I sent this in for Slashdot to post as an article. They chose not to (understandably). But I do think it is very relevant to the privacy issue. Read it through to see why.
A couple of years ago I received a letter from a collection agency.
Gee Mr. Anderson you owe us $1000 on this account. I didn't recognize the
claimed creditor or account, so, being an innocent 'babe of the woods' type
I thought "I'll just call them and point out that it's not my account" - All
done! Right? Wrong! I call and am told that while the balance is $1000
they would graciously offer to settle this for me for a mere $300. What a
deal! After I pointed out that this was not my account and therefore this
was, in fact, a very bad deal, I was once again told this was a bargain and
I should accept it regardless.
Needless to say I rejected their very gracious blackmail offer and
instead opted to write them and the three major credit bureaus to inform
them that this was not my debt. The credit bureaus proceeded to investigate
and 2 out of three deleted the entry in 30 days as required by the FCRA
(Fair Credit Reporting Act) when in fact they can not verify the debt. The
last bureau deleted the entry in 45 days after a gentle reminder from me.
This was nearly two years ago and logic would dictate that there's
nothing more to be said about it. Unfortunately the FCRA doesn't require
logic and the FTC apparently does not enforce it.
Two days ago I received a new request from a new debt collection agency
requesting that I pay $1500 on this same account! No doubt they would
settle for $50 and a kiss but this is a major issue of principle. Where
does it stop?
I am therefore trying a new tack and one which SlashDot readers will
likely appreciate and also find very disconcerting. I have created a
special website for this particular agency at http://pinnacle.avarix.com .
After spending a few dollars I gathered all the information I could about
the agency and its principals. At the site are the agency's real address as
opposed to the PO box they provide. The CEO's real address(s) and date of
birth and the last four digits of his SSN. I bought that for around $40 or
so. Shocked? You should be and I hope that laws will be passed to stop my,
and their, misuse of personal information, but until then, turnabout is fair
play!
Maybe by getting the wolves to join we can encourage European style
privacy protection (you own your personal information). If everyone has a
vested interest in protecting their personal data we have a chance of
changing the law. I think that if everyone took this approach we could shift
the sentiment at the political level. I am sure that SlashDot readers will
have some very interesting insights.
What is the reverse DNS for the 'national DSL provider' resolving to? I'll bet that's the problem. Are the admins at the 'national DSL provider' easy to reach? My experience has been that they are ALL difficult to reach and of dubious technical competence once reached.
Earthlink is rejecting mail from a Pacbell IP address not coming from a Pacbell mail server. That is the problem cited. The problem here is that Pacbell should delegate reverse DNS to the customer so that the mail can apparently originate from his own domain's IP address. Or better yet (in my opinion) shut off reverse DNS.
Take all of the junk mail you receive on a given day. Stuff it into any postage paid junk mail envelope you receive. They actually quit sending you crap after a surprisingly short period of time. Enjoy.
Do what you have a burning desire to do. It doesn't matter which degree you have. In fact, it doesn't matter if you have one at all. Your motivation and ability will matter (in that order). The rest is mostly crap.
If you are doing this just to get a job you will soon be depressed, and looking to switch careers. If you do it because you love it and can't imagine doing anything else then you'll be happy regardless of pay, and, the pay will come anyways because you'll be so damned good at it.
If you are keen on being a manager read Dilbert and think better of it. If you are already more interested in managing than writing cool code it is hopeless.
As a practical matter the math involved in the CS might be useful if you were planning on writing code for DSP's, otherwise it is of questionable value. On the other hand if you're going to spend the same amount of time in school you might as well learn something challenging. Does your brain have a previous engagement?
It seems that there are one or two individuals who believe that "only criminals" would seek to protect their data.
That may be true, but fortunately, the constitution arguably agrees that the government does not necessarily have that right.
Aren't your personal files which you created and stored on your computer the product of your own mind? And since the fifth amendment allows you to refuse to testify against yourself why can't you refuse to divulge the contents of your disk by simply pleading the fifth. Even if the argument were that the computer is simply evidence and that a court order requires you to turn it over how can the court order you to turn over the key which you argue might be incriminating?
