Articles tend to disappear off of the Globe and Mail site after a week or two:
----8<---- Campaign gets tangled in website spoof JANE TABER It was all the buzz in official Ottawa yesterday -- a hilarious political whodunit in this age of websites, platforms and templates.
Overnight, someone built a website spoofing Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe and his acceptance of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from children, including the 11-year-old twins of a former vice-president of a generic drug company.
By early yesterday afternoon, the Volpe team had the website pulled down.
It was called youthforvolpe.ca and asked children to donate $5,400 and indicate whether the credit card being used is "mommy's or daddy's. . .."
It also included testimonials, and under the heading, "How can you help," it said: "Want to support Joe, but don't know if you can? Talk to your parents, you might have already done your part."
Early yesterday, the website address was flying into the inboxes of politicians, political staffers, journalists and even the strategists from other leadership campaigns.
Mr. Volpe's campaign had the site shut down without knowing, it seems, who put it up: "Hi Everyone," wrote Brenden Johnstone, who is with the Volpe campaign, in an e-mail to other leadership campaigns. "There has been concern about how the issue of the Volpe donations was reflecting on the leadership race.
"My Office has had the website suspended through CIRA [Canadian Internet Registration Authority] and CDNS [Canadian Domain Name Services] and it will be down as soon as 6 p.m. I think the issue with the website has been dealt with. . .."
At one point, the Michael Ignatieff campaign's Quebec youth director, Marc-André Gendron, was suspected because the website was similar to other political sites he had created. Mr. Gendron denied any involvement, pointing out that one of the testimonials was from two children named Chris and Toby Aggarwal. As it turns out, Sachin Aggarwal is the Ignatieff campaign's director of operations.
". . . It strikes me as an effort to frame us," a senior Ignatieff strategist said. ---->8----
parts of words are replaced by numbers that pronounce the same (like writing 'w8' for 'wait')
This can cause a *lot* of confusion to non-native speakers. e.g. "K9" in english, or "K7" in French -- the French reading "K9" think "Quel est un ka-neuf?!" and the english reading "K7" think "wtf is a kay-seven?" (K9 == "canine"; K7 == "cassette")
When we were in New Zealand the sun feels different ! It feels very intense and somewhat uncomfortable, and it was only the first month of spring. You HAVE to use sunscreen.
Does this prove that again, porn is the driving force behind new technology?:)
In all seriousness, yes. It's why laserdiscs failed as a popular medium, and why DVDs succeeded. (I have also heard, but not verified, that there was no porn for Betamax.)
Back in 1992, I thought the web was a stupid idea.
Even a few years ago, I couldn't imagine what I take for granted now - the instant gratification of being able to answer any question on my mind just by calling up google.
Where are all these smart geeky women who can hold up in debates who like geeky guys AND are attractive?
Most of them dropped out of the geek lifestyle
because of the social stigma. Or, they were repeatedly told by their parents that a much "better" profession would be something like teaching or nursing or secretarial.
I've been geeky all my life, enjoyed math and science and taking things apart, but because I couldn't get out of the shadow of my older engineer brother, got given the advice above, and went into the wrong subjects in university. It wasn't until a few years into it that I discovered that helping a colleague at a co-op job with his fortran-to-pascal translation job was way more fun than being an assistant to a department head. It turned out that I was capable of getting top marks in comp sci (which at the time - early 90s - was 5% female), and am now the proud co-founder of a technology startup.
Moral of the story: even today, prejudice runs rampant. If you meet any females who have the slightest technical talent, encourage her as much as you can.
It is dumb, but you can turn it off in the preferences panel.
This is no excuse - all default options should be sensible options. Lots of people don't change their prefs from the defaults until something in the standard behaviour annoys them - which may take a long time, or forever.
It's still dangerous, even if it can be disabled. It shouldn't even be an option. If you want to run the thing so badly, then go run it manually.
(subject changed to avoid the "postersubj compression" error, whatever that is...)
"Lefty" is a hack for the PalmOS that sets a flag saying "I prefer left-handed GUI elements". Lefty-savvy applications will see this flag and adjust their screen rendering accordingly.
