Instead of half-asking a bunch of half- knowledgable slashdotters, get out there and figure it out yourself. You mentioned several companies in your original post. Have you contacted the sales reps and gotten quotes from them yet? Nail each of them down on development and maintenance costs. Get a really solid picture of how much this software is going to cost over its lifespan. Keep factors like scalability in mind. Does their solution scale by throwing more hardware at the problem, or will there need to be significant software changes? Make sure that they understand the technology that you are planning on using (and vice-versa), and have a good grasp of the problem at hand. Find out how much of the project can be done with "shrink-wrapped" parts, and how much customization will need to be done. Once you have a number from each company, your work isn't finished.
Find out who their clients are, and go talk to them. Focus on the ones that are using technologies similar to your application. Ask them about issues like reliability, ability to meet deadlines, and hidden costs. Try to get the impressions of the tech workers who have worked with the products and consultants. If the sysadmin thinks that the consultants are a bunch of half-wits, that is a bad sign. If the client's technical documentation bloodstained, beware of serious problems. Some companies may be reluctant to talk about their experiences, but you can usually get creative about getting them to open up. Try to deal with individuals rather than the 'organization'. Doing your research is painful, but vital...
Once you have a pretty good picture of each company, pick the two or three that you are most comfortable with. Compare issues like fixed and recurring costs, maintenance and support contracts, quality of work as evidenced by their portfolio, and the comments of their clients. Read up on the base products, but ignore anything from a marketing department. Make a nice big file on each, and hang on to them.
Next, look at your options for doing this in-house. Set your budget equal to the cheapest pre-made solution that you would consider using. Then sit down and grind out how much it will cost you to do it yourself. When budgeting for personnel costs, dont forget to pick high-range salary estimates, factor in insurance and payroll costs, and do it right. Compare the costs of salaried personnel with hired guns. Can you even find qualified developers for the project? Does the infrastructure for development already exist, or do you need to buy a bunch of hardware? How many (and what types) of developers do you need? Is your office big enough to house a new development team? How long will it take to do it in house? What about maintenance? How many team members will you need to keep things running once development is complete? All of these are tough questions, and need to be asked. Keep in mind the goals of the project, the timeframe you have to work with, and budget for disaster. If in-house development turns out to be way cheaper, double check your numbers. You might have missed something significant...
Next, compare the costs of doing it in house with the costs of outsourcing. If the costs (in both time and money) turn out to be equal, you are pretty much at square one. How much is having total control worth to you? Will the level of customization made possible by in-house development pay of in tangible (monetary) ways? Are you better off trusting your project management skills, or letting the pre-packaged solutions provider deal with things? Remember, if you blow it in-house, you (and your investors) will eat every dime. If outsourcing to a reliable solutions provider gives you a higher chance of getting a working product in a reasonable time-frame, it is probably worth writing a bigger check. Plus, if they don't deliver, then you have someone to sic the legal department on.
Run the numbers compared to projected earnings and cash reserves. Can you afford this? When will you run out of money? If it turns out that you can do things better, faster, and cheaper in house then that is probably the way to go. Otherwise it is probably worth paying the piper and getting the best pre-packaged solution for the money. All of these questions are things that slashdotters can't answer. My gut says to outsource it if your plans are complicated or you are unsure of your ability to build a good team. If the solution is simple and can be churned out by a small development team, then that may be the way to go. The final call depends on information that only you have access to and the weight of your decision rests on your shoulders alone.
Freeboxen.com is a hardware sharing community that operates purely on the generosity of its members. Once hardware reaches a certain age, its economic value becomes negligable. However it still retains much of its usefulness, especially to alternative OS users. If you arent planning on using some hardware, why not give it away to someone who will?
Freeboxen serves as an online resource that connects people who want hardware to people who have hardware to give. In just a little over a month, with a modest traffic volume, there have been quite a few interesting giveaways. Most of the free hardware has been from the 486-Pentium era, but some newer hardware has been posted too. The best stuff is claimed pretty quickly so you might need to check back often if you are looking for something good. The url is www.freeboxen.com, or you can click the link in my sig.
If you dont mind paying for hardware there are a couple of other resources that are worth checking out. If there is a computer show in your community that attracts a lot of vendors, they usually have some older stuff for sale cheap. The last one that I went to had 500 MB drives for under fifteen bucks. The second resource is the small business community. Chances are you could take home some pretty sweet kit, provided you have an in with the IT folks. They also might be willing to sell some of it for a reasonable price. Its worth a shot anyway.
Most human cultures, and the Americans in paticular, seem to be very adept at making the revolutionary commonplace. All around us we see samples of the pattern. A fringe technology or ideal catches on, is promoted and milked dry by megacorps, and then becomes passe when the next new fringe is discovered. Look at the progressions in musical sounds over the last fifty years. Just about every genre has been through the pattern of Discovery->Mass Marketing->Burnout. Grunge would be a nice recent example. The flannels of yesteryear have given way to the Backstreet shirts of today. Boy bands will fade away as something else catches on. Watch for it.
Sit on the beach some time. Watch the waves form from swells, roar up the beach, and the receed as miry whisps of foam. A whole lotta movement and power, but it never goes anywhere. Welcome to the American mass-market media culture. Some will get sucked out to sea and live forever on the waves of yesterday. Others will stand on the sand and watch every passing fancy tickle their toes. Sure you might be on the crest of the coming wave now, but the swells are endless and your ride is short. Where will you end up when the ride is over?
Once the Internet became the darling of Wall Street and the Engine of the New Economy, the crest started forming from the swell. They promoted its virtues to Joe Average No-mouse-in-my-house American. Everyone grabbed a board and headed into the water. How long of a ride does this wave still offer? When will the Internet become a utility and not a revolution? I dont know. There are other swells out there though. Forget the edge of the Internet, it is just another wave in the ocean. -BW
Since its inception the web has progressed from the fringes of academia to the houses on Main Street, changing our lives along the way. I remember coming home after my first year of university and explaining to my family what the web was. Most of them hadn't heard of it yet and thought that I was crazy to sign up with an ISP. Within a year we all started seeing URLs in print and on TV. Before long the Internet (mainly the web) was getting better buzz than a latin pop star.
Fast forward just a few years. Now I don't go anywhere new without a printout from MapQuest. My phone books go straight into the trash, they are antiques now. About half of the things that I purchase are bought online. The web is my only news source (no, not just slashdot). Nearly all of my work is done over an Internet connection, making even my physical location moot. The growth of the web, even in just the last two years, has changed my life considerably. I would consider it a revolution.
So, what do you think is next? Is there still enough untapped potential in the Internet that it can drastically and unexpectedly change our lives yet again? If so, what kinds of things do you see driving that change and where do you see us heading? If not, what direction is the next technological revolution coming from? -BW
Shouldnt they just be going after the publisher? After all, they are the ones that possess and serve up the offending materials in the first place. Cracking down on everyone else is like stomping on ants coming out of the anthill. Sure you wind up with some dead ants, but you never address the real problem. So what if the links make it easier for people to find the offending material? It also makes it easier for the authorities to find the original publisher. Cut off the head and the body dies. Don't waste your time arresting people who have not actually published illegal materials.
The era of governments controlling access to information is over. Look at the US. We have some really nasty drug laws. Enforcement of these laws has been pretty swift and severe, and an increasingly large number of people have been incarcerated. Has this really stopped the drug cartels from muling tons of the stuff northward every day? Hell no! I still have to walk by people selling dope just to get to the 7-11 that gets robbed weekly so people can buy their next fix.
You know what? Information is a lot more slippery than drugs. It has no mass, no odor, and can travel at the speed of light. It can be hidden or disguised to a mathematical near certainty. You only need one server to get the message out, not 300 mules with condoms full of coke in their stomachs. Once it is distributed, it can be replicated endlessly by the end user.
