First it was tracking consumers. Look at the location histories that public transit agencies store (EZ-Pass, Metro Card, etc), not to mention credit card and cell companies that track and analyze consumer location info for the company's benefit. Money is the greatest motivator.
After these systems are set up, police realize that they can gain access and use them to track suspects or "terrorists." Once the capabilities are well-publicized, parents get interested and companies spew out spinoff consumer-friendly tracking tools... such as Verizon's Chaperone, which more average people buy... which LE will subsequently take advantage of...
Every new advance in location tracking technology is an exploitative cycle between the market forces, Big Brother and normal human attachments.
Frequency and detail of log review is an excellent measurement of what kind of shape the system is in. It has direct bearing on the length of time before problems are discovered, and therefore the stability of the overall system. It's hard to determine, of course, whether admins actually look at the logs. But if you can find some way to verify that log review is occurring, and estimate the amount of time put into it, I think that would be a pretty good way to address the tricky problem of quantifying the effort that goes into maintaining systems.
In addition to regular maintenence, I would include some numbers relating to how many systems were set up and appropriately retired, and how often OS/application updates occurred.
... not to mention the massive potential for child exploitation. If kids in these countries actually manage to connect to the Internet, just think how easy it would be to solicit them. The parents will have no idea how to use a laptop. The kids will be in chat rooms.... Imagine that some sketchy guy says to a kid in Africa, "Hey! I'm your new friend. I'll buy you a plane ticket to America and pay for your college education if you come live with me...." and of course nobody ever hears from the kid again.
And of course, there's porn. There's all kinds of stuff out there that parents probably wouldn't want their kids to be looking at, but there doesn't seem to be much attention focused on educating parents or including parental control/monitoring capabilities. Everything I've heard about this project seems to focus on the educational possibilities, but the reality is that the Internet is a dangerous place, too. The people in charge of OLPC don't seem to want to address those risks. If they actually go through with this as planned, a lot of little kids will get hurt.
Why math? I would argue that a solid writing or law curriculum might be even more valuable. You learn a great deal about logic in the course of writing and evaluating analytic essays/studying law, and in addition you learn the art of written communication, which is often lacking in CS geeks. I was a CS major and I've been a writer all my life. I often find myself using the same skill sets, whether I'm outlining an essay by breaking it down into logical subsections, or outlining a piece of code in the same manner. Logic appears in many disciplines.
Furthermore, whenever I get a job, I'm always told it's because I have great communication skills in addition to my standard technical background. The ability to write clear and effective documentation and comments is just as important as the ability to code, and of course those skills are linked, too. So I'd kill two birds with one stone: learn written communication, and practice the art of logic, by studying literature or law rather than loading up on math classes.
"You know, when I'm done ranting about elite power that rules the planet under a totalitarian government that uses the media in order to keep people stupid, my throat gets parched. That's why I drink orange drink."
Boy does this whole thing make me miss Bill Hicks, another great comedian with a political bent. Here's clip from 92 that's eerily reminiscent of today...
"People ask me where I stood politically you know. It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foreign policy. It's that I believe he's a child of Satan here to destroy the planet Earth. A little to the left..."
"People would say to me, 'Bill, you vote for Clinton, he's gonna raise your taxes. A vote for Clinton is a vote for higher taxes.' See, I have news for you, folks -- the reason I didn't vote for George Bush is because George Bush (along with Ronald Reagan) presided over an administration whose policies towards South America included genocide. So the reason I didn't vote for him is because he's a mass murderer. I'll pay that extra nickel on a liter of petrol just knowing that little brown kids aren't being clubbed to death like baby seals in Honduras so Pepsi can put a plant down there."
Perhaps instead of turning to companies for help writing computer-related laws, lawmakers should create online forums where any member of the community can contribute to or revise laws-to-be...:)
Slashdot Mirror
First it was tracking consumers. Look at the location histories that public transit agencies store (EZ-Pass, Metro Card, etc), not to mention credit card and cell companies that track and analyze consumer location info for the company's benefit. Money is the greatest motivator.
After these systems are set up, police realize that they can gain access and use them to track suspects or "terrorists." Once the capabilities are well-publicized, parents get interested and companies spew out spinoff consumer-friendly tracking tools... such as Verizon's Chaperone, which more average people buy... which LE will subsequently take advantage of...
Every new advance in location tracking technology is an exploitative cycle between the market forces, Big Brother and normal human attachments.
Frequency and detail of log review is an excellent measurement of what kind of shape the system is in. It has direct bearing on the length of time before problems are discovered, and therefore the stability of the overall system. It's hard to determine, of course, whether admins actually look at the logs. But if you can find some way to verify that log review is occurring, and estimate the amount of time put into it, I think that would be a pretty good way to address the tricky problem of quantifying the effort that goes into maintaining systems.
In addition to regular maintenence, I would include some numbers relating to how many systems were set up and appropriately retired, and how often OS/application updates occurred.
... not to mention the massive potential for child exploitation. If kids in these countries actually manage to connect to the Internet, just think how easy it would be to solicit them. The parents will have no idea how to use a laptop. The kids will be in chat rooms.... Imagine that some sketchy guy says to a kid in Africa, "Hey! I'm your new friend. I'll buy you a plane ticket to America and pay for your college education if you come live with me...." and of course nobody ever hears from the kid again.
And of course, there's porn. There's all kinds of stuff out there that parents probably wouldn't want their kids to be looking at, but there doesn't seem to be much attention focused on educating parents or including parental control/monitoring capabilities. Everything I've heard about this project seems to focus on the educational possibilities, but the reality is that the Internet is a dangerous place, too. The people in charge of OLPC don't seem to want to address those risks. If they actually go through with this as planned, a lot of little kids will get hurt.
Why math? I would argue that a solid writing or law curriculum might be even more valuable. You learn a great deal about logic in the course of writing and evaluating analytic essays/studying law, and in addition you learn the art of written communication, which is often lacking in CS geeks. I was a CS major and I've been a writer all my life. I often find myself using the same skill sets, whether I'm outlining an essay by breaking it down into logical subsections, or outlining a piece of code in the same manner. Logic appears in many disciplines.
Furthermore, whenever I get a job, I'm always told it's because I have great communication skills in addition to my standard technical background. The ability to write clear and effective documentation and comments is just as important as the ability to code, and of course those skills are linked, too. So I'd kill two birds with one stone: learn written communication, and practice the art of logic, by studying literature or law rather than loading up on math classes.
So when the malware-du-jour loads itself into memory, you have a virus with a virus?
*cool!!!*
"You know, when I'm done ranting about elite power that rules the planet under a totalitarian government that uses the media in order to keep people stupid, my throat gets parched. That's why I drink orange drink."
k s_on_b_1.htm
Boy does this whole thing make me miss Bill Hicks, another great comedian with a political bent. Here's clip from 92 that's eerily reminiscent of today...
http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2004/07/bill_hic
"People ask me where I stood politically you know. It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foreign policy. It's that I believe he's a child of Satan here to destroy the planet Earth. A little to the left..."
"People would say to me, 'Bill, you vote for Clinton, he's gonna raise your taxes. A vote for Clinton is a vote for higher taxes.' See, I have news for you, folks -- the reason I didn't vote for George Bush is because George Bush (along with Ronald Reagan) presided over an administration whose policies towards South America included genocide. So the reason I didn't vote for him is because he's a mass murderer. I'll pay that extra nickel on a liter of petrol just knowing that little brown kids aren't being clubbed to death like baby seals in Honduras so Pepsi can put a plant down there."
Ouch.
Perhaps instead of turning to companies for help writing computer-related laws, lawmakers should create online forums where any member of the community can contribute to or revise laws-to-be... :)
If they're teaching ethics along with it, then awesome. Knowledge is power.
Trying to discourage the spread of knowledge doesn't make the world a better place. Teaching people to use their skills wisely does.