I would have to move on. [This is nothing unusual when you are at the "bleeding edge" of a field -- I've heard the refrain time and time again as friends/colleagues tell about their experiences, "...and then IT died!"] In most cases, I was able to recognize the leading indicators of impending job expiration and "jump ship" before the blow landed. (In one case, Black Friday happened three weeks after I left a company; management there got sticky about recognizing my contributions...and the reason was that the parent company was dropping the axe on the subsidiary and didn't want to bother.)
In spite of all this, I have received exactly one unemployment check, and that because I didn't act quickly enough before being pink-slipped by a company positioning itself to be purchased -- and the company suffered a near-death experience only to rise Phoenix-like in the UK a few years later -- but not with me anywhere near it.
Unlike a number of my colleagues, I didn't job-hop per se; I tended to stay as long as the company, or project, stayed alive.
One bad effect: the deaths of so many of the companies I worked for left me with no pension, none at all. This was before the days of IRAs and other instruments of retirement benefits that follow the employee even with the demise of the company that offered them. Because I followed the call of the job and not of money, the coffers are not exactly bulging at the moment. Indeed, when you strike the side of the money tank, the ring lasts for a long, long time...
Today, I'm told I'm too old. Oh, no one wants an age discrimination suit, so they don't say it right out loud, but I get the message anyway. So I continue to chase the crumbs and send in resumes, waiting for the day that I have to auction everything off and try a nomadic lifestyle.
Retirement? I don't think so.
Can one find a lifetime career in IT? Don't bet on it.
Oh, boy. Is this ever a religious argument. There are sysadmins out there who are afraid to block any port because of customer backlash when "their" favorite port is blocked. I recall a CCIPP certified network guy who lambasted me for running a mostly-closed configuration at a conference -- he wanted to use SSL on an alternate port, and HATED it when I blocked access to it. (Further details withheld intentionally.)
Then there are people who will not use ISPs who block ports, for whatever reason. "'Internet service' means 'internet service', not 'some internet service.' DON'T BLOCK MY PORTS. If I need protection, I'll buy 'Depends'." And so forth.
That's part of the nature of the marketplace, so don't go blasting the competence of sysadmins who, for business reasons, have to do something they would rather not do. He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules.
(Damn, that's what I get for running out of coffee this morning.)
Zero defects is not an attainable goal; it's too expensive and no one wants to pay for it.
This article shows just what happens when you expect zero defects in the infrastructure of a large organization like Microsoft Corporation. It's not going to happen. And before someone says I'm Microsoft-bashing, I will say that this is true for the vast majority of corporations, universities, foundations, and governments. That would include Sun, IBM, Red Hat, even the *BSD folks and LKML participants.
There is a damn good reason we won't see zero defects: employees are not measured by it. Their survival, pay raises, and promotions are based not on the number of defects they don't have, but on their contribution to the "bottom line." If you preach zero defects as Job One, then prove it by firing the people who generate defects, without exception -- including the CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, and other top brass, when they screw up.
So now that the myth of zero defects has been exposed for what it is, what do we do about it?
System administrators are going to have to re-think their perimeter access controls. This may require router upgrades to add processing power to support additional filtering.
Sysadmins who have been running "mostly-open" filter configurations may want to consider moving to a "mostly-closed" configuration: deny everything except services that have been cleared for use. Don't allow arbitrary connections. Many unknowing MS SQL servers were protected from participating in this little exercise because the firewall upstream of the desktop system wasn't allowing connections to get through, even if the desktop system had a globally-routed Internet address.
Computer mail order houses and computer stores should consider carefully whether they should bundle appropriate software firewall products with the computers they sell. Software configured to require the user to say "Yes, I want to make SQL server available for public access!" before 1433 and 1434 would be open.
We need to ask the reporters and editors of mainstream publications to be more responsible when reporting problems like Sapphire/SQL. The facts were pretty well known, and available to those who tried hard enough to get them even at the height of the packet storm, so that reporters could make their deadlines and get the facts straight. [Names of the guilty withheld, at least for now -- they know who they are.]
Tier 1 and Tier 2 bandwidth providers need to consider modifications to their Acceptable Use Policies to require some basic filtering of packets in both directions. These AUP changes have been discussed before; perhaps now is the time for them to go into effect:
Update the Best Practices RFCs to incorporate some or all of these suggestions, so that Internet operators around the world can participate in solving the problem.
