Ask for a time-based NDA. Say it lasts for 1 year, then you're free to do whatever you want. This would work for employment situations, but still wouldn't be satisfactory for an interview type NDA.
I'm sure if these become more common, the situation will sort itself out since I don't think you can lock up the entire workforce.
Right on! Non programmers often look at my desk and wonder what all the crap is... but very simply it helps a whole lot to write yourself little notes, to-do lists etc in regards to any programs being written. I'll often write out the names and types of database fields instead of constantly going back to refer to sybase central or whatever.
As for my collection of cookies, candy, and pepsi? When I want a snack, I want it now...:o)
I think this type of think is what's needed to get the average person interested in math and science again. Math used to be a hobby for a lot of people, and many discoveries were made by people in their spare time, but unfortuneately the outer boundaries of math and science are generally too specialized and complex for the average person to understand.
A few months ago I saw a list of unsolved mathematical problems that required no special knowledge to understand and I thought it was a really good idea since it might get your average person interested in solving one of these problems. For example, Fermat's last theorem has been proven, but using very complex math that was unknown at the time he wrote his little note in the margin. The concept behind the theorem is pretty intuitive, and assuming Fermat wasn't bluffing or erred in his proof, then a simpler method awaits rediscovery.
Published lists of unsolved problems that can be comprehended by a layman may increase interest and make science "real" again for a lot of people who view things like physics and chemistry as voodoo.
Well, crazy stuff has happened before, and continues to happen, so I'd say some sort of liability might not be out of the question...
It's important to point out however, that I don't think anyone will ever be successfully sued in a civil suit but there may be the possibility of criminal liability. If someone wrote a piece of software that's only function was to do something illegal, then you might be able to go after that person for aiding a crime or something like that, since they wouldn't be able to use the defence that their software also had legal uses as well.
Companies like Micro$oft and AOHell wouldn't have any problems because they provide mainstream products and services, and their EULAs pretty much absolve them of any responsablilty for what may or may not happen. In this way, it would be possible to prosecute people without having to worry about the legal clout of the big tech companies.
Alcohol, tobacco, firearms etc all have legit uses as far as legality is concerned, so I don't think you can lump purpose-written, single function progams into that area. This is why the Napster programmers are safe, their product does have potentially legal uses. On the other hand, if someone were to write and distribute a program which can shut down any poweplant in north america, the legal system would probably have a pretty easy time going after the programmer in court assuming they could find him/her.
Sadly this type of thing has been happening all to often recently, and not just with computers. Many companies seem to be in such a rush to push their product that they give little though to after sale support/service and don't have standard procedures for dealing with complaints. It seems that almost nothing is right the first time these days, and it often takes complaining very loudly to get anything more than a sluggish response. The customer service standards of just a few years ago seem to have been tossed out the window, and I wonder how long it will take consumers to become sick of returning merchandise due to poor quality control or any number of things.
This situation seems to apply to many goods, from smaller purchases where it might be tolerated but certainly not expected to things like cars or in this case servers. The backward steps taken in product quality would be mildly amusing if it wasn't so irritating.
I think you've made a very valid point, there are many high tech pieces with virtually no practical use or time-saving attributes, but they are marketed as wonder machines and for the most part people eat it up. I've seen many people waste hours of their time organizing their entire life on their new computer, only to realize that the information is only useful to them when they can be physically at the machine (ie not as convienient as say, an old-fashioned address book or even a basic PDA).
Unfortuneately, I see this type of thing extending now to smaller devices... How useful is web access or even e-mail on a cell phone when your screen is 10 characters wide and 4 lines high?
The problem is that they can keep Carnivore on as long as they want, they only need to get a warrent if the information they want to obtain is to be used in court.
So, a simple scenario is that they turn it on and wait for a pattern of interesting things to crop up, get a little evidence through other means (enough to get a warrent issued) and then anything post-warrent is admissable in court. Any judge will throw out the stuff they obtained before the warrent was issued, but the problem is that carnivore can be used to listen in on what's going on, and get leads which may or may not turn into real investigations.
Hmmm, quite true... I actually thought of this after I posted and I was wondering if someone would bring it up.
