Seriously, you have a bigger risk of getting your credit card number stolen when you pay for your dinner at a restaurant with it then by submitting it to a website using SSL.
True, my father had stuff purchased on his card right after going out to eat somewhere. It happens. BUT - the number of accounts that a restaurant has access to is miniscule to something like Passport would. Crackers will go for a big score. And in a restaurant, you choose to pay by credit card, and know of the risks. Do you know the risks involved in using Passport? No, you don't! It is none of your business. Trust Microsoft, they have a proven track record of security. Just let them take care of everything...
If they screw this up the class action lawsuit that will result would likely put them out of business.
I am pretty convinced that MS is untouchable, they have too much money and ego. Weren't they convicted of using monopolistic practices to hinder competition. Hmm, let's see, what was their penalty again?
This is one point where I would be dancing for joy if I was proven wrong.
In Denmark some of the major telecompanies have just released a method where you can pay with your mobile number. In this case you register your credit card to your mobile phone. When you want to do a purchase, you type in the mobile number (more easy to remember), and the system verifies it by sending a SMS to you phone that you'll need to verify by typing in a pin-code. Now this is a very secure way of doing business. Of cause no system is 100% secure. But in the same manner as the passport solution, you still need to register your credit card to a database, connected online, that can be contacted by the merchants. Sound similar to me.
Note some of the words in bold above. See, what you have described is a service where people have a choice. You can pay like this if you want to. It doesn't sound like this is forced upon users. THAT is why it is different than the MS vision.
Makes you wonder if Mr Gates uses Passport himself. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a cracker and stumble across that info? It would be like finding the fountain of youth in the town square of Atlantis and drinking from it with the Holy Grail.
a service that some people might actually find useful and helpful?
something that would make it more convenient to shop on the net?
the nerve of microsoft!
This needs to be modded up, seriously. Why? Because this is how the unwashed masses think, and MS knows it. But here is what you are not seeing - you may or may not see this "service" as useful, but you should have a CHOICE of whether or not to use it. MS can roll out any service they wish, as long as they don't force people to use it. Get it? They are cutting deals that FORCE you to give up your information to something that has proven to be insecure. I should have the right to decline that service. If you find it useful and more convenient, go right ahead and use it. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones who doesn't get nailed to the wall when (not if) someone cracks in and steals passports. I can guarantee it won't happen to me, because I won't get a passport account. I'll quit shopping online and get rid of my credit cards before it comes to that.
Speilberg would do much better overall than Lucas, as I am sure at this point anyone could. But we would have to probably endure an ending that was entirely too long, drawn out, and cliche. He has a tendency to do that with some movies that otherwise are fantastic. A.I. and Cast Away come to mind.
Sorry, don't buy this. Natalie Portman is very good, especially for her age. The Professional, Heat, Beautiful Girls, Mars Attacks. Ewan McGregor was in Trainspotting and Black Hawk Down. Ian McDiarmid, Samuel Jackson, etc. Check out the list of actors in this movie at IMDB and see what they have been in. Now I am not saying they are the best actors ever, but they are somewhat accomplished. But you can't polish a turd, and Lucas has turned this series into a steaming pile.
Well, the corp standard here is IE, but I use Opera. If I need to get something off of the corporate site, I just use IE. Why should I suffer 99% of the time if I don't have to? "CAUSE WE SAID SO", boomed the voice from the sky.
In-house is one thing, but what we are developing is for customers (hospitals). Sure, we can say that they must use IE, and it isn't much of a pain for them to do so - yet. What if parts of the system are opened up to outside traffic? Or some of the employees work from home or remotely and need to access it? All of a sudden, our software sucks because it doesn't work with other browsers. Maybe that will never happen, but if it does we look bad. It is ALWAYS "cheaper" to do something correctly up front instead of trying to fix it after the fact.
But, we are a corporate entity, where MS rules. I would love (hate, really) to see how much we are spending on MS licenses each year.