(N.B.: I want to point out that many USA-based cable operators are contributing to the problem by disallowing the use of NAT and VPN technologies in their apparent [alledged] quest to limit the broadband "Internet service product" to browsing and downloading files. I believe that such an attitude contributed to the problem, not the solution. I understand well the technical and business motivations for this, but I also believe that there are (U.S.) national security implications against such a policy. THINK!)
Are any of these ideas new? NO. The only new idea is to have the Lords Of The Internet use their influence over their customers to implement them more widely.
Good fences make good neighbors. The Internet is a neighborhood.
OK, I'm stupid, what's a screen name?
All I know is that I have about 20 e-mail addresses distributed over seven domains, and I never engage in any form of on-line e-chat. (Compuserve's CB system cured me of that right quick a number of years ago.)
Oh. Screen name. AOL. Never mind...
Then you don't know Matt Blaze, do you?
I do know that he has been looking at mechanical locking systems for years, and probably before he was at Bell/AT&T. Matt isn't the only computer-security guy who decided to take a gander at mechanical locks with the eyes of a crypto-analyst and computer counter-cracker.
My neighbor, who is a locksmith, hasn't heard about any AT&T product announcement, so until a press release pops up, I say "BZZZZT. But thanks for playing.!"
Quite good, actually. Y'see, New Yorkers are attracted to light, and the three brightest places are Reno/Sparks, South Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas. Further, we have no NYC-Zappers to trap and kill New Yorkers who stray from the money-traps, although people do have to be wary of the old silver mines with rotting covers that give way when you step on them. (Around Carson City, we lose about two tourists a year to this problem.) There are smaller bright patches (mostly casinos) that might attract a NYCer who is REALLY off track, but all of them contain helpful people in information kisoks that are happy to guide these wanderers back to the path to home -- after emptying all wallets, of course. TANSTAAFL.
Besides, there are so few roads in Nevada that if you get on one, and keep gas in your car, you WILL find clues to get you home to The Great White Way.
Satch, in Nevada
Not mentioned anywhere by anyone so far: should we trust Macromedia's plug-in? One reason I don't allow the Flash plug-in to be installed on my computer is that I don't understand everything that it does, and how an author can mis-use the language to do things they shouldn't. Paranoid? Of course.
So I did a search here on the CERT site to see the kinds of headaches that have been reported with Flash. The returned response shows that the plug-in isn't too awful, but still it is bad enough to tilt the scales in my case to not supporting Flash at all, on any platform. YMMV
The same search of the CERT size for "svg" didn't yield anything, but that just means no one has found the hole yet, if there is one. Separating SVG and the multimedia functions means less opportunity for screwing up, or at least confining the exposure of any screwup. Maybe.
Besides, I have yet to find any good use of Flash as a customer -- but then again, I'm a proponent that Web pages should inform, not entertain or mesmorize. Corporate America won't like my attitude, I'm sure.
You mean you didn't look? My resume is posted on-line, after all, and even at the URL shown here on SlashDot.
Actually, I don't. "Programming languages: extensive experience in Assembler, C, LEX, HTML, PASCAL, PERL, PHP, PL/I, regular text expressions, SQL, UNIX sh, YACC; lesser experience in AWK, BASIC, COBOL, C++, FORTH, FORTRAN, JAVA, JAVAScript, M4, RPG". Missed a bet? I don't think so.
Fair statement. Many of the general-purpose scripting tools are "c-like", such as PERL, BASH, and even a little JAVA now and then.
For one project, though, the "scripting language" I created was a pure rules-based language system. Another scripting language I created for a project was characterized by a colleague as "looking like DNA descriptions" in creating a series of numeric-control sequences. One scripting language was a direct rip-off of OS/360 Assembler's MACRO facility, because it was the best tool for the job and the audience -- banks.
By the way, LEX and YACC are not C tools. They are language processing tools, with most people emitting C code as the actions of expressions and productions. The underpinnings of Unix implementations of LEX and YACC *are* written in and for C, but that wouldn't stop someone from taking the same language and porting the utilities to target code in COBOL, FORTRAN, ALGOL, or PL/I. Or even LISP. Don't confuse implementation with design.
Ever think how to design a scripting language to provide metadata to generate control files for BIND? I'm working on one in my spare time because I want better automation of DNS management. I know people who use Excel for the purpose, and it sort of works. A scripting language, married to make, would mean that I make a single change to a script file and let the whole thing rip.
I wrote one scripting language to generate random text corpus files for studies of text compression in analog modems. This was BNF-like, but includes elements to indicate liklihood of generation percentages so the generate corpus would have characteristics similar to those in real text. My goal was to come up with near-random text that would have the same compression characteristics as real text in the same language (English, French, Russian, and Italian were the target languages).