You want to stop this? You think you can? The technical solutions will rise up and cut away at your authority permanently. Your best shot is being as permissive as possible, and then crucifying the publishers when appropriate. Getting all draconian will only drive it to the underground. You know, the underground of MILLIONS ala Napster. The tighter you grip at the information the more it will slip through your fingers. Wake up and start realizing what is going on here. We have the playbook for the 21st century and we can put your ass on the bench.
Something that any person can replicate for $0 cost can not be owned. It is not Property.
I categorically reject this statement. Here is an illustration:
Lets say that I am a blacksmith. I use my talents and labor to make very high quality iron plows. Once it comes off of my anvil, who owns the plow? I do, because I made it. Lets say that I sell it. Who owns it then? The person who bought it (of course), because they traded something of value in exchange for it. How about if I rent it? Who owns it then? I still do. The renter has certain rights, but if they want to melt it down to make a giant bong I will need additonal compensation. These rights should be pretty familiar because we have grown up with them.
Right now I am trying to buy a Basset Hound. I want a nice purebred dog, but do not need an AKC champion show dog. Some of the breeders I have talked to will only sell puppies to people willing to show them. Their contract basically states the following: We must agree to show the dog at least once a month. The original breeder maintains stud rights. We cannot sell or giveaway the dog without giving the breeder the right of first refusal.
Now if I have a bitch and a stud, they will freely replicate. It might take a bit longer than ripping an MP3, but so long as the facilities are there to do it, it will happen. Granted, there are more resource requirements than MP3 trading, but the actual transfer of IP is still an essentially free process. Even so, the owner of the dogs has the rights to do whatever they want with them.
The owner controlls the property and can create a contract describing my rights to it upon sale. In this case I get to keep the dog, but I have no rights to redistribute its intellectual property (its genes). These restrictions were too onerous, and I decided not to do business with them. That was my choice.
Ok, back to the main line of reasoning. Lets say that I am a musician. I spend hours writing a song and crafting the music. Then I blow some decent coin on renting some studio time. After performing, I wind up with three minutes of the most insipid pop imagineable. I spend the money to have a master made, and press 50 thousand discs to sell at my shows. Who owns the song? I did because I made it. It may not exist in a physical form, but it took my efforts and labor to produce just as if I had created a plow. What rights do I have as the owner? They should be pretty much the same as if I had made something physical. Lets say I want to sell you the CD under the traditional copyright laws. Great, I get a few bucks to pay the costs of initial creation. You get to listen to some bad pop music and make copies for yourself and clearly defined purposes as a part of Fair Use. Can you found a record company and start burning copies? Hell no the owner never gave you those rights when you bought the CD to listen to.
Lets say that a record exec buys my CD. He likes what he hears, and decides that he wants to promote it. He comes to me and says, "Here, sign our contract and we get rights to distribute your song." As the owner of the song, I can reject his offer, negotiate, or sign away my rights in exchange for something valuable. He already owns a copy of the song, but that does not matter. That copy was not distributed with the right to sell other copies of it. I can choose to grant those rights but it is a seperate deal. Even though the record exec has the facilities of production, and the IP in question, he did not have permission from the owner to make copies. There is a big difference between an eighteen dollar CD and a million dollar record deal. IP rights secure this difference for me as the owner.
Now why should I have these rights to the song if it is so easy to replicate? Simple. It took effort to create it in the first place. Just like a physical object, it was my toil and effort to produce the work. As such I deserve the same rights. If I want to put restrictions on your use upon purchase, I can do so. If you dont like it, dont buy it. Seems pretty simple to me.
In the last three years I have not bought a single CD. Nor have I downloaded MP3en. I do not support the industry, but I do respect their rights to the IP.
Your target market depends on your size. If you are thinking of running a T line or two into your garage, you arent going to get taken seriously by many business customers. If you are looking to lease a building that is sitting atop a fiber backbone, you need to have your business plan done by MBAs and not Slashdot. What you do and who you can target will depend on how much money you have to get started.
If I was going to do this, I would combine colocation and consulting in one business. Then I would target small businesses with Internet needs and few tech workers. Check out real estate companies. They loathe hiring full time staff who arent making sales. Generally are slow (but interested) when it comes to picking up new technology. However their business can really benefit from a strong Internet presence. Show them the benefits, especially the ability to access data from home (agents love that), and then put together a package for them. Once you get the contract, you get monthly income from the hosting, and you will be their consultant because you manage their server. This wouldnt be too expensive to setup because you wouldnt need much office space, and your bandwidth needs would grow much more slowly than a "colo for 50 bucks a month" deal.
OTOH it is a lot more work than running around hitting the reset button and popping out floppies. However I do not see a rosy future for low end colo-only companies. What happens when having a big, reliable pipe to your home becomes the norm? You know when that happens, it will be cheap enough for businesess to have mega connectivity on their own. When Joe Dentist has as much bandwidth as you do, what vital services are you offering them? If they dont need you for something else, no one is going to want to stick a box in your rack. On the high end, people sitting on a huge bundle of fiber and selling hundred megabit plus connectivity packages are still going to be doing OK. Can you get there in time? Maybe you should you focus on something else and use colo as one of many products you offer.
This is a completely different issue. I take bong hits before class. I smoke a joint on the way to school. And this is not detrimental to me or others around me. I am still a contributing member of society. I work, I pay taxes, I go to school, I release free software. How does my drug use affect you or anybody else?
Easy. Unless you are only toking on what you and your buddies grow, you are supporting a violent and malicious drug trade. Your dollars go into their pockets. Your money is fought over with gang violence. By purchasing from them your are perpetuating their violent activities. Like telemarketers, if everyone stopped buying from them, they would go away. Granted, the drug dealers only have their monopoly because it is enforced by the US govt.
Aside from that, your drug use does not bother me at all. If you are only smoking the homegrown or stuff that your Uncles friend grows in the hills around Santa Cruz, I cant even think of anything to object to. I shouldnt even have the right to tell you to what to spend your money on, but you asked...
However this wasnt my point, and I probably picked the worst example by mentioning pot. The disease of addiction is the problem. If I had mentioned a kid who needed some heroin just to feel good enough to go to school, it would have been more clear.
I also feel kinda bad that I triggered the rant, especially since I favor the decriminalization of all drugs. Hell, I think your last big paragraph is spot on. Let Merck sell the stuff. They fight for consumer dollars with ad campaigns not Uzis. However, the disease of addiction does have negative consequensces that can lead to violence. People who have a problem need treatment, its as simple as that.
I still stand by my original premise that more violence can be attrubuted to abuse, addiction, and poverty than any policy on gun control. Violent video games wouldnt even make my top 50 list of factors that contribute to violence. At least the judge had some widsom in this case. Back on topic again...
Explain to me how taking away your ability to kill with a casual flick of your finger somehow infringes on your personal liberty
I am reluctant to respond because I think you are becoming just a troll. However, here goes...
OK, lets start by clarifying the issues. You are blurring far too many concepts in your reply.
There is a difference between taking away my ability to kill with a flick fo my finger, and taking away my right to own a gun. Killing and gun ownership are two different issues. I do not and should not have the right to kill. That would be infringing on someone elses rights. My point is that you cannot legitimately take away my right to posess property that has legal uses. If that property has the ability to kill someone, then it is my responsibility to treat it with respect and apply appropriate safeguards.
Consider the automobile. I can kill someone with just a little pressure from my right foot. It also gets me to work. I understand the dangers inherent in driving and do so responsibly. Do you dare suggest taking away my rights to own a car, simply because is too can be an effective weapon? Where does it end?
Are telling me that you believe it's your right to be able to kill anyone you want as easily as possible and then face a court while your victim is dead
Of course not. As I have said, I have the right to own the gun, but not to use it in a way that harms others.