I just put this one up on my website, in an unlinked page:
Frigginspammer, Ima One Dell Way MSC8424 Round Rock, TX 78682
If Dell picks it up, or anyone else, then they are using a harvester because this page isn't linked from anything.
There are many possibilities for this type of thing. I keep record of those companies who send me unsolicited ads, like Dell. Just because I give them my email address (because they required it when I ordered something), it doesn't mean they can send me spam. Instead of talking to the brick wall, I just make sure to go sign up for all kinds of newsletters on the web, and use sales@dell.com, or support@dell.com as my email address.
Kind of a take-off of the old order-20-magazine-subscriptions-and-"bill-me-later " for one of your "friends".
Because of the organic nature of feathers, and the need to tightly control variances in chips, I highly doubt that this will ever happen. However, it does sound like it could point manufacturers in the right direction. If the feather composite was 2x as fast as silicon, it sounds like they could mimic the properties of feathers into an easily produced substance. (the article mentions microbubbles in silicon as one alternative)
But the guy gets major props for coming up with this. It sounds like he has several good ideas that are similar for other industries.
Hmm, I wonder if vegans would use computers with chips made out of chicken feathers...
The boss doesn't care if some small percent isn't using IE.
It's more than the boss. I worked on a project recently that was an intranet web app (hospitals). During discussions about web browser compatability, development's "solution" to the problem was to just put a statement in our docs that states the supported browsers. (IE and Netscape) When we (QA) started raising tons of bugs against the code because it didn't work in Netscape, they actually wanted to change it so that we only supported IE. When I objected, I got the line that everyone had IE, there was no reason to support anything else. (?!) Amongst our customers, this was true because we were a Windows-only shop. Even though it would have cut down a lot of the testing we had to do to support only one browser, I fought against it and won. Now we officially support both Netscape and IE.
Because he's an actual author who has opinions that people think are worth reading?
Hi Jon, er, Mr Coward.
Sorry, not on Slashdot. Seriously, the vast majority of comments to his stories are ripping them apart. Because it is easy to rip apart his stories? YES. They often are of no opinion on anything, state nothing clearly, and are simply globs of catch phrases of the day strung together with poorly researched "facts". Go back and read the articles he has posted, and read the top moderated comments on them. And a lot of people don't comment on his stories because they have them blocked in their preferences. I haven't blocked them because reading his stories are a great way to learn how NOT to write.
Seriously, why does this movie constitute a review on Slashdot? Lord of the Rings, OK. Attack of the Clones, OK. Matrix, OK. Monsters Inc, OK. Those are somewhat "geek oriented" movies in story or technology. MIB wasn't really, and I am guessing that this one isn't either. Is it considered Sci-Fi? Are all Sci-Fi movies going to be reviewed? But I don't really understand why Katz is allowed to post any story.
Another quote by Boehm, as quoted in Software Engineering A Practitioner's Approach, 3rd edition, by Roger S. Pressman:
Today, a software cost estimation model is doing well if it can estimate software development costs within 20% of actual costs, 70% of the time, and on its own turf (that is, within the class of projects to which it has been calibrated)...This is not as precise as we might like, but it is accurate enough to provide a good deal of help in software engineering economic analysis and decision making.
I type this in from the dusty book sitting on my desk, which was the textbook for my last CS class in college, back in '93. Software engineering. Most useful class I ever took in college.
This is hardly an endorsement of COCOMO. (COnstructive COst MOdel) Not to slam the author of the paper, it was an interesting idea. Just don't go around thinking that his findings are entirely accurate.
Kevin Mitnick got as much media coverage in our time as Al Capone, even though he never killed anybody.
Capone was arrested in 1929, and died in 1947. Hardly "our time". Or did you mean that the media coverage for Capone was less than that of Mitnick? That would be an even bigger stretch. Ask 10 people on the street who Al Capone is, and then ask them who Kevin Mitnick is. We all know how that would turn out. I am guessing you might get one person who has heard of Mitnick.