For Canadians who live near the border (about 90% of us), it's not difficult to find a post office on the US side of the border, and use that as your shipping address. For example, in Vancouver there is a *wonderful* little post office 10 meters over the border in Point Roberts WA, just 30 minutes drive from downtown, and you can even take the city bus there to pick up your loot (one of the Delta/Tswassen buses goes right to the border)! The customs officials there are very laid-back and will generally wave you through if you give them a big smile and a "howdy". And even if you get charged duty, you'll still save big on the shipping costs.
There is no need to increase supply at the expense of everything else when simple and wise
initiatives to conserve will far outstrip any effort to increase supply.
I agree completely. In fact, nothing *but* usage-side conservation will work.
Why? Let's say we have a 100-year supply of oil left, that is, the oil would last 100 years
if it were consumed at its current rate. But the oil is consumed at a rate
that grows by 5 percent each year. How long would it last under these
circumstances? This is an easy calculation; the answer is a paltry 36 years.
Oh, but let's say we underestimated the supply, and we actually have a
1,000-year supply. At the same annual 5 percent growth rate in use, how long
will this last? The answer is about 79 years.
Then let us say we make a striking discovery of more oil yet a bonanza and
we now have a 10,000-year supply. At our same rate of growing use, how long
would it last? Answer: 127 years.
Estimates vary for how long currently known oil reserves will last, though
they are usually considerably less than 100 years. But the point of this
analysis is that it really doesn't matter what the estimates are. There is
no way that a supply-side attack on America's energy problem can work. The
exponential function describes the behavior of any quantity whose rate of
change is proportional to its size. Compound interest is the most commonly
encountered example it would produce exponential growth if the interest were
calculated at a continuing rate. I have heard public statements that use
"exponential" as though it describes a large or sudden increase. But
exponential growth does not have to be large, and it is never sudden.
Rather, it is inexorable.
Calculations also show that if consumption of an energy resource is allowed
to grow at a steady 5 percent annual rate, a full doubling of the available
supply will not be as effective as reducing that growth rate by half to 2.5
percent. Doubling the size of the oil reserve will add at most 14 years to
the life expectancy of the resource if we continue to use it at the
currently increasing rate, no matter how large it is currently. On the other
hand, halving the growth of consumption will almost double the life
expectancy of the supply, no matter what it is.
This mathematical reality seems to have escaped the politicians pushing to
solve our energy problem by simply increasing supply. Building more power
plants and drilling for more oil is exactly the wrong thing to do, because
it will encourage more use. If we want to avoid dire consequences, we need
to find the political will to reduce the growth in energy consumption to
zero or even begin to consume less.
I must emphasize that reducing the growth rate is not what most people are
talking about now when they advocate conservation; the steps they recommend
are just Band-Aids. If we increase the gas mileage of our automobiles and
then drive more miles, for example, that will not reduce the growth rate.
Reducing the growth of consumption means living closer to where we work or
play. It means telecommuting. It means controlling population growth. It
means shifting to renewable energy sources.
Instead of choosing the "internet" category for this article, the poster should have chosen "hardware", so this more appropriate icon would have been used instead.:)
Sorry for the post, but you have no contact info listed. SN, can you drop me an email? thx.
Re:Current status of David Hahn
on
Duct Tape
·
· Score: 1
he has already received more than his lifetime allowable dosage of radiation
Could someone please ensure that David gets a vasectomy, to ensure that he doesn't have mutated children? (It would also be a good idea to specify in his will that his body be treated as toxic waste and disposed of accordingly.)
Put as much as possible (e.g. PDA, celphone..) on your belt with clips, and carry the rest in a waist pouch or a shoulder bag (e.g. the timbuk2 that someone else mentioned).
I expressly selected a Motorola StarTAC phone because of its small size and belt clip; I also got a Rhinoskin pouch for my Handspring (Rhinoskin also has larger pouches and carrying cases for various electronic devices). I have been told I look very geeky - and I take this as a compliment!:)
I am printing the full article here for the benefit of the archives, as The Globe and Mail is famous for only maintaining their archives for a week or two.