I'd love to see the stats on crimes involving guns v's crimes involving bombs
I wonder how those stats might be different if guns where illegal. After all, a Ryder full of anfo can take out a bunch of people.
Lookup the stats on the number of times a gun is turned on the owner, and then tell me if you still want to have one in your house
Ive done some target shooting in my day and am comfortable around guns. However for personal reasons I dont want to have one in my home. What I do want is the RIGHT to have a gun if I wanted one. Why? I believe in the concept of inherent and inalienable personal liberty. I am OK with choosing not to have a weapon. Yet I do not want anyone else making that decision for me. -BW
No, no, HELL no. The problem is NOT gun laws. The PROBLEM is addiction, abuse, and poverty.
I was right behind you when you were talking about treating the causes and not the symptoms. However I dont think that gun control laws are even anywhere near the root of the problem. That isnt to say that they are a solution either...
Stop for a second and look at the guy who beats his wife and kids. I would bet that he learned to do that by being beaten himself. Abuse begets abuse, and teaches young minds that violence solves problems. The kid who shot the six year old was living in a hell hole by all accounts.
Who takes hits from the bong between classes? The kid who watches his older brother doing it with his friends. The kid who has a Dad who burns more alcohol than a funny car. Combine the biology and environmental factors, and you have kids walking around looking for their next hit before they take the first one. Drugs bring violence and the addicts feed the drug trade.
When was the last time you saw a well paid sysadmin shooting up a convience store in a botched robbery attempt? Probably never. They have the opporunity to get a check that makes the contents of the register seem trivial.
These issues infect people and create patterns in their lives that are hard to break out of. They also tend to lead people to violent paths. Does it always happen? No, people are not automatons. Would solving these problems end all forms of violence? No, when it comes down to it there are a lot more ways that people can be messed up. However, if you could successfully address these problems, I would expect to see a significant decrease in violent crime.
Note: Im not from the North, Im not a Democrat, and Ive shot plenty of guns in my life. -BW
I looked around your site, and am mainly interested in the technical challenges. Just last week I was trying to figure out how to do this exact same kind of thing. It seems like you have addressed a lot of the major issues that I was playing with. However something kept nagging at me while I was reading. What speech are you interested in protecting that does not already have adequate protection under the first ammendment? (sorry to be US specific)
Fundamentally I agree with the premise that all censorship should be abolised. However, I would like some examples of speech that you think are not adequately protected AND are not already illegal for other reasons.
The most important facet of free speech is preventing prior restraint. If I can get the word out and distribute the truth, I can deal with the consequenses afterward.
With or without Freenet, I can get any piece of information distributed to a national audience. I might have to answer for my actions, but that comes with the territory. For the most part the Internet has been a very healthy development for the free speech movement. However I do recognize there have been some abuses recently. The deCSS case is probably the best example. Ask yourself- how would your system have really helped the publishers? There already are anonymous channels they could have used for distribution. Did they take advantage of them? No, instead they made their case publically, stood in court to defend themselves, and have greatly increased public consciousness. Is there any shortage of deCSS mirrors now? I think that the source code is in the court records and on tee shirts. Would an anonymous posting of the source to linux newsgroups and dvd forums have had the same impact? I saw a story about deCSS on the local news. Would posting it to the Freenet have gotten the same attention? The last thing we need is to hide these issues among warez and Backstreet MP3en. Free speech abuses need to be held up to the light and exposed in the mainstream press. How does Freenet help with this process?
Censorware seems to be a hot-button issue that could get a lot of free press. However the key to raising public awareness isnt going to be talking about false positives. Will Joe Average Puritain care if little Billy cant visit a science site about breast cancer? Probably not. Its the porn that slips through the filter that will cause outrage. Focus on that, and then explain some of the technical reasons why censorware will never be 100 percent effective. Then offer the perfect alternative to censorware: local logging of all internet connections.
Local logging offers parents the ability to see what their children are doing, and encourages a relational approach to parenting. Rather than install a blacklist in a box and unleashing the kids on the net, local logging can open the door to talking about important issues instead of pretending they dont exist. Which would you prefer as a parent?
A) Little Billy spends 4 hours trying to get around the censorware, checks out some T and A, and then does it all again tommorrow.
B) Little Billy cant get around the censorware, but it isnt installed on his friends computer. They stay up all night downloading movies from supergoldenhardcorekinkypornographypalace.com
C) Little Billy looks for some porn, and sees some T and A. When you get home, you check the logs and sit Billy down for a LONG discussion about your values. You have the opportunity to provide information and take disciplinary action.
Now, you cant do a whole lot about B. However if your kids do not know that you are logging at home, the need to go somewhere else to try to look at porn is diminished. The probability of catching them in the act is increased.
If my kids look at porn, hate, or build-your-own-boms.com I want to know about it. Actually restricting the information is playing Whack-A-Mole. Having the opportunity to talk about it, after they see it is much more valuable. It gets you involved in their lives and gives you another opportunity to shape their growth. Personally I think that this is the best solution.
Specs for the logger:
Strong encryption and validation of the logs. If log files are deleted, the administrator is notified. If Billy can crack TripleDES in an afternoon, you have bigger issues to deal with than a little bit of porn.
Adjustable levels of visibility. You can either make it unnoticable to prevent B above, or very public to encourage self policing. Public terminals should always be run in NOTICE- We _are_ logging mode.
Protocol versatility Take care of as many sources of inappropriate information as possible.
Difficult to Disable The implementation is an excercise for the reader...
Easy to use Well, Duh!
Make the log files easy to read Highlighting based on trigger words might be useful. Parsing search queries for the search terms would probably take care of a lot of it.
Hmmm. I kinda agree. I saw High Fidelity this afternoon and almost walked out. Am I gay? No, Im happily married.
Lets take a little musical diversion, it seems appropriate. My favorite band used to be Dinosaur Jr. J Mascis provided my soundtrack for my high school days. Anyone familiar with their work can back me on this: It sounds a whole lot better when youre lonely. They lyrics make sense and the distortion blurs the pain. Meeting my wife five years ago reduced my dinophilicity. The music hadnt changed, but I had. Lyrics that seemed to describe my here and now became distant and intangible. I enjoyed it less because I was in a different place.
I had the same feelings about High Fidelity. The main character was too distant from my experience for him to be the whole story. The people who will like this film are the ones who can relate to the main story. Otherwise youre left looking for something else to focus on. There were some bright spots outside the relationship saga, but they were pretty spread out. Your enjoyment of this film is all about what you bring to the party.
No, but if Hemos burns down his house again it would make the front page...
I always wanted to run a site with a poplular webcam on april fools day. I think it would be cool to have masked gunmen burst into the house and take hostages while thousands of cam-heads looked on. Just imagine the calls to 911.
Imagine the look on the face of the state trooper. Klaus is driving, holding a Lowenbrau in his fourth arm. Youre curled up in the back seat taking a nap, and your AIBO is sticking his head out the window.
I really dont see robotic chauffers as the future of automated driving. It seems like it would be better to mount all of this stuff in the car itself. Granted they do take things up a notch on the cool factor. Personally I am pushing for these auto-drive systems to be implemented like bumper cars. Get a big ass grid, metal freeways, and put bumpers all around. See Mr Gore, you can have your electric cars now...
-BW
My standard response...
on
Hoax-a-go-go!
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· Score: 3
Based on the forward you sent me, you still have a bit to learn about the Internet. Let me take this opportunity to give you a brief education.
1. Please do not pass on chain letters. There never has been, and never will be a reward for forwarding an email message.
2. Virus warnings tend to be hoaxes. Do not forward them. Anyone who would heed your warning is probably already protected. Everyone else will just ignore you anyway.