I realize that this is all academic in Britain but in the U.S. I think you could simply refuse to divulge your key on this basis and it would make for a very interesting Supreme Court case.
Also to anonymous coward who posted:
"The laws in this country are just, and created by the public will. Anti government paranoia is downright unamerican."
Does this include the RICO laws?
Anti government paranoia is quintessentially American. In fact i'd say it nearly defines 'American' particulary when contrasted with European viewpoints. But for anti government paranoia we would have Europes socialist structure. No, this wouldn't be all bad, but we wouldn't be nearly as competetive as we are today.
Hooray for anti government paranoia!
Sub-Pixel rasterization is, in a word, stupid. Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should.
This technology is only beneficial in LCD environments with typical filter configurations.
It is a work-around for a rapidly diminishing problem. The requirement for extremely high resolutions to support very fine text rendering.
The economics of LCD displays is very similar to that of RAM chips. There are technical requirements to increase density, but, there are very few cost factors. LCD displays are currently displaying up to 200 PPI and will ultimately display 300+ PPI on consumer displays. This rivals laser quality print, on screen.
Currently available laptops from DELL and IBM display 1600x1200 on 14.x inch displays. This represent 133+ PPI! These displays really don't need sub-pixel rendering. They need scaling.
The problem which really needs to be addressed is scaling on these very high-res displays. Not dumb work-arounds for problems which don't exist. Anti-aliasing is of course always beneficial, but the perceived need for sub-pixel rendering is only being driven by Microsoft's ClearType having resurected an otherwise dead idea. Its appeal rests solely in its apparent cleverness.
Yet another episode in Microsoft's ongoing efforts to blackmail developers.
We have to obtain MS logo certification on an ongoing basis for our software products. Since our software has no alternative but to use some unusual means of installing we have point this out each time we test for certification. Each time requires several rounds and, naturally, costs thousands of dollars.
Revenue is what MS signed apps are really all about. Just another revenue source for MS and don't believe otherwise!
Digital signatures are conceptually fine. The link between "Alice" and her document can be created by a certifying authority much like notarizing a paper document. At least then the likelihood of forgery is significantly lower. Clearly signatures on paper are completely worthless. Does the back of your credit card contain a signature or do you write "See ID". If it contains a sig you obviously intend for anyone to be able to use your card.
An interesting question that this does bring up though is; How could you set up a method for generating digital sigs on the spot? (as in signing a credit card receipt)
We were originally running NT 4.0 and exchange as our mail server at our company. For about a year or so this worked acceptably well. There were a continuous series of relatively minor issues depending on the client in use, but nothing tragic. Eventually though as we tried adding new employees and new mailboxes for utility purposes we found that Exchange would Invariably error out at the end of the process with some sort of a cryptic mapping error. We actually got to a point where we could add no users and were simply stuck.
I had been messing around with a Linux (Red Hat 5.2) system at the time running SAMBA and had set it up to as a mail server for my own domain. After a few months my confidence level with this system was quite high. I was also pleased to find that performance was excellent.
To make a long story short I switched all of our servers over to Linux. We have had no problems since. We had to constantly reboot our NT boxes. Remote administration was a pain. I can now administer the whole thing from home over X.
There is no compelling argument one could use to swith to NT/Exchange server. It is moving in precisely the wrong direction. Those recommending it are either inexperienced or just plain fools. There is never a good reason to mess with success. If they want to sstandardize on Outlook on the client end fine. But why does it matter?
When Exchange Server fails your company will be relying on Microsoft for answers. That's scary! If sendmail fails a virtualy limitless pool of information is available. If need be you can always debug the problem yourself.
To be fair I will also mention the one (and only) time our sendmail system failed. We ran out of space on var. I had to clean up var and restart sendmail. Time to fix 10 mins.
We are going to look back at this in 10 years and laugh.
One should be able to register a TLD in the same fashion that one registers any domain. That way I can set up some of my old 386sx systems to handle DNS requests for my new.GOD TLD. I foresee huge demand for this TLD and I'll let you be the judge of what part I'll play in it all. I will say that those who pay to upgrade my 386's are more likely to see the pearly gates swing wide!