----
POSTED AT 12:37 PM EDT Monday, April 16
Federal privacy commissioner says work e-mail confidential
By VIRGINIA GALT
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Toronto
Employees have a "fundamental, inherent right" to privacy in the workplace, and this includes the right to private e-mail, says federal Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski.
"Most of us would agree that an employer would have no business randomly or routinely pawing through the desk drawers of employees, and examining whatever happens to be there. What makes the contents of a computer any
different?"
This runs counter to the belief of many employers, who say that because they own the equipment, they have an unlimited right to peruse the contents, Mr. Radwanski notes. "This is wrong."
The immense capacity of technology to capture and log any transaction conducted on a computer raises enormous privacy concerns that legislators are just now moving to address. It has implications for both employers -- who say they have a duty to guard against Internet abuse -- and employees, who don't want to feel like Big Brother is always watching over them.
Technological advances notwithstanding, the privacy commissioner says employees do not lose their right to privacy just because an employer tells them "not to expect any privacy."
The establishment of legal and acceptable limits is all the more important given that many major employers now have the means to electronically monitor their work force, he said in an interview from his Ottawa office, where he oversees compliance with the new Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
"A lot of employers... want to monitor employees' e-mail and Web use because they're concerned about employees' time-wasting. I don't think the potential justifies this," he said at a conference in Toronto, organized by the University of Toronto's Centre for Industrial Relations and legal publisher Lancaster House Publishing.
"If there's a real problem, if there is a reason to suspect abuse, that's different. You can address that in a less privacy-invasive way than monitoring everyone," he said in a forceful speech aimed at clarifying the intent of the law.
The new federal privacy law pertaining to electronic documents, which took effect Jan. 1, stipulates that an organization may collect, use or disclose personal information "only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate." Mr. Radwanski, who has the authority to investigate and refer breaches of the act to the Federal Court of Canada, says "random snooping" through employees' e-mail boxes is clearly a breach.
The law applies to federally regulated industries such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting and interprovincial transportation.
Mr. Radwanski predicted that the law will soon provide the framework for similar provincial privacy provisions.
Mr. Radwanski's speech set the stage for a rousing debate at the conference, which drew industrial relations specialists from both the labour and management sides.
Management representatives argued that they should be able to use the tools at their disposal to protect against employee theft, fraud or unauthorized distribution of "commercially sensitive material." Electronic monitoring can also uncover e-mail and Internet abuse, such as the transmission of harassing e-mail messages or the downloading of pornography.
Bell Canada lawyer Suzanne Morin said company-provided Internet access "is a privilege, not a
right."
The telephone utility, a unit of Montreal-based BCE Inc., permits and encourages employees to "surf the Net" for personal use, as long as it does not interfere with job performance and employees do not violate company policy, Ms. Morin said.
Bell keeps a log of all computer activity, she said, but does not delve into the content unless there has been a complaint about a possible breach of company policy. Allegations of fraud, theft, sexual or racial harassment will be investigated, Ms. Morin said.
Mr. Radwanski declined to comment on specific company policies but said that he has "no problem" with employers conducting targeted investigations into suspected policy violations or illegal activity.
Labour lawyer Lorne Richmond, of the Toronto firm Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, said he is concerned employers will "hide behind" the legal requirement that they maintain harassment-free workplaces to conduct widespread electronic surveillance. Arbitrators have restricted the rights of employers to place employees under video surveillance, he noted.
The privacy commissioner dismissed the notion that harassment can only be tracked and stopped through electronic monitoring. Employers can only be held liable if they have not exercised "due diligence" to prevent it, he said.
"Get yourself a good harassment policy," he advised employers, and make sure employees are aware of the acceptable limits of e-mail and Internet use on company time.
"You're not going to get dinged for liability because you refused to treat all your employees like suspects and install computer monitoring software."
Appointed in November to a seven-year term, Mr. Radwanski, a former journalist, author and public policy researcher, said the technological revolution has made privacy "the defining issue of this new decade." Snooping can't be stopped, so "we have to impose our own limits."
Slashdot Mirror
Articles tend to disappear off of the Globe and Mail site after a week or two:
."
."