3. Please be selective with the jokes that you pass on. Here is the acid test: Would you bother telling me this joke in person? Jokes that dont pass this test should probably be kept to yourself. If it is good enough, tell it to me the next time I see you. I would rather spend time with you than be another name on your distribution list.
4. Forwards are never a reliable source of information. Unusual reports, especially those involving major corporations, are urban legends. If it were legitimate news, it would be carried by the mainstream media. Scary or outlandish stories are usually nothing but fiction. Enjoy reading them, but keep them to yourself.
5. Do not buy anything from spammers. NEVER! Don't even go to their websites. If you know what headers are, hunt down the bastards and get their accounts cancelled. Never reply to a spam, even just to ask to be removed from their mailing list. They wont take you off, but instead they will put your name on the valid list.
6. Never run any programs or open any executable attachments that you recieve in an email. If it ends in exe, bat, or com, you should delete it. It is usually safe to open zip files, but be suspicious of any contents.
7. Dont be a spammer. Multi level marketing schemes do not intrigue me. I am not interested in becoming part of your downline. Whether it is vitamins, herbs, long distance, magnets, distributed processing, or get-paid-to-surf-the-net I will never sign up. Seriously, I have lost friendships over this kind of stuff. Dont even start.
8. Investment advice comes from professionals, not open web-boards or unsolicited email.
9. Anything that promises an outrageous salary for working at home is bogus. If the opportunity was so good, they would be turning away applicants, not begging for them.
10. This is the last forward that you will ever send. The next time someone forwards you junk, send this to them. Lets break the chain one link at a time.
-BW
Re:Future Incompatabilities?
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Intel Roadmap
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· Score: 1
Plus who can resist the urge to buy new tech toys to plug into your boxen every month or two...
Two words: My Wife
Of course I still buy what I want anyway, because you would be surprised at how often things break;)
I do agree with you on most points. Planning ahead can sometimes let you take incremental upgrade steps. I bought my motherboard, an Abit BE-6, and put my old PII 233 (which OCs to 350!) in it. A few months later I got myself a Celeron 400, and a slotket. When the prices come down to where I want them, I will go get an 850Mhz PIII By planning my upgrade path ahead of time, I should be able to use this board for more than a year. A little bit of foresight has left me with fewer orphaned parts that I would have had otherwise.
Granted I do like to keep my old hardware running, or find a good home for it. A 386 was my main computer a little over three years ago. Nothing like the good old days. I still think that PCI slots are backwards...
Actually, you might be on to something. The best way to handle these folks is a meatspace DOS attack. If everyone turned themselves in the system would reach saturation. If we could get every student in NC to step up and say "I'm Spartacus", this program would be overwhelmed. We could take it to the next level, where someone turns in five people, who then turn in five people and so on. That would be a pretty solid way of Making (less) Money Fast for Pinkerton. Once the money dries up, Wave goodbye to WAVE.
I just do not understand the application of small-time, short sighted solutions to the problem of teen violence. These kids aren't violent because of a video game, the seeds of violence are sown at home. You cannot stop a lifetime of growing up in the midst of addiction, abuse and poverty with a pledge and a discount card. Pinkerton is shameless.
These kids need to sit down and talk to trained counselors. Really talk, not be "threat profiled" and go through the risk assessment BS. To do that they need to feel like they can trust someone. A for-profit tip line that offers a sweepstakes toWin a Free Computer for signing up isn't going to win any trust. Kids know what is real and where peoples motives are. If you dont have a relationship with them, forget about helping on a personal level. All that WAVE does is drive a wedge of mistrust between already disconnected relationships. If the kids felt like they could speak frankly to an adult on campus who really cares, maybe violence would become less of an issue overall. -BW
Yeah, and I doubt that anything that comes with a $5000+ processor also has SoftMenu II. Although I would like to see the service engineer's face when I ask him what jumpers to change...
Yeah, it really does seem like Microsoft is finally trying to make the McSystemEngineer cert mean something. I just don't think that expiring the current certs it the right way to go about it.
Pardon me as I bow my head in shame. I am a MCP. I quit working towards my MCSE when I realized that I didn't want to work in that part of the industry anymore. I recently got my "your certifications will expire soon" letter. Even though I wasn't ever going to use the cert again for anything, I was still kinda miffed.
I mean really, just because another year passes, does it mean that I am somehow less qualified to do the 95/98/NT4/EtOH thing? If a company still wants someone who knows how to reboot, reconfigure and reinstall, why wouldnt the certifications that apply to their environment still be valid? I cant think of a reason that doesn't involve pushing new product lines through its in-house tech support sales force. Now I am just a bitter, soon to be former, MCP.
Ah, yes. You brought up some good points. Another facet to consider it that the music industry isnt about manufacturing, its promotion. The entire CD manufacturing capacity of the United States is probably matched by your average basement in China. Making aluminum sandwiches is pretty easy if you have some starting capital. Its getting the damn things to sell that is the problem. You have to generate a lot of hype to get a disc into all of the mainstream sales channels. Connections and money make little things like Tonight Show appearances and heavy rotation airplay happen. Throw in some personal experiences with paid throngs of fans to get the attentions of the press. Push the hype anyway possible: Free shows, CD signings, Morning radio, Loveline guest hosting, you name it. Forget the manufacturing angle, its pure sales.
The so called "artists" really aren't musicians so much as they are products. Brittney Spears isn't a person, at best she is a character, at worst she is a brand name. The human being behind the image is used to sell CDs, concert tickets, breast implants and lunchboxes. Who cares about the music? Derivative pop with a contemporary sound is all that is needed to move the product. Any higher quality and it goes over the head of the target audience and becomes more expensive to produce. The stiff men in grey suits with accounting degrees keep everything under control.
The Internet poses both problems and opportunities for the industry. Keep in mind that their whole objective is to maximize profits. They know full well the effects of the MP3 on their bottom line. At least they are studying the hell out of it to be sure. Press releases might say otherwise, but I think that they have seen the MP3 make a mostly negligable impact in most sales categories. However they do see the writing on the wall. The times they are a changin. The Compact Disc cash cow won't last forever.
The future of music IS the internet, and the predominant format isn't as lucrative as the what they have going now. Furthermore distribution is much simpler over electronic channels. That opens up competition and "piracy" as more significant concerns. Promotion is also easier and cheaper on the net, compromising yet another of their strengths. Bad news for the traditionalists, good news overall. Finally they have the opportunity to have true "pay to play" marketing. Technical problems aside, record execs drool about that opportunity. Watch for it.
Now onto the meat... IP rights. In most industries they simply would not matter one lick, so long as the "right" people made as much money. If people would spend $100 bucks a second to talk Backstreet Boys, and letting any fool burn CDs of their music made sure that the line wrapped around the block, they would probably go for it. If JonKatz could command 50Gs to speak at seminar, but it required him to allow Charmin to print his articles on every sheet, he just might do it. As the system stands, people are compensated for IP. Don't expect this to change, unless it works out better financially for those who control the IP.
As for having the intrinsic right to own IP, I personally don't think that any other opinion bears consideration. If I write something, design something, or create something of intellectual value, I deserve to be compensated for my work if I so desire. If I can release it under a free license and still make some money, so much the better. Why should other people have the right to be compensated for my work simply because they own tools that can duplicate it? Why should people reap the benefits of my labor without any compensation? Just because the laws of the land do not provide adequate protection, should I lose my rights? I don't think so.
-BW
So do these things have IRC?
on
Date Pagers
·
· Score: 1
After all, once you find the girl of your dreams you are going to have to talk to her...