How hard would it be to pick up a couple of partners or whatever in a non-legislated company and set up the business there? A lot of spam comes from companies who don't really sell a product but rather some sort of electronic service, so the whole company probably exists on a few easily transportable computers. The idea of an entire company moving for the sake of spam is a little far out, but what's to stop a company that exists entirely is a different country?
I think this law is a great idea, but totally un-enforceable. Even if you could get say, all of the G7 nations to enact similar laws spammers would just move servers to a different country and it would be business as usual. Also, alot of times spam comes from hijacked mail servers so you'd have to deal with suing people whose only fault is having an insecure server if the penalty was paid by the originating address. This is more a case of political posturing than actual law-making. To enforce this law at all would be completely unfeasible.
I agree, when I first heard about C# it was kinda like, here comes micro$oft again to de-standardize everything and take over the world...:o) But this appears to be an actually well thought out project that could bring us another good language. I use Java quite a bit (mainly because everyone wants their projects written in it because of the buzzword value) but parts of the language have always rubbed me the wrong way for whatever reason... this could be the answer
Sure, there are lots of "neat gadgets" for sale outside north america, but I don't neccessarily see that as a disadvantage. I think the main problem consumers face today is that companies still act as if they have little to no competition and you'll still keep coming back no matter how bad the service is. Lack of standards isn't causing difficulties in the marketplace, it's the fact that compainies still market and support their products poorly.
1984, Fenerheight 451, Brave New World, and The Handmaid's Tale are all coming true as we watch...
What's scary is that most people don't realize the extent of the profiling and data mining that goes on with everything they do. Glad I live in Canada, 'cause carnivore's gonna eat more than a few people.
Hey! Your toaster isn't secure at all! It's probably plugged into the power grid right now just waiting for the gremlins to come take it over.
Geez! Everyone knows that the why-2-kay bug didn't hit us because 2000 isn't really the millenium! Bill Gates is just biding his time unitl dec 31 when he can unleash the beast on all of us! ABC told me that viruses can get transmitted through power lines, and if I don't watch out, my microwave will fry me in my sleep!
Gotta go, they're trying to steal my brainwaves again...
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Ask for a time-based NDA. Say it lasts for 1 year, then you're free to do whatever you want. This would work for employment situations, but still wouldn't be satisfactory for an interview type NDA.
I'm sure if these become more common, the situation will sort itself out since I don't think you can lock up the entire workforce.
Right on! Non programmers often look at my desk and wonder what all the crap is... but very simply it helps a whole lot to write yourself little notes, to-do lists etc in regards to any programs being written. I'll often write out the names and types of database fields instead of constantly going back to refer to sybase central or whatever. As for my collection of cookies, candy, and pepsi? When I want a snack, I want it now... :o)
Here's some I found, it was along the lines of stuff like this
I'll see what I can do... It was handed out in my classical algebra class, but if I can find the sheet I'll scan it and post the link
I think this type of think is what's needed to get the average person interested in math and science again. Math used to be a hobby for a lot of people, and many discoveries were made by people in their spare time, but unfortuneately the outer boundaries of math and science are generally too specialized and complex for the average person to understand.
A few months ago I saw a list of unsolved mathematical problems that required no special knowledge to understand and I thought it was a really good idea since it might get your average person interested in solving one of these problems. For example, Fermat's last theorem has been proven, but using very complex math that was unknown at the time he wrote his little note in the margin. The concept behind the theorem is pretty intuitive, and assuming Fermat wasn't bluffing or erred in his proof, then a simpler method awaits rediscovery.
Published lists of unsolved problems that can be comprehended by a layman may increase interest and make science "real" again for a lot of people who view things like physics and chemistry as voodoo.
Well, crazy stuff has happened before, and continues to happen, so I'd say some sort of liability might not be out of the question...
It's important to point out however, that I don't think anyone will ever be successfully sued in a civil suit but there may be the possibility of criminal liability. If someone wrote a piece of software that's only function was to do something illegal, then you might be able to go after that person for aiding a crime or something like that, since they wouldn't be able to use the defence that their software also had legal uses as well.
Companies like Micro$oft and AOHell wouldn't have any problems because they provide mainstream products and services, and their EULAs pretty much absolve them of any responsablilty for what may or may not happen. In this way, it would be possible to prosecute people without having to worry about the legal clout of the big tech companies.