I use what works for the job at hand. Free-form syntax (like C, PL/I, ALGOL). Strict line organization (assembler, FORTRAN). Even column-based (RPG, Autocoder).
One of the nice things about knowing and using a number of languages is that you get to pick the right tool for the right job. People like you, Kunta Kinte, seem to believe it's a good thing to limit tools; sometimes just because you have a hammer doesn't mean that everything should resemble a nail. Ever tried to write a compiler in FORTRAN, for example? Ever listen to an MSCE extoll the virtues of a certain company's products for every conceiveable problem?
Now, on my resume I list the "languages" LEX and YACC (lately more Flex/Bison), because I have found that applications-specific scripting languages can improve quality and make maintenance far easier than trying to do everything in, say, C. Many of the projects I work on are tools, not end-user apps, so providing a scripting language suited for the task makes it easy for my customers to concentrate on their jobs instead of how to get my software to do something they really want to do. Even when the scripting language is used exclusively internally, I have found that the quality of the resulting program is far higher because I've removed opportunities to screw up by using a level of abstraction. C++ and other object-oriented languages try to create a one-size-fits-all version of this, but sometimes it's just easier to think about the problem with a more free-form syntax without worring about inheretance issues, constructor/destructor conflicts, garbage collection, and the other baggage that seems to come with now-"traditional" OO programming.
How many environments do you work in? I'm equally at home in the embedded space, personal-computer applications, Web applications, secure e-commerce applications, network stuff, and man-rated programming. Each area has its own set of tools -- why shouldn't I mention them as I'm versed in using them?
Or perhaps you are of the school of "jack of all trades, master of none"? Sorry, I like challanges. I may be 50, but I can still write code. Maybe not as fast, but I'll stack the quality of my code against any person here.
Since [h]e wasn't a lawyer, but rather was in the employ of a lawyer, is it possible for him to violate attorney-client privilege (I honestly don't know)?
The correct answer is "it depends on which state we are talking about." Basic agency/principal law would say that the action of the lawyer's employee would reflect on the lawyer himself/herself, and the disclosure is a clear violation of the canons of virtually every state of the Union. The devil is in the details of the Codes of Conduct of the State Bar Association.
One thing is virtually certain: that lawyer is going to have a very bad start to 2003.
IANAL -- I am not a lawyer
I had the misfortune to try to administrate a DLink DI-614+ using Lynx, and couldn't do it. Indeed, I defy anyone to do it exclusively with ANY text-based browser.
Indeed, I suspect (but haven't tried it yet) that every Web-controlled network device can't be administrated in Lynx or any other text-only browser.
Just my pair-o-pennies(tm),
So far. Just wait until spammers start "warspamming". Then they won't even need disposable accounts to dump their spam on the net. (Their web site is usually on another clueless/black hat ISP that denies responsibility because "they didn't send the spam from our network".)
No self-respecting admin would leave port 25 open. Granted, many businesses don't understand the need for a self-respecting admin, let alone pay for one, and so they will find themselves on RBL or some other list.
Frankly, those companies will get what they deserve. Automobile owners who don't fix their brakes, or hire competent mechanics to do so, find themselves with a large settlement when the person on the other side of the accident gets done with them. Why should it be any different for Internet access?
(Ok, I've had too much coffee this morning, and it's strong.)
I previewed, I submitted, I goofed.
In reading the opposing (government) brief, I found this interesting point: the CITA was designed to harmonize US Copyright with international copyright. Going back to the original establishment of Federal copyright, the original intent was to unify copyright among the States and common law. The CITA could be argued to continue the tradition by having the United States participate in a world-wide unification of copyright. This means that a content creator would not have to worry as much about the differences between US and European copyright.
Not exactly "something for nothing."
Also, these thoughts are a little late for the government to include in its argument to the court, so I don't feel as though I'm hurting that anti-CITA efforts by discussing them here.
"rest assured that an article from the Economist is worth your time" Geez, you're not half-pompous, are you?
Actually, in this case I think that Roland is just plain right about the Economist being the best English-language news magazine around today. But then, I've only been writing non-fiction technical articles professionally since 1984, so I doubt that you will give my opinion much credence.
Consider that the Economist articles have far fewer misspelled words and grammer abortions than SlashDot by a wide margin. Never mind the reporting is top-notch.
It's the essence of clear writing, intelligent but not pompous (to use what appears to be your favorite word). Can you do as well?