Slashdot Mirror
Instead of half-asking a bunch of half- knowledgable slashdotters, get out there and figure it out yourself. You mentioned several companies in your original post. Have you contacted the sales reps and gotten quotes from them yet? Nail each of them down on development and maintenance costs. Get a really solid picture of how much this software is going to cost over its lifespan. Keep factors like scalability in mind. Does their solution scale by throwing more hardware at the problem, or will there need to be significant software changes? Make sure that they understand the technology that you are planning on using (and vice-versa), and have a good grasp of the problem at hand. Find out how much of the project can be done with "shrink-wrapped" parts, and how much customization will need to be done. Once you have a number from each company, your work isn't finished.
Find out who their clients are, and go talk to them. Focus on the ones that are using technologies similar to your application. Ask them about issues like reliability, ability to meet deadlines, and hidden costs. Try to get the impressions of the tech workers who have worked with the products and consultants. If the sysadmin thinks that the consultants are a bunch of half-wits, that is a bad sign. If the client's technical documentation bloodstained, beware of serious problems. Some companies may be reluctant to talk about their experiences, but you can usually get creative about getting them to open up. Try to deal with individuals rather than the 'organization'. Doing your research is painful, but vital...
Once you have a pretty good picture of each company, pick the two or three that you are most comfortable with. Compare issues like fixed and recurring costs, maintenance and support contracts, quality of work as evidenced by their portfolio, and the comments of their clients. Read up on the base products, but ignore anything from a marketing department. Make a nice big file on each, and hang on to them.
Next, look at your options for doing this in-house. Set your budget equal to the cheapest pre-made solution that you would consider using. Then sit down and grind out how much it will cost you to do it yourself. When budgeting for personnel costs, dont forget to pick high-range salary estimates, factor in insurance and payroll costs, and do it right. Compare the costs of salaried personnel with hired guns. Can you even find qualified developers for the project? Does the infrastructure for development already exist, or do you need to buy a bunch of hardware? How many (and what types) of developers do you need? Is your office big enough to house a new development team? How long will it take to do it in house? What about maintenance? How many team members will you need to keep things running once development is complete? All of these are tough questions, and need to be asked. Keep in mind the goals of the project, the timeframe you have to work with, and budget for disaster. If in-house development turns out to be way cheaper, double check your numbers. You might have missed something significant...
Next, compare the costs of doing it in house with the costs of outsourcing. If the costs (in both time and money) turn out to be equal, you are pretty much at square one. How much is having total control worth to you? Will the level of customization made possible by in-house development pay of in tangible (monetary) ways? Are you better off trusting your project management skills, or letting the pre-packaged solutions provider deal with things? Remember, if you blow it in-house, you (and your investors) will eat every dime. If outsourcing to a reliable solutions provider gives you a higher chance of getting a working product in a reasonable time-frame, it is probably worth writing a bigger check. Plus, if they don't deliver, then you have someone to sic the legal department on.
Run the numbers compared to projected earnings and cash reserves. Can you afford this? When will you run out of money? If it turns out that you can do things better, faster, and cheaper in house then that is probably the way to go. Otherwise it is probably worth paying the piper and getting the best pre-packaged solution for the money. All of these questions are things that slashdotters can't answer. My gut says to outsource it if your plans are complicated or you are unsure of your ability to build a good team. If the solution is simple and can be churned out by a small development team, then that may be the way to go. The final call depends on information that only you have access to and the weight of your decision rests on your shoulders alone.
-BW
Than I happen to have created :)
Freeboxen.com is a hardware sharing community that operates purely on the generosity of its members. Once hardware reaches a certain age, its economic value becomes negligable. However it still retains much of its usefulness, especially to alternative OS users. If you arent planning on using some hardware, why not give it away to someone who will?
Freeboxen serves as an online resource that connects people who want hardware to people who have hardware to give. In just a little over a month, with a modest traffic volume, there have been quite a few interesting giveaways. Most of the free hardware has been from the 486-Pentium era, but some newer hardware has been posted too. The best stuff is claimed pretty quickly so you might need to check back often if you are looking for something good. The url is www.freeboxen.com, or you can click the link in my sig.
If you dont mind paying for hardware there are a couple of other resources that are worth checking out. If there is a computer show in your community that attracts a lot of vendors, they usually have some older stuff for sale cheap. The last one that I went to had 500 MB drives for under fifteen bucks. The second resource is the small business community. Chances are you could take home some pretty sweet kit, provided you have an in with the IT folks. They also might be willing to sell some of it for a reasonable price. Its worth a shot anyway.
-BW
Most human cultures, and the Americans in paticular, seem to be very adept at making the revolutionary commonplace. All around us we see samples of the pattern. A fringe technology or ideal catches on, is promoted and milked dry by megacorps, and then becomes passe when the next new fringe is discovered. Look at the progressions in musical sounds over the last fifty years. Just about every genre has been through the pattern of Discovery->Mass Marketing->Burnout. Grunge would be a nice recent example. The flannels of yesteryear have given way to the Backstreet shirts of today. Boy bands will fade away as something else catches on. Watch for it.
Sit on the beach some time. Watch the waves form from swells, roar up the beach, and the receed as miry whisps of foam. A whole lotta movement and power, but it never goes anywhere. Welcome to the American mass-market media culture. Some will get sucked out to sea and live forever on the waves of yesterday. Others will stand on the sand and watch every passing fancy tickle their toes. Sure you might be on the crest of the coming wave now, but the swells are endless and your ride is short. Where will you end up when the ride is over?
Once the Internet became the darling of Wall Street and the Engine of the New Economy, the crest started forming from the swell. They promoted its virtues to Joe Average No-mouse-in-my-house American. Everyone grabbed a board and headed into the water. How long of a ride does this wave still offer? When will the Internet become a utility and not a revolution? I dont know. There are other swells out there though. Forget the edge of the Internet, it is just another wave in the ocean.
-BW
Since its inception the web has progressed from the fringes of academia to the houses on Main Street, changing our lives along the way. I remember coming home after my first year of university and explaining to my family what the web was. Most of them hadn't heard of it yet and thought that I was crazy to sign up with an ISP. Within a year we all started seeing URLs in print and on TV. Before long the Internet (mainly the web) was getting better buzz than a latin pop star.
Fast forward just a few years. Now I don't go anywhere new without a printout from MapQuest. My phone books go straight into the trash, they are antiques now. About half of the things that I purchase are bought online. The web is my only news source (no, not just slashdot). Nearly all of my work is done over an Internet connection, making even my physical location moot. The growth of the web, even in just the last two years, has changed my life considerably. I would consider it a revolution.
So, what do you think is next? Is there still enough untapped potential in the Internet that it can drastically and unexpectedly change our lives yet again? If so, what kinds of things do you see driving that change and where do you see us heading? If not, what direction is the next technological revolution coming from?
-BW
Shouldnt they just be going after the publisher? After all, they are the ones that possess and serve up the offending materials in the first place. Cracking down on everyone else is like stomping on ants coming out of the anthill. Sure you wind up with some dead ants, but you never address the real problem. So what if the links make it easier for people to find the offending material? It also makes it easier for the authorities to find the original publisher. Cut off the head and the body dies. Don't waste your time arresting people who have not actually published illegal materials.
The era of governments controlling access to information is over. Look at the US. We have some really nasty drug laws. Enforcement of these laws has been pretty swift and severe, and an increasingly large number of people have been incarcerated. Has this really stopped the drug cartels from muling tons of the stuff northward every day? Hell no! I still have to walk by people selling dope just to get to the 7-11 that gets robbed weekly so people can buy their next fix.
You know what? Information is a lot more slippery than drugs. It has no mass, no odor, and can travel at the speed of light. It can be hidden or disguised to a mathematical near certainty. You only need one server to get the message out, not 300 mules with condoms full of coke in their stomachs. Once it is distributed, it can be replicated endlessly by the end user.