Alcohol, tobacco, firearms etc all have legit uses as far as legality is concerned, so I don't think you can lump purpose-written, single function progams into that area. This is why the Napster programmers are safe, their product does have potentially legal uses. On the other hand, if someone were to write and distribute a program which can shut down any poweplant in north america, the legal system would probably have a pretty easy time going after the programmer in court assuming they could find him/her.
Sadly this type of thing has been happening all to often recently, and not just with computers. Many companies seem to be in such a rush to push their product that they give little though to after sale support/service and don't have standard procedures for dealing with complaints. It seems that almost nothing is right the first time these days, and it often takes complaining very loudly to get anything more than a sluggish response. The customer service standards of just a few years ago seem to have been tossed out the window, and I wonder how long it will take consumers to become sick of returning merchandise due to poor quality control or any number of things.
This situation seems to apply to many goods, from smaller purchases where it might be tolerated but certainly not expected to things like cars or in this case servers. The backward steps taken in product quality would be mildly amusing if it wasn't so irritating.
I think you've made a very valid point, there are many high tech pieces with virtually no practical use or time-saving attributes, but they are marketed as wonder machines and for the most part people eat it up. I've seen many people waste hours of their time organizing their entire life on their new computer, only to realize that the information is only useful to them when they can be physically at the machine (ie not as convienient as say, an old-fashioned address book or even a basic PDA).
Unfortuneately, I see this type of thing extending now to smaller devices... How useful is web access or even e-mail on a cell phone when your screen is 10 characters wide and 4 lines high?
The problem is that they can keep Carnivore on as long as they want, they only need to get a warrent if the information they want to obtain is to be used in court.
So, a simple scenario is that they turn it on and wait for a pattern of interesting things to crop up, get a little evidence through other means (enough to get a warrent issued) and then anything post-warrent is admissable in court. Any judge will throw out the stuff they obtained before the warrent was issued, but the problem is that carnivore can be used to listen in on what's going on, and get leads which may or may not turn into real investigations.
Hmmm, quite true... I actually thought of this after I posted and I was wondering if someone would bring it up.
How hard would it be to pick up a couple of partners or whatever in a non-legislated company and set up the business there? A lot of spam comes from companies who don't really sell a product but rather some sort of electronic service, so the whole company probably exists on a few easily transportable computers. The idea of an entire company moving for the sake of spam is a little far out, but what's to stop a company that exists entirely is a different country?
I think this law is a great idea, but totally un-enforceable. Even if you could get say, all of the G7 nations to enact similar laws spammers would just move servers to a different country and it would be business as usual. Also, alot of times spam comes from hijacked mail servers so you'd have to deal with suing people whose only fault is having an insecure server if the penalty was paid by the originating address. This is more a case of political posturing than actual law-making. To enforce this law at all would be completely unfeasible.
I agree, when I first heard about C# it was kinda like, here comes micro$oft again to de-standardize everything and take over the world... :o) But this appears to be an actually well thought out project that could bring us another good language. I use Java quite a bit (mainly because everyone wants their projects written in it because of the buzzword value) but parts of the language have always rubbed me the wrong way for whatever reason... this could be the answer
Sure, there are lots of "neat gadgets" for sale outside north america, but I don't neccessarily see that as a disadvantage. I think the main problem consumers face today is that companies still act as if they have little to no competition and you'll still keep coming back no matter how bad the service is. Lack of standards isn't causing difficulties in the marketplace, it's the fact that compainies still market and support their products poorly.
1984, Fenerheight 451, Brave New World, and The Handmaid's Tale are all coming true as we watch...
What's scary is that most people don't realize the extent of the profiling and data mining that goes on with everything they do. Glad I live in Canada, 'cause carnivore's gonna eat more than a few people.
Hey! Your toaster isn't secure at all! It's probably plugged into the power grid right now just waiting for the gremlins to come take it over.
Geez! Everyone knows that the why-2-kay bug didn't hit us because 2000 isn't really the millenium! Bill Gates is just biding his time unitl dec 31 when he can unleash the beast on all of us! ABC told me that viruses can get transmitted through power lines, and if I don't watch out, my microwave will fry me in my sleep!
Gotta go, they're trying to steal my brainwaves again...
Man, what a cool song that was! Rice, rice gravy... err, Ice, ice baby! Mr van Winkle just blows my mind rollin' in my 5.0... :o)