----8<----
Campaign gets tangled in website spoof
JANE TABER
It was all the buzz in official Ottawa yesterday -- a hilarious political whodunit in this age of websites, platforms and templates.
Overnight, someone built a website spoofing Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe and his acceptance of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from children, including the 11-year-old twins of a former vice-president of a generic drug company.
By early yesterday afternoon, the Volpe team had the website pulled down.
It was called youthforvolpe.ca and asked children to donate $5,400 and indicate whether the credit card being used is "mommy's or daddy's. . .
It also included testimonials, and under the heading, "How can you help," it said: "Want to support Joe, but don't know if you can? Talk to your parents, you might have already done your part."
Early yesterday, the website address was flying into the inboxes of politicians, political staffers, journalists and even the strategists from other leadership campaigns.
Mr. Volpe's campaign had the site shut down without knowing, it seems, who put it up: "Hi Everyone," wrote Brenden Johnstone, who is with the Volpe campaign, in an e-mail to other leadership campaigns. "There has been concern about how the issue of the Volpe donations was reflecting on the leadership race.
"My Office has had the website suspended through CIRA [Canadian Internet Registration Authority] and CDNS [Canadian Domain Name Services] and it will be down as soon as 6 p.m. I think the issue with the website has been dealt with. . .
At one point, the Michael Ignatieff campaign's Quebec youth director, Marc-André Gendron, was suspected because the website was similar to other political sites he had created. Mr. Gendron denied any involvement, pointing out that one of the testimonials was from two children named Chris and Toby Aggarwal. As it turns out, Sachin Aggarwal is the Ignatieff campaign's director of operations.
". . . It strikes me as an effort to frame us," a senior Ignatieff strategist said.
---->8----
This can cause a *lot* of confusion to non-native speakers. e.g. "K9" in english, or "K7" in French -- the French reading "K9" think "Quel est un ka-neuf?!" and the english reading "K7" think "wtf is a kay-seven?" (K9 == "canine"; K7 == "cassette")
The article included several photos. Click on "web of mystery" which appears just after the first paragraph.
Also check out this salon.com article about life in Chile under the hole. Scary stuff.
In all seriousness, yes. It's why laserdiscs failed as a popular medium, and why DVDs succeeded. (I have also heard, but not verified, that there was no porn for Betamax.)
Even a few years ago, I couldn't imagine what I take for granted now - the instant gratification of being able to answer any question on my mind just by calling up google.
How can some professor do better?
Most of them dropped out of the geek lifestyle because of the social stigma. Or, they were repeatedly told by their parents that a much "better" profession would be something like teaching or nursing or secretarial.
I've been geeky all my life, enjoyed math and science and taking things apart, but because I couldn't get out of the shadow of my older engineer brother, got given the advice above, and went into the wrong subjects in university. It wasn't until a few years into it that I discovered that helping a colleague at a co-op job with his fortran-to-pascal translation job was way more fun than being an assistant to a department head. It turned out that I was capable of getting top marks in comp sci (which at the time - early 90s - was 5% female), and am now the proud co-founder of a technology startup.
Moral of the story: even today, prejudice runs rampant. If you meet any females who have the slightest technical talent, encourage her as much as you can.
photo 2
photo 3, from the APOD.
photo 4
photo 5, allowing zoom controls
photo 6 - a closeup of the ridges
Also, here is NASA's writeup on Miranda.
This is no excuse - all default options should be sensible options. Lots of people don't change their prefs from the defaults until something in the standard behaviour annoys them - which may take a long time, or forever.
It's still dangerous, even if it can be disabled. It shouldn't even be an option. If you want to run the thing so badly, then go run it manually.
(subject changed to avoid the "postersubj compression" error, whatever that is...)
No, but there was a provincial by-election in Beaches-East York today (Thursday) (which the NDP (a social democratic party) won).
A: Mommy, mommy, can I go outside and play with grandma?
B: No! You've already dug her up three times this week!
A: Mommy, mommy, I'm tired of running in circles!
B: Be quiet, or I'll nail your other foot to the floor!
A: Mommy, mommy, I hate my sister!