You want to stop this? You think you can? The technical solutions will rise up and cut away at your authority permanently. Your best shot is being as permissive as possible, and then crucifying the publishers when appropriate. Getting all draconian will only drive it to the underground. You know, the underground of MILLIONS ala Napster. The tighter you grip at the information the more it will slip through your fingers. Wake up and start realizing what is going on here. We have the playbook for the 21st century and we can put your ass on the bench.
-BW
It was Hemos, in the Library with the lead pipe.
Dude, you had better watch out. Hemos is gonna sue Andover for libel on Slashdot...
-BW
Something that
any person can replicate for $0 cost can not be
owned. It is not Property.
I categorically reject this statement. Here is an illustration:
Lets say that I am a blacksmith. I use my talents and labor to make very high quality iron plows. Once it comes off of my anvil, who owns the plow? I do, because I made it. Lets say that I sell it. Who owns it then? The person who bought it (of course), because they traded something of value in exchange for it. How about if I rent it? Who owns it then? I still do. The renter has certain rights, but if they want to melt it down to make a giant bong I will need additonal compensation. These rights should be pretty familiar because we have grown up with them.
Right now I am trying to buy a Basset Hound. I want a nice purebred dog, but do not need an AKC champion show dog. Some of the breeders I have talked to will only sell puppies to people willing to show them. Their contract basically states the following: We must agree to show the dog at least once a month. The original breeder maintains stud rights. We cannot sell or giveaway the dog without giving the breeder the right of first refusal.
Now if I have a bitch and a stud, they will freely replicate. It might take a bit longer than ripping an MP3, but so long as the facilities are there to do it, it will happen. Granted, there are more resource requirements than MP3 trading, but the actual transfer of IP is still an essentially free process. Even so, the owner of the dogs has the rights to do whatever they want with them.
The owner controlls the property and can create a contract describing my rights to it upon sale. In this case I get to keep the dog, but I have no rights to redistribute its intellectual property (its genes). These restrictions were too onerous, and I decided not to do business with them. That was my choice.
Ok, back to the main line of reasoning. Lets say that I am a musician. I spend hours writing a song and crafting the music. Then I blow some decent coin on renting some studio time. After performing, I wind up with three minutes of the most insipid pop imagineable. I spend the money to have a master made, and press 50 thousand discs to sell at my shows. Who owns the song? I did because I made it. It may not exist in a physical form, but it took my efforts and labor to produce just as if I had created a plow. What rights do I have as the owner? They should be pretty much the same as if I had made something physical. Lets say I want to sell you the CD under the traditional copyright laws. Great, I get a few bucks to pay the costs of initial creation. You get to listen to some bad pop music and make copies for yourself and clearly defined purposes as a part of Fair Use. Can you found a record company and start burning copies? Hell no the owner never gave you those rights when you bought the CD to listen to.
Lets say that a record exec buys my CD. He likes what he hears, and decides that he wants to promote it. He comes to me and says, "Here, sign our contract and we get rights to distribute your song." As the owner of the song, I can reject his offer, negotiate, or sign away my rights in exchange for something valuable. He already owns a copy of the song, but that does not matter. That copy was not distributed with the right to sell other copies of it. I can choose to grant those rights but it is a seperate deal. Even though the record exec has the facilities of production, and the IP in question, he did not have permission from the owner to make copies. There is a big difference between an eighteen dollar CD and a million dollar record deal. IP rights secure this difference for me as the owner.
Now why should I have these rights to the song if it is so easy to replicate? Simple. It took effort to create it in the first place. Just like a physical object, it was my toil and effort to produce the work. As such I deserve the same rights. If I want to put restrictions on your use upon purchase, I can do so. If you dont like it, dont buy it. Seems pretty simple to me.
In the last three years I have not bought a single CD. Nor have I downloaded MP3en. I do not support the industry, but I do respect their rights to the IP.
-BW
Your target market depends on your size. If you are thinking of running a T line or two into your garage, you arent going to get taken seriously by many business customers. If you are looking to lease a building that is sitting atop a fiber backbone, you need to have your business plan done by MBAs and not Slashdot. What you do and who you can target will depend on how much money you have to get started.
If I was going to do this, I would combine colocation and consulting in one business. Then I would target small businesses with Internet needs and few tech workers. Check out real estate companies. They loathe hiring full time staff who arent making sales. Generally are slow (but interested) when it comes to picking up new technology. However their business can really benefit from a strong Internet presence. Show them the benefits, especially the ability to access data from home (agents love that), and then put together a package for them. Once you get the contract, you get monthly income from the hosting, and you will be their consultant because you manage their server. This wouldnt be too expensive to setup because you wouldnt need much office space, and your bandwidth needs would grow much more slowly than a "colo for 50 bucks a month" deal.
OTOH it is a lot more work than running around hitting the reset button and popping out floppies. However I do not see a rosy future for low end colo-only companies. What happens when having a big, reliable pipe to your home becomes the norm? You know when that happens, it will be cheap enough for businesess to have mega connectivity on their own. When Joe Dentist has as much bandwidth as you do, what vital services are you offering them? If they dont need you for something else, no one is going to want to stick a box in your rack. On the high end, people sitting on a huge bundle of fiber and selling hundred megabit plus connectivity packages are still going to be doing OK. Can you get there in time? Maybe you should you focus on something else and use colo as one of many products you offer.
Good luck...
-BW
This is a completely different issue. I take bong hits before class. I smoke a joint on the way to school. And this is not detrimental to me or others around me. I am still a contributing member of society. I work, I pay taxes, I go to school, I release free software. How does my drug use affect you or anybody else?
Easy. Unless you are only toking on what you and your buddies grow, you are supporting a violent and malicious drug trade. Your dollars go into their pockets. Your money is fought over with gang violence. By purchasing from them your are perpetuating their violent activities. Like telemarketers, if everyone stopped buying from them, they would go away. Granted, the drug dealers only have their monopoly because it is enforced by the US govt.
Aside from that, your drug use does not bother me at all. If you are only smoking the homegrown or stuff that your Uncles friend grows in the hills around Santa Cruz, I cant even think of anything to object to. I shouldnt even have the right to tell you to what to spend your money on, but you asked...
However this wasnt my point, and I probably picked the worst example by mentioning pot. The disease of addiction is the problem. If I had mentioned a kid who needed some heroin just to feel good enough to go to school, it would have been more clear.
I also feel kinda bad that I triggered the rant, especially since I favor the decriminalization of all drugs. Hell, I think your last big paragraph is spot on. Let Merck sell the stuff. They fight for consumer dollars with ad campaigns not Uzis. However, the disease of addiction does have negative consequensces that can lead to violence. People who have a problem need treatment, its as simple as that.
I still stand by my original premise that more violence can be attrubuted to abuse, addiction, and poverty than any policy on gun control. Violent video games wouldnt even make my top 50 list of factors that contribute to violence. At least the judge had some widsom in this case. Back on topic again...
-BW
Explain to me how taking away your ability to kill with a casual flick of your finger somehow infringes on your personal liberty
I am reluctant to respond because I think you are becoming just a troll. However, here goes...
OK, lets start by clarifying the issues. You are blurring far too many concepts in your reply.
There is a difference between taking away my ability to kill with a flick fo my finger, and taking away my right to own a gun. Killing and gun ownership are two different issues. I do not and should not have the right to kill. That would be infringing on someone elses rights. My point is that you cannot legitimately take away my right to posess property that has legal uses. If that property has the ability to kill someone, then it is my responsibility to treat it with respect and apply appropriate safeguards.
Consider the automobile. I can kill someone with just a little pressure from my right foot. It also gets me to work. I understand the dangers inherent in driving and do so responsibly. Do you dare suggest taking away my rights to own a car, simply because is too can be an effective weapon? Where does it end?