I likewise am in the same situation. If production isn't what matters than something is seriously wrong. What compelling arguments can one really create for why programmers should be on defined schedules?
While a system receiving digital votes could be hacked it would be irrelevant since Digital votes could provide accountability. After or during a count you could always view your vote online.
Digital Signatures are legal now. There is no need mail paper to back up the election. A voter could potentially print a signed copy of his ballot. Signed by the election authority at the time he votes. This could then be compared to his online ballot at any time.
Yes, there is always the potential that a site could be Hijacked. But, as the author says, few would risk federal penalties for tampering with an election when they would be so relatively easy to track down.
The question of the electoral college and this mechanisms ability to represent sparsely populated states is another wank. In an Australian style voting system with built-in runoffs rural areas would gain added representation by third, fourth, etc. party candidates. When it becomes possible to vote for the candidate you prefer without the possibility of sacrificing your vote every viewpoint can be represented fairly. Imagine being able to vote for a pro-choice fiscal conservative!
Strange to think that even the majority viewpoint can't be adequately represented by our current pathetic two party system.
The current outcome of this election is a timely blessing. It emphasizes the dire need to reform our election process. Thank god the founding fathers realized that our government would need the ability to evolve. It is not overstating the case to say that our ability to adapt and fix this situation now could easily determine whether we remain the preeminant world power in the 22nd century. It may not be a matter of the election process itsself but merely the fact that we are unable to change to correct something that is so obviously broken. If we can't fix this we will ultimately strangle on our own democracy.
I think it is also useful to view this in the light of another major issue; Campaign Finance Reform. Interesting to note that a well conceived fix would also reduce the power of special interests and diminish the need for huge contributions. Maybe these problems were just the undiagnosed symtoms of our diseased electoral process? Is there a doctor in the house?
Fine, but that has nothing to do with getting an education. In fact by its misplaced reverence for the school and its attempt to generate in students an emotional response I believe it (homecoming, rallys, etc) should be viewed as a religious celebration. I won't stop you but please take it off of public school grounds thankyou. When I pay my property taxes I prefer to think that not one penny is going to this tripe.
He didn't say he didn't want to win. Just that he thought it was very far-fetched that he would win. I suspect John McCain considered it far-fetched that he might win but i'm sure he still wanted to.
Either way they are both able to influence political discourse on the their respective subjects of interest. The high school student more so by virtue of his winning.
And besides he's right. Bravo for bringing attention to our screwed up priorities. Homecoming, school spirit, etc, ad nauseum. What a bunch of garbage. How selfish of our public schools/administrators/teachers to require students to attend this garbage! Why aren't more teachers suggesting that this be disposed of? I'm sure that many students have better thing to do with their time and brain cells and besides I resent paying for it!
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Thanks. I made the change.
A couple of years ago I received a letter from a collection agency. Gee Mr. Anderson you owe us $1000 on this account. I didn't recognize the claimed creditor or account, so, being an innocent 'babe of the woods' type I thought "I'll just call them and point out that it's not my account" - All done! Right? Wrong! I call and am told that while the balance is $1000 they would graciously offer to settle this for me for a mere $300. What a deal! After I pointed out that this was not my account and therefore this was, in fact, a very bad deal, I was once again told this was a bargain and I should accept it regardless.
Needless to say I rejected their very gracious blackmail offer and instead opted to write them and the three major credit bureaus to inform them that this was not my debt. The credit bureaus proceeded to investigate and 2 out of three deleted the entry in 30 days as required by the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) when in fact they can not verify the debt. The last bureau deleted the entry in 45 days after a gentle reminder from me.
This was nearly two years ago and logic would dictate that there's nothing more to be said about it. Unfortunately the FCRA doesn't require logic and the FTC apparently does not enforce it.
Two days ago I received a new request from a new debt collection agency requesting that I pay $1500 on this same account! No doubt they would settle for $50 and a kiss but this is a major issue of principle. Where does it stop?