B: Shut up and keep eating!
"Lefty" is a hack for the PalmOS that sets a flag saying "I prefer left-handed GUI elements". Lefty-savvy applications will see this flag and adjust their screen rendering accordingly.
For Canadians who live near the border (about 90% of us), it's not difficult to find a post office on the US side of the border, and use that as your shipping address. For example, in Vancouver there is a *wonderful* little post office 10 meters over the border in Point Roberts WA, just 30 minutes drive from downtown, and you can even take the city bus there to pick up your loot (one of the Delta/Tswassen buses goes right to the border)! The customs officials there are very laid-back and will generally wave you through if you give them a big smile and a "howdy". And even if you get charged duty, you'll still save big on the shipping costs.
I agree completely. In fact, nothing *but* usage-side conservation will work.
Why? Let's say we have a 100-year supply of oil left, that is, the oil would last 100 years if it were consumed at its current rate. But the oil is consumed at a rate that grows by 5 percent each year. How long would it last under these circumstances? This is an easy calculation; the answer is a paltry 36 years.
Oh, but let's say we underestimated the supply, and we actually have a 1,000-year supply. At the same annual 5 percent growth rate in use, how long will this last? The answer is about 79 years.
Then let us say we make a striking discovery of more oil yet a bonanza and we now have a 10,000-year supply. At our same rate of growing use, how long would it last? Answer: 127 years.
Estimates vary for how long currently known oil reserves will last, though they are usually considerably less than 100 years. But the point of this analysis is that it really doesn't matter what the estimates are. There is no way that a supply-side attack on America's energy problem can work. The exponential function describes the behavior of any quantity whose rate of change is proportional to its size. Compound interest is the most commonly encountered example it would produce exponential growth if the interest were calculated at a continuing rate. I have heard public statements that use "exponential" as though it describes a large or sudden increase. But exponential growth does not have to be large, and it is never sudden. Rather, it is inexorable.
Calculations also show that if consumption of an energy resource is allowed to grow at a steady 5 percent annual rate, a full doubling of the available supply will not be as effective as reducing that growth rate by half to 2.5 percent. Doubling the size of the oil reserve will add at most 14 years to the life expectancy of the resource if we continue to use it at the currently increasing rate, no matter how large it is currently. On the other hand, halving the growth of consumption will almost double the life expectancy of the supply, no matter what it is.
This mathematical reality seems to have escaped the politicians pushing to solve our energy problem by simply increasing supply. Building more power plants and drilling for more oil is exactly the wrong thing to do, because it will encourage more use. If we want to avoid dire consequences, we need to find the political will to reduce the growth in energy consumption to zero or even begin to consume less.
I must emphasize that reducing the growth rate is not what most people are talking about now when they advocate conservation; the steps they recommend are just Band-Aids. If we increase the gas mileage of our automobiles and then drive more miles, for example, that will not reduce the growth rate. Reducing the growth of consumption means living closer to where we work or play. It means telecommuting. It means controlling population growth. It means shifting to renewable energy sources.
And nothing, nothing, else will be sufficient.
Instead of choosing the "internet" category for this article, the poster should have chosen "hardware", so this more appropriate icon would have been used instead. :)
Sorry for the post, but you have no contact info listed. SN, can you drop me an email? thx.
Could someone please ensure that David gets a vasectomy, to ensure that he doesn't have mutated children? (It would also be a good idea to specify in his will that his body be treated as toxic waste and disposed of accordingly.)
I expressly selected a Motorola StarTAC phone because of its small size and belt clip; I also got a Rhinoskin pouch for my Handspring (Rhinoskin also has larger pouches and carrying cases for various electronic devices). I have been told I look very geeky - and I take this as a compliment! :)
The submittor should also be aware that reading light grey text on a dark grey background can be brutal on the eyes. :)
----
POSTED AT 12:37 PM EDT Monday, April 16
Federal privacy commissioner says work e-mail confidential
By VIRGINIA GALT
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Toronto Employees have a "fundamental, inherent right" to privacy in the workplace, and this includes the right to private e-mail, says federal Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski.