Are telling me that you believe it's your right to be able to kill anyone you want as easily as possible and then face a court while your victim is dead
Of course not. As I have said, I have the right to own the gun, but not to use it in a way that harms others.
-BW
I'd love to see the stats on crimes involving guns v's crimes involving bombs
I wonder how those stats might be different if guns where illegal. After all, a Ryder full of anfo can take out a bunch of people.
Lookup the stats on the number of times a gun is turned on the owner, and then tell me if you still want to have one in your house
Ive done some target shooting in my day and am comfortable around guns. However for personal reasons I dont want to have one in my home. What I do want is the RIGHT to have a gun if I wanted one. Why? I believe in the concept of inherent and inalienable personal liberty. I am OK with choosing not to have a weapon. Yet I do not want anyone else making that decision for me.
-BW
No, no, HELL no. The problem is NOT gun laws. The PROBLEM is addiction, abuse, and poverty.
I was right behind you when you were talking about treating the causes and not the symptoms. However I dont think that gun control laws are even anywhere near the root of the problem. That isnt to say that they are a solution either...
Stop for a second and look at the guy who beats his wife and kids. I would bet that he learned to do that by being beaten himself. Abuse begets abuse, and teaches young minds that violence solves problems. The kid who shot the six year old was living in a hell hole by all accounts.
Who takes hits from the bong between classes? The kid who watches his older brother doing it with his friends. The kid who has a Dad who burns more alcohol than a funny car. Combine the biology and environmental factors, and you have kids walking around looking for their next hit before they take the first one. Drugs bring violence and the addicts feed the drug trade.
When was the last time you saw a well paid sysadmin shooting up a convience store in a botched robbery attempt? Probably never. They have the opporunity to get a check that makes the contents of the register seem trivial.
These issues infect people and create patterns in their lives that are hard to break out of. They also tend to lead people to violent paths. Does it always happen? No, people are not automatons. Would solving these problems end all forms of violence? No, when it comes down to it there are a lot more ways that people can be messed up. However, if you could successfully address these problems, I would expect to see a significant decrease in violent crime.
Note: Im not from the North, Im not a Democrat, and Ive shot plenty of guns in my life.
-BW
I looked around your site, and am mainly interested in the technical challenges. Just last week I was trying to figure out how to do this exact same kind of thing. It seems like you have addressed a lot of the major issues that I was playing with. However something kept nagging at me while I was reading. What speech are you interested in protecting that does not already have adequate protection under the first ammendment? (sorry to be US specific)
Fundamentally I agree with the premise that all censorship should be abolised. However, I would like some examples of speech that you think are not adequately protected AND are not already illegal for other reasons.
The most important facet of free speech is preventing prior restraint. If I can get the word out and distribute the truth, I can deal with the consequenses afterward.
With or without Freenet, I can get any piece of information distributed to a national audience. I might have to answer for my actions, but that comes with the territory. For the most part the Internet has been a very healthy development for the free speech movement. However I do recognize there have been some abuses recently. The deCSS case is probably the best example. Ask yourself- how would your system have really helped the publishers? There already are anonymous channels they could have used for distribution. Did they take advantage of them? No, instead they made their case publically, stood in court to defend themselves, and have greatly increased public consciousness. Is there any shortage of deCSS mirrors now? I think that the source code is in the court records and on tee shirts. Would an anonymous posting of the source to linux newsgroups and dvd forums have had the same impact? I saw a story about deCSS on the local news. Would posting it to the Freenet have gotten the same attention? The last thing we need is to hide these issues among warez and Backstreet MP3en. Free speech abuses need to be held up to the light and exposed in the mainstream press. How does Freenet help with this process?
-BW
Censorware seems to be a hot-button issue that could get a lot of free press. However the key to raising public awareness isnt going to be talking about false positives. Will Joe Average Puritain care if little Billy cant visit a science site about breast cancer? Probably not. Its the porn that slips through the filter that will cause outrage. Focus on that, and then explain some of the technical reasons why censorware will never be 100 percent effective. Then offer the perfect alternative to censorware: local logging of all internet connections.
Local logging offers parents the ability to see what their children are doing, and encourages a relational approach to parenting. Rather than install a blacklist in a box and unleashing the kids on the net, local logging can open the door to talking about important issues instead of pretending they dont exist. Which would you prefer as a parent?
A) Little Billy spends 4 hours trying to get around the censorware, checks out some T and A, and then does it all again tommorrow.
B) Little Billy cant get around the censorware, but it isnt installed on his friends computer. They stay up all night downloading movies from supergoldenhardcorekinkypornographypalace.com
C) Little Billy looks for some porn, and sees some T and A. When you get home, you check the logs and sit Billy down for a LONG discussion about your values. You have the opportunity to provide information and take disciplinary action.
Now, you cant do a whole lot about B. However if your kids do not know that you are logging at home, the need to go somewhere else to try to look at porn is diminished. The probability of catching them in the act is increased.
If my kids look at porn, hate, or build-your-own-boms.com I want to know about it. Actually restricting the information is playing Whack-A-Mole. Having the opportunity to talk about it, after they see it is much more valuable. It gets you involved in their lives and gives you another opportunity to shape their growth. Personally I think that this is the best solution.
Specs for the logger:
Strong encryption and validation of the logs. If log files are deleted, the administrator is notified. If Billy can crack TripleDES in an afternoon, you have bigger issues to deal with than a little bit of porn.
Adjustable levels of visibility. You can either make it unnoticable to prevent B above, or very public to encourage self policing. Public terminals should always be run in NOTICE- We _are_ logging mode.
Protocol versatility Take care of as many sources of inappropriate information as possible.
Difficult to Disable The implementation is an excercise for the reader...
Easy to use Well, Duh!
Make the log files easy to read Highlighting based on trigger words might be useful. Parsing search queries for the search terms would probably take care of a lot of it.
Anyone care to get started?
-BW
Hmmm. I kinda agree. I saw High Fidelity this afternoon and almost walked out. Am I gay? No, Im happily married.
Lets take a little musical diversion, it seems appropriate. My favorite band used to be Dinosaur Jr. J Mascis provided my soundtrack for my high school days. Anyone familiar with their work can back me on this: It sounds a whole lot better when youre lonely. They lyrics make sense and the distortion blurs the pain. Meeting my wife five years ago reduced my dinophilicity. The music hadnt changed, but I had. Lyrics that seemed to describe my here and now became distant and intangible. I enjoyed it less because I was in a different place.
I had the same feelings about High Fidelity. The main character was too distant from my experience for him to be the whole story. The people who will like this film are the ones who can relate to the main story. Otherwise youre left looking for something else to focus on. There were some bright spots outside the relationship saga, but they were pretty spread out. Your enjoyment of this film is all about what you bring to the party.
-BW
No, but if Hemos burns down his house again it would make the front page...
I always wanted to run a site with a poplular webcam on april fools day. I think it would be cool to have masked gunmen burst into the house and take hostages while thousands of cam-heads looked on. Just imagine the calls to 911.
-BW
Imagine the look on the face of the state trooper. Klaus is driving, holding a Lowenbrau in his fourth arm. Youre curled up in the back seat taking a nap, and your AIBO is sticking his head out the window.
I really dont see robotic chauffers as the future of automated driving. It seems like it would be better to mount all of this stuff in the car itself. Granted they do take things up a notch on the cool factor. Personally I am pushing for these auto-drive systems to be implemented like bumper cars. Get a big ass grid, metal freeways, and put bumpers all around. See Mr Gore, you can have your electric cars now...
-BW
Based on the forward you sent me, you still have a bit to learn about the Internet. Let me take this opportunity to give you a brief education.
1. Please do not pass on chain letters. There never has been, and never will be a reward for forwarding an email message.