I am therefore trying a new tack and one which SlashDot readers will likely appreciate and also find very disconcerting. I have created a special website for this particular agency at http://pinnacle.avarix.com . After spending a few dollars I gathered all the information I could about the agency and its principals. At the site are the agency's real address as opposed to the PO box they provide. The CEO's real address(s) and date of birth and the last four digits of his SSN. I bought that for around $40 or so. Shocked? You should be and I hope that laws will be passed to stop my, and their, misuse of personal information, but until then, turnabout is fair play!
Maybe by getting the wolves to join we can encourage European style privacy protection (you own your personal information). If everyone has a vested interest in protecting their personal data we have a chance of changing the law. I think that if everyone took this approach we could shift the sentiment at the political level. I am sure that SlashDot readers will have some very interesting insights.
What is the reverse DNS for the 'national DSL provider' resolving to? I'll bet that's the problem. Are the admins at the 'national DSL provider' easy to reach? My experience has been that they are ALL difficult to reach and of dubious technical competence once reached.
Earthlink is rejecting mail from a Pacbell IP address not coming from a Pacbell mail server. That is the problem cited. The problem here is that Pacbell should delegate reverse DNS to the customer so that the mail can apparently originate from his own domain's IP address. Or better yet (in my opinion) shut off reverse DNS.
Take all of the junk mail you receive on a given day. Stuff it into any postage paid junk mail envelope you receive. They actually quit sending you crap after a surprisingly short period of time. Enjoy.
If you are doing this just to get a job you will soon be depressed, and looking to switch careers. If you do it because you love it and can't imagine doing anything else then you'll be happy regardless of pay, and, the pay will come anyways because you'll be so damned good at it.
If you are keen on being a manager read Dilbert and think better of it. If you are already more interested in managing than writing cool code it is hopeless.
As a practical matter the math involved in the CS might be useful if you were planning on writing code for DSP's, otherwise it is of questionable value. On the other hand if you're going to spend the same amount of time in school you might as well learn something challenging. Does your brain have a previous engagement?
I agree, read my post. I said that sub-pixel rasterization ala ClearType is stupid and I still maintain that it is.
"we mere mortals are stuck at 80ppi"
No problem. I'm patient, you'll get there. I am just taking my cue from Windoze. Just do anti-aliasing and wait for hardware to catch up.
That may be true, but fortunately, the constitution arguably agrees that the government does not necessarily have that right. Aren't your personal files which you created and stored on your computer the product of your own mind? And since the fifth amendment allows you to refuse to testify against yourself why can't you refuse to divulge the contents of your disk by simply pleading the fifth. Even if the argument were that the computer is simply evidence and that a court order requires you to turn it over how can the court order you to turn over the key which you argue might be incriminating? I realize that this is all academic in Britain but in the U.S. I think you could simply refuse to divulge your key on this basis and it would make for a very interesting Supreme Court case. Also to anonymous coward who posted: "The laws in this country are just, and created by the public will. Anti government paranoia is downright unamerican." Does this include the RICO laws? Anti government paranoia is quintessentially American. In fact i'd say it nearly defines 'American' particulary when contrasted with European viewpoints. But for anti government paranoia we would have Europes socialist structure. No, this wouldn't be all bad, but we wouldn't be nearly as competetive as we are today. Hooray for anti government paranoia!
This technology is only beneficial in LCD environments with typical filter configurations.
It is a work-around for a rapidly diminishing problem. The requirement for extremely high resolutions to support very fine text rendering.
The economics of LCD displays is very similar to that of RAM chips. There are technical requirements to increase density, but, there are very few cost factors. LCD displays are currently displaying up to 200 PPI and will ultimately display 300+ PPI on consumer displays. This rivals laser quality print, on screen.
Currently available laptops from DELL and IBM display 1600x1200 on 14.x inch displays. This represent 133+ PPI! These displays really don't need sub-pixel rendering. They need scaling.
The problem which really needs to be addressed is scaling on these very high-res displays. Not dumb work-arounds for problems which don't exist. Anti-aliasing is of course always beneficial, but the perceived need for sub-pixel rendering is only being driven by Microsoft's ClearType having resurected an otherwise dead idea. Its appeal rests solely in its apparent cleverness.
We have to obtain MS logo certification on an ongoing basis for our software products. Since our software has no alternative but to use some unusual means of installing we have point this out each time we test for certification. Each time requires several rounds and, naturally, costs thousands of dollars.
Revenue is what MS signed apps are really all about. Just another revenue source for MS and don't believe otherwise!
An interesting question that this does bring up though is; How could you set up a method for generating digital sigs on the spot? (as in signing a credit card receipt)
I had been messing around with a Linux (Red Hat 5.2) system at the time running SAMBA and had set it up to as a mail server for my own domain. After a few months my confidence level with this system was quite high. I was also pleased to find that performance was excellent.
To make a long story short I switched all of our servers over to Linux. We have had no problems since. We had to constantly reboot our NT boxes. Remote administration was a pain. I can now administer the whole thing from home over X.
There is no compelling argument one could use to swith to NT/Exchange server. It is moving in precisely the wrong direction. Those recommending it are either inexperienced or just plain fools. There is never a good reason to mess with success. If they want to sstandardize on Outlook on the client end fine. But why does it matter?
When Exchange Server fails your company will be relying on Microsoft for answers. That's scary! If sendmail fails a virtualy limitless pool of information is available. If need be you can always debug the problem yourself. To be fair I will also mention the one (and only) time our sendmail system failed. We ran out of space on var. I had to clean up var and restart sendmail. Time to fix 10 mins.
One should be able to register a TLD in the same fashion that one registers any domain. That way I can set up some of my old 386sx systems to handle DNS requests for my new .GOD TLD. I foresee huge demand for this TLD and I'll let you be the judge of what part I'll play in it all. I will say that those who pay to upgrade my 386's are more likely to see the pearly gates swing wide!
I likewise am in the same situation. If production isn't what matters than something is seriously wrong. What compelling arguments can one really create for why programmers should be on defined schedules?
Digital Signatures are legal now. There is no need mail paper to back up the election. A voter could potentially print a signed copy of his ballot. Signed by the election authority at the time he votes. This could then be compared to his online ballot at any time.
Yes, there is always the potential that a site could be Hijacked. But, as the author says, few would risk federal penalties for tampering with an election when they would be so relatively easy to track down.
The question of the electoral college and this mechanisms ability to represent sparsely populated states is another wank. In an Australian style voting system with built-in runoffs rural areas would gain added representation by third, fourth, etc. party candidates. When it becomes possible to vote for the candidate you prefer without the possibility of sacrificing your vote every viewpoint can be represented fairly. Imagine being able to vote for a pro-choice fiscal conservative!
Strange to think that even the majority viewpoint can't be adequately represented by our current pathetic two party system.
The current outcome of this election is a timely blessing. It emphasizes the dire need to reform our election process. Thank god the founding fathers realized that our government would need the ability to evolve. It is not overstating the case to say that our ability to adapt and fix this situation now could easily determine whether we remain the preeminant world power in the 22nd century. It may not be a matter of the election process itsself but merely the fact that we are unable to change to correct something that is so obviously broken. If we can't fix this we will ultimately strangle on our own democracy.
I think it is also useful to view this in the light of another major issue; Campaign Finance Reform. Interesting to note that a well conceived fix would also reduce the power of special interests and diminish the need for huge contributions. Maybe these problems were just the undiagnosed symtoms of our diseased electoral process? Is there a doctor in the house?
Fine, but that has nothing to do with getting an education. In fact by its misplaced reverence for the school and its attempt to generate in students an emotional response I believe it (homecoming, rallys, etc) should be viewed as a religious celebration. I won't stop you but please take it off of public school grounds thankyou. When I pay my property taxes I prefer to think that not one penny is going to this tripe.
He didn't say he didn't want to win. Just that he thought it was very far-fetched that he would win. I suspect John McCain considered it far-fetched that he might win but i'm sure he still wanted to. Either way they are both able to influence political discourse on the their respective subjects of interest. The high school student more so by virtue of his winning. And besides he's right. Bravo for bringing attention to our screwed up priorities. Homecoming, school spirit, etc, ad nauseum. What a bunch of garbage. How selfish of our public schools/administrators/teachers to require students to attend this garbage! Why aren't more teachers suggesting that this be disposed of? I'm sure that many students have better thing to do with their time and brain cells and besides I resent paying for it!