"Most of us would agree that an employer would have no business randomly or routinely pawing through the desk drawers of employees, and examining whatever happens to be there. What makes the contents of a computer any different?"
This runs counter to the belief of many employers, who say that because they own the equipment, they have an unlimited right to peruse the contents, Mr. Radwanski notes. "This is wrong."
The immense capacity of technology to capture and log any transaction conducted on a computer raises enormous privacy concerns that legislators are just now moving to address. It has implications for both employers -- who say they have a duty to guard against Internet abuse -- and employees, who don't want to feel like Big Brother is always watching over them.
Technological advances notwithstanding, the privacy commissioner says employees do not lose their right to privacy just because an employer tells them "not to expect any privacy."
The establishment of legal and acceptable limits is all the more important given that many major employers now have the means to electronically monitor their work force, he said in an interview from his Ottawa office, where he oversees compliance with the new Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
"A lot of employers ... want to monitor employees' e-mail and Web use because they're concerned about employees' time-wasting. I don't think the potential justifies this," he said at a conference in Toronto, organized by the University of Toronto's Centre for Industrial Relations and legal publisher Lancaster House Publishing.
"If there's a real problem, if there is a reason to suspect abuse, that's different. You can address that in a less privacy-invasive way than monitoring everyone," he said in a forceful speech aimed at clarifying the intent of the law.
The new federal privacy law pertaining to electronic documents, which took effect Jan. 1, stipulates that an organization may collect, use or disclose personal information "only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate." Mr. Radwanski, who has the authority to investigate and refer breaches of the act to the Federal Court of Canada, says "random snooping" through employees' e-mail boxes is clearly a breach.
The law applies to federally regulated industries such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting and interprovincial transportation.
Mr. Radwanski predicted that the law will soon provide the framework for similar provincial privacy provisions.
Mr. Radwanski's speech set the stage for a rousing debate at the conference, which drew industrial relations specialists from both the labour and management sides.
Management representatives argued that they should be able to use the tools at their disposal to protect against employee theft, fraud or unauthorized distribution of "commercially sensitive material." Electronic monitoring can also uncover e-mail and Internet abuse, such as the transmission of harassing e-mail messages or the downloading of pornography.
Bell Canada lawyer Suzanne Morin said company-provided Internet access "is a privilege, not a right."
The telephone utility, a unit of Montreal-based BCE Inc., permits and encourages employees to "surf the Net" for personal use, as long as it does not interfere with job performance and employees do not violate company policy, Ms. Morin said.
Bell keeps a log of all computer activity, she said, but does not delve into the content unless there has been a complaint about a possible breach of company policy. Allegations of fraud, theft, sexual or racial harassment will be investigated, Ms. Morin said.
Mr. Radwanski declined to comment on specific company policies but said that he has "no problem" with employers conducting targeted investigations into suspected policy violations or illegal activity.
Labour lawyer Lorne Richmond, of the Toronto firm Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, said he is concerned employers will "hide behind" the legal requirement that they maintain harassment-free workplaces to conduct widespread electronic surveillance. Arbitrators have restricted the rights of employers to place employees under video surveillance, he noted.
The privacy commissioner dismissed the notion that harassment can only be tracked and stopped through electronic monitoring. Employers can only be held liable if they have not exercised "due diligence" to prevent it, he said.
"Get yourself a good harassment policy," he advised employers, and make sure employees are aware of the acceptable limits of e-mail and Internet use on company time.
"You're not going to get dinged for liability because you refused to treat all your employees like suspects and install computer monitoring software."
Appointed in November to a seven-year term, Mr. Radwanski, a former journalist, author and public policy researcher, said the technological revolution has made privacy "the defining issue of this new decade." Snooping can't be stopped, so "we have to impose our own limits."
You may be interested in this nice piece of work that Sears pulled this week then. Pretty disgusting.
Oh, and FP.
A new arrival to slashdot must think CmdrTaco is some important fancy dude, or something.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, profundum viditur.
Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Vote Cthulhu: "For when you're tired of the lesser evil"
Oh I love my job oh yes I do
There are just so many fun things to do
I work all day and all night too
I'm gonna feed my boss to a hungry grue