I could go on and on pointing out how stupid of a comparison this is, but there is no point in it - anyone with half a brain doesn't take anything Katz says seriously anyway.
The concern for Alexis Patterson is only centered in Milwaukee because she is black, and people outside the Milwaukee area wouldn't care about her. (I believe this is what Katz is trying to say)
Nope. To quote his article:
"Such companies don't decide not to cover Alexis Patterson because she's poor and black."
Nice double-negative, huh? He isn't saying a damn thing, he is just pointing out the obvious facts, and obfuscating them a little with his usual buzzy jargon.
I agree with John Katz that media is made up of shallow whores with more bias in their story selection than their actual content.
And the hilarious ironic part is that Katz is part of it all (save the "actual content")
It is painfully obvious that the Smart kidnapping is getting more widespread press coverage than all of the other similar events in this country. But what is the point of merely pointing that out? My issue is that Katz only points this fact out. That isn't a news story either, it is a simple observation. Duh. The execs control the news we see and hear? Holy Jebus, what a revelation!
Slashdot algorithm excerpt:
if numberofsubmissions is less than 5
then
run katzbot
fi
First off, a big DUH to JK for another (sarcasm) insightful (/sarcasm) article. But what exactly does this mean:
Profoundly pragmatic and opportunistic, they'd be happy to exploit blacks as well as whites, if the demographics worked. They don't cover Alexis Patterson's abduction because poor viewers in Milwaukee or elsewhere have nothing to do with ratings, ad revenue or profit margins. Blonde kids from wealthy families in Salt Lake City do.
A quick search shows populations of these areas:
Milwaukee, WI (city)
Population (1990): 628088
Per Capita Income (1995): $25,906
Salt Lake City, UT (city)
Population (1990): 159936
Per Capita Income (1996): $19,995
So what exactly is the point of comparing crimes in these cities? Milwaukee is poorer than Salt Lake City? Hmm. Demographics? Money? Race? What exactly is Jon saying here? Sadly, nobody (including him) knows. I found the above information in about 10 minutes on the net, I am sure a "professional" journalist could come up with some better facts to back up his opinion. What was that opinion again?
I hate to agree, but I do. Especially when I am browsing for legitimate news, and the site is blocked by my company's filters. It irks me - but I can live with it. I know people who dick off all day on the net - they will always find something to waste their time doing. Filters just make sure it is not porn, for the most part. (one particular person propagated the AnnaK virus like 10 times because he just kept opening that attachment over and over)
At the previous company I worked, a small one that eventually bit the dust, the IT guy told me on the first day "we don't monitor your net traffic. As long as you get your job done, nobody cares. And if you find any really good porn, let me know."
But in big companies, there is too much deadwood. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. Just because you can give people freedom doesn't mean it is always the best thing to do.
If you are on a Windows based machine somewhere, and you need to use ssh, you can quickly get PuTTY from the net. It is small (220k), so you could even keep it with you on a floppy. And it is only a single executable. PuTTY is THE ssh client for Windows, IMO.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, that's what gamers are known for - their clever pick-up lines. ROTFLMAO
True, my father had stuff purchased on his card right after going out to eat somewhere. It happens. BUT - the number of accounts that a restaurant has access to is miniscule to something like Passport would. Crackers will go for a big score. And in a restaurant, you choose to pay by credit card, and know of the risks. Do you know the risks involved in using Passport? No, you don't! It is none of your business. Trust Microsoft, they have a proven track record of security. Just let them take care of everything...
If they screw this up the class action lawsuit that will result would likely put them out of business.
I am pretty convinced that MS is untouchable, they have too much money and ego. Weren't they convicted of using monopolistic practices to hinder competition. Hmm, let's see, what was their penalty again?
This is one point where I would be dancing for joy if I was proven wrong.
Now this is a very secure way of doing business. Of cause no system is 100% secure. But in the same manner as the passport solution, you still need to register your credit card to a database, connected online, that can be contacted by the merchants. Sound similar to me.