2. Virus warnings tend to be hoaxes. Do not forward them. Anyone who would heed your warning is probably already protected. Everyone else will just ignore you anyway.
3. Please be selective with the jokes that you pass on. Here is the acid test: Would you bother telling me this joke in person? Jokes that dont pass this test should probably be kept to yourself. If it is good enough, tell it to me the next time I see you. I would rather spend time with you than be another name on your distribution list.
4. Forwards are never a reliable source of information. Unusual reports, especially those involving major corporations, are urban legends. If it were legitimate news, it would be carried by the mainstream media. Scary or outlandish stories are usually nothing but fiction. Enjoy reading them, but keep them to yourself.
5. Do not buy anything from spammers. NEVER! Don't even go to their websites. If you know what headers are, hunt down the bastards and get their accounts cancelled. Never reply to a spam, even just to ask to be removed from their mailing list. They wont take you off, but instead they will put your name on the valid list.
6. Never run any programs or open any executable attachments that you recieve in an email. If it ends in exe, bat, or com, you should delete it. It is usually safe to open zip files, but be suspicious of any contents.
7. Dont be a spammer. Multi level marketing schemes do not intrigue me. I am not interested in becoming part of your downline. Whether it is vitamins, herbs, long distance, magnets, distributed processing, or get-paid-to-surf-the-net I will never sign up. Seriously, I have lost friendships over this kind of stuff. Dont even start.
8. Investment advice comes from professionals, not open web-boards or unsolicited email.
9. Anything that promises an outrageous salary for working at home is bogus. If the opportunity was so good, they would be turning away applicants, not begging for them.
10. This is the last forward that you will ever send. The next time someone forwards you junk, send this to them. Lets break the chain one link at a time.
-BW
Plus who can resist the urge to buy new tech toys to plug into your boxen every month or two...
;)
Two words: My Wife
Of course I still buy what I want anyway, because you would be surprised at how often things break
I do agree with you on most points. Planning ahead can sometimes let you take incremental upgrade steps. I bought my motherboard, an Abit BE-6, and put my old PII 233 (which OCs to 350!) in it. A few months later I got myself a Celeron 400, and a slotket. When the prices come down to where I want them, I will go get an 850Mhz PIII By planning my upgrade path ahead of time, I should be able to use this board for more than a year. A little bit of foresight has left me with fewer orphaned parts that I would have had otherwise.
Granted I do like to keep my old hardware running, or find a good home for it. A 386 was my main computer a little over three years ago. Nothing like the good old days. I still think that PCI slots are backwards...
-BW
Actually, you might be on to something. The best way to handle these folks is a meatspace DOS attack. If everyone turned themselves in the system would reach saturation. If we could get every student in NC to step up and say "I'm Spartacus", this program would be overwhelmed. We could take it to the next level, where someone turns in five people, who then turn in five people and so on. That would be a pretty solid way of Making (less) Money Fast for Pinkerton. Once the money dries up, Wave goodbye to WAVE.
I just do not understand the application of small-time, short sighted solutions to the problem of teen violence. These kids aren't violent because of a video game, the seeds of violence are sown at home. You cannot stop a lifetime of growing up in the midst of addiction, abuse and poverty with a pledge and a discount card. Pinkerton is shameless.
These kids need to sit down and talk to trained counselors. Really talk, not be "threat profiled" and go through the risk assessment BS. To do that they need to feel like they can trust someone. A for-profit tip line that offers a sweepstakes toWin a Free Computer for signing up isn't going to win any trust. Kids know what is real and where peoples motives are. If you dont have a relationship with them, forget about helping on a personal level. All that WAVE does is drive a wedge of mistrust between already disconnected relationships. If the kids felt like they could speak frankly to an adult on campus who really cares, maybe violence would become less of an issue overall.
-BW
Yeah, and I doubt that anything that comes with a $5000+ processor also has SoftMenu II. Although I would like to see the service engineer's face when I ask him what jumpers to change...
-BW
Simple solution for the log files... Encrypt them. Give Mattel a taste of their own medicine.
I would like to suggest ROT-13 as an appropriate method. That's probably enough to keep them busy for years.
-BW
Yeah, it really does seem like Microsoft is finally trying to make the McSystemEngineer cert mean something. I just don't think that expiring the current certs it the right way to go about it.
Pardon me as I bow my head in shame. I am a MCP. I quit working towards my MCSE when I realized that I didn't want to work in that part of the industry anymore. I recently got my "your certifications will expire soon" letter. Even though I wasn't ever going to use the cert again for anything, I was still kinda miffed.
I mean really, just because another year passes, does it mean that I am somehow less qualified to do the 95/98/NT4/EtOH thing? If a company still wants someone who knows how to reboot, reconfigure and reinstall, why wouldnt the certifications that apply to their environment still be valid? I cant think of a reason that doesn't involve pushing new product lines through its in-house tech support sales force. Now I am just a bitter, soon to be former, MCP.
-BW
Ah, yes. You brought up some good points. Another facet to consider it that the music industry isnt about manufacturing, its promotion. The entire CD manufacturing capacity of the United States is probably matched by your average basement in China. Making aluminum sandwiches is pretty easy if you have some starting capital. Its getting the damn things to sell that is the problem. You have to generate a lot of hype to get a disc into all of the mainstream sales channels. Connections and money make little things like Tonight Show appearances and heavy rotation airplay happen. Throw in some personal experiences with paid throngs of fans to get the attentions of the press. Push the hype anyway possible: Free shows, CD signings, Morning radio, Loveline guest hosting, you name it. Forget the manufacturing angle, its pure sales.
The so called "artists" really aren't musicians so much as they are products. Brittney Spears isn't a person, at best she is a character, at worst she is a brand name. The human being behind the image is used to sell CDs, concert tickets, breast implants and lunchboxes. Who cares about the music? Derivative pop with a contemporary sound is all that is needed to move the product. Any higher quality and it goes over the head of the target audience and becomes more expensive to produce. The stiff men in grey suits with accounting degrees keep everything under control.
The Internet poses both problems and opportunities for the industry. Keep in mind that their whole objective is to maximize profits. They know full well the effects of the MP3 on their bottom line. At least they are studying the hell out of it to be sure. Press releases might say otherwise, but I think that they have seen the MP3 make a mostly negligable impact in most sales categories. However they do see the writing on the wall. The times they are a changin. The Compact Disc cash cow won't last forever.
The future of music IS the internet, and the predominant format isn't as lucrative as the what they have going now. Furthermore distribution is much simpler over electronic channels. That opens up competition and "piracy" as more significant concerns. Promotion is also easier and cheaper on the net, compromising yet another of their strengths. Bad news for the traditionalists, good news overall. Finally they have the opportunity to have true "pay to play" marketing. Technical problems aside, record execs drool about that opportunity. Watch for it.
Now onto the meat... IP rights. In most industries they simply would not matter one lick, so long as the "right" people made as much money. If people would spend $100 bucks a second to talk Backstreet Boys, and letting any fool burn CDs of their music made sure that the line wrapped around the block, they would probably go for it. If JonKatz could command 50Gs to speak at seminar, but it required him to allow Charmin to print his articles on every sheet, he just might do it. As the system stands, people are compensated for IP. Don't expect this to change, unless it works out better financially for those who control the IP.
As for having the intrinsic right to own IP, I personally don't think that any other opinion bears consideration. If I write something, design something, or create something of intellectual value, I deserve to be compensated for my work if I so desire. If I can release it under a free license and still make some money, so much the better. Why should other people have the right to be compensated for my work simply because they own tools that can duplicate it? Why should people reap the benefits of my labor without any compensation? Just because the laws of the land do not provide adequate protection, should I lose my rights? I don't think so.
-BW
After all, once you find the girl of your dreams you are going to have to talk to her...
-BW