According to the Fair Debt Collection Act, a credit collection agency is NOT allowed to do any of the following: (a) they may not call you on the phone without prior authorization from you to do so, (b) they may not mention your debt to any third party (ie: your family, employer, business associates, employees, etc), (c) they may not visit you in person without prior consent from you to do so. In fact, without recorded voice permission, or written consent from you, the only contact option they possess is to type up the request for payment, lick it and put a stamp on it.
These restrictions do not apply to the original creditor (ie: AT&T can call you about a phone bill, and Sears can call you about your credit card payments), though they aren't allowed to mention the debts (see part B) to any third parties either, and visiting in person can easily be turned into a matter of criminal trespass, resulting in the arrest and removal of the in-house collection agent.
According to NCO's web site, they appear to be a third-party collection agency. They can't call you to collect a debt unless you've given them permission to do so.
Alienation of the leaders... yeah. I can see that happen, and have. Now, how about when the 'leaders' alienate the projects? Eric S. Raymond recently started slinging flames at the Pennmush folks, citing their lack of a GPL license as reason to threaten the developers with OSS community sanctions (which were never voted on by the OSI board, btw), because they were using the words 'open' and 'source' in their license. A definition did follow. It read "meaning that the source is freely available and you can modify it however you like". But this wasn't good enough. I don't know if the OSI folks realize what ESR did when he sent that Nastygram(tm), but I'm more than willing to point out a portion of the damage done.
Many developers decided not to support the OSI once they heard about this. I'm one of them. It's not worth our time or effort to stand behind a project that, while espousing lofty goals, stoops to such politically motiviated activities as attempting to hijack a common phrase (anyone else remember the Pilsbury vs whoever over 'bake-off' thing? I do).
Ego? Maybe. I have no idea what sort of bug got into his pants. But this was really, really WRONG. Perhaps if ESR had sent an email asking for some sort of clarification of the license, instead of threatening sanctions against the Pennmush project right from the word go, things might have gone better. But, as it stands, the OSI now has an image very similar to that of any other corporate entity that starts any correspondence with threats and bullying tactics. I'm sure this is the sort of thing Micro$oft and other corporations love to see, and expected and hoped for, you know. Open Source eating its own young, biting its own tail off, that sort of thing.
I feel I must pause to applaud. [golf clap] Way to go Mr.Raymond. Just let me know when I should start calling you Mr.Gates, OK?
By the way, I think an open apology might be in order, from the entire OSI board, since ESR wrote his threats with the big Open Source Intimidation label all over them. Take responsibility, even if you won't accept blame.
In case you're wondering, yes, this annoys me slightly. Cope.
I'm a 14 year veteran of the IT industry, and I see no labor shortage. I do see shortages, but not where people think they are. There's certainly no shortage of applicants. But once you use standard HR screening tactics you've tossed out a good majority of your qualified applicants. This leaves you with a run of