Note some of the words in bold above. See, what you have described is a service where people have a choice. You can pay like this if you want to. It doesn't sound like this is forced upon users. THAT is why it is different than the MS vision.
Makes you wonder if Mr Gates uses Passport himself. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a cracker and stumble across that info? It would be like finding the fountain of youth in the town square of Atlantis and drinking from it with the Holy Grail.
This needs to be modded up, seriously. Why? Because this is how the unwashed masses think, and MS knows it. But here is what you are not seeing - you may or may not see this "service" as useful, but you should have a CHOICE of whether or not to use it. MS can roll out any service they wish, as long as they don't force people to use it. Get it? They are cutting deals that FORCE you to give up your information to something that has proven to be insecure. I should have the right to decline that service. If you find it useful and more convenient, go right ahead and use it. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones who doesn't get nailed to the wall when (not if) someone cracks in and steals passports. I can guarantee it won't happen to me, because I won't get a passport account. I'll quit shopping online and get rid of my credit cards before it comes to that.
Speilberg would do much better overall than Lucas, as I am sure at this point anyone could. But we would have to probably endure an ending that was entirely too long, drawn out, and cliche. He has a tendency to do that with some movies that otherwise are fantastic. A.I. and Cast Away come to mind.
Sorry, don't buy this. Natalie Portman is very good, especially for her age. The Professional, Heat, Beautiful Girls, Mars Attacks. Ewan McGregor was in Trainspotting and Black Hawk Down. Ian McDiarmid, Samuel Jackson, etc. Check out the list of actors in this movie at IMDB and see what they have been in. Now I am not saying they are the best actors ever, but they are somewhat accomplished. But you can't polish a turd, and Lucas has turned this series into a steaming pile.
In-house is one thing, but what we are developing is for customers (hospitals). Sure, we can say that they must use IE, and it isn't much of a pain for them to do so - yet. What if parts of the system are opened up to outside traffic? Or some of the employees work from home or remotely and need to access it? All of a sudden, our software sucks because it doesn't work with other browsers. Maybe that will never happen, but if it does we look bad. It is ALWAYS "cheaper" to do something correctly up front instead of trying to fix it after the fact.
But, we are a corporate entity, where MS rules. I would love (hate, really) to see how much we are spending on MS licenses each year.
Frigginspammer, Ima
One Dell Way
MSC8424
Round Rock, TX 78682
If Dell picks it up, or anyone else, then they are using a harvester because this page isn't linked from anything.
There are many possibilities for this type of thing. I keep record of those companies who send me unsolicited ads, like Dell. Just because I give them my email address (because they required it when I ordered something), it doesn't mean they can send me spam. Instead of talking to the brick wall, I just make sure to go sign up for all kinds of newsletters on the web, and use sales@dell.com, or support@dell.com as my email address.
Kind of a take-off of the old order-20-magazine-subscriptions-and-"bill-me-later " for one of your "friends".
But the guy gets major props for coming up with this. It sounds like he has several good ideas that are similar for other industries.
Hmm, I wonder if vegans would use computers with chips made out of chicken feathers...
It's more than the boss. I worked on a project recently that was an intranet web app (hospitals). During discussions about web browser compatability, development's "solution" to the problem was to just put a statement in our docs that states the supported browsers. (IE and Netscape) When we (QA) started raising tons of bugs against the code because it didn't work in Netscape, they actually wanted to change it so that we only supported IE. When I objected, I got the line that everyone had IE, there was no reason to support anything else. (?!) Amongst our customers, this was true because we were a Windows-only shop. Even though it would have cut down a lot of the testing we had to do to support only one browser, I fought against it and won. Now we officially support both Netscape and IE.
Are you kidding man!?? All it takes is someone to program it to kill, and WHAM - we have a mess of T2000s on our hands.
Good Lord, man, WHY!?
Hi Jon, er, Mr Coward.
Sorry, not on Slashdot. Seriously, the vast majority of comments to his stories are ripping them apart. Because it is easy to rip apart his stories? YES. They often are of no opinion on anything, state nothing clearly, and are simply globs of catch phrases of the day strung together with poorly researched "facts". Go back and read the articles he has posted, and read the top moderated comments on them. And a lot of people don't comment on his stories because they have them blocked in their preferences. I haven't blocked them because reading his stories are a great way to learn how NOT to write.
1. I don't think I would even call this sci-fi
2. Minority Report
Seriously, why does this movie constitute a review on Slashdot? Lord of the Rings, OK. Attack of the Clones, OK. Matrix, OK. Monsters Inc, OK. Those are somewhat "geek oriented" movies in story or technology. MIB wasn't really, and I am guessing that this one isn't either. Is it considered Sci-Fi? Are all Sci-Fi movies going to be reviewed? But I don't really understand why Katz is allowed to post any story.
It is called hedging your bets. RIAA wins, Sony makes money. RIAA loses, Sony makes money.
Today, a software cost estimation model is doing well if it can estimate software development costs within 20% of actual costs, 70% of the time, and on its own turf (that is, within the class of projects to which it has been calibrated)...This is not as precise as we might like, but it is accurate enough to provide a good deal of help in software engineering economic analysis and decision making.
I type this in from the dusty book sitting on my desk, which was the textbook for my last CS class in college, back in '93. Software engineering. Most useful class I ever took in college.
This is hardly an endorsement of COCOMO. (COnstructive COst MOdel) Not to slam the author of the paper, it was an interesting idea. Just don't go around thinking that his findings are entirely accurate.
No doubt that their display will consist of Linux running on an Xbox.
Capone was arrested in 1929, and died in 1947. Hardly "our time". Or did you mean that the media coverage for Capone was less than that of Mitnick? That would be an even bigger stretch. Ask 10 people on the street who Al Capone is, and then ask them who Kevin Mitnick is. We all know how that would turn out. I am guessing you might get one person who has heard of Mitnick.
I could go on and on pointing out how stupid of a comparison this is, but there is no point in it - anyone with half a brain doesn't take anything Katz says seriously anyway.
Nope. To quote his article:
"Such companies don't decide not to cover Alexis Patterson because she's poor and black."
Nice double-negative, huh? He isn't saying a damn thing, he is just pointing out the obvious facts, and obfuscating them a little with his usual buzzy jargon.
I agree with John Katz that media is made up of shallow whores with more bias in their story selection than their actual content.
And the hilarious ironic part is that Katz is part of it all (save the "actual content")
Slashdot algorithm excerpt:
if numberofsubmissions is less than 5
then
run katzbot
fi
Profoundly pragmatic and opportunistic, they'd be happy to exploit blacks as well as whites, if the demographics worked. They don't cover Alexis Patterson's abduction because poor viewers in Milwaukee or elsewhere have nothing to do with ratings, ad revenue or profit margins. Blonde kids from wealthy families in Salt Lake City do.
A quick search shows populations of these areas:
Milwaukee, WI (city)
Population (1990): 628088
Per Capita Income (1995): $25,906
Salt Lake City, UT (city)
Population (1990): 159936
Per Capita Income (1996): $19,995
So what exactly is the point of comparing crimes in these cities? Milwaukee is poorer than Salt Lake City? Hmm. Demographics? Money? Race? What exactly is Jon saying here? Sadly, nobody (including him) knows. I found the above information in about 10 minutes on the net, I am sure a "professional" journalist could come up with some better facts to back up his opinion. What was that opinion again?
At the previous company I worked, a small one that eventually bit the dust, the IT guy told me on the first day "we don't monitor your net traffic. As long as you get your job done, nobody cares. And if you find any really good porn, let me know."
But in big companies, there is too much deadwood. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. Just because you can give people freedom doesn't mean it is always the best thing to do.
If you are on a Windows based machine somewhere, and you need to use ssh, you can quickly get PuTTY from the net. It is small (220k), so you could even keep it with you on a floppy. And it is only a single executable. PuTTY is THE ssh client for Windows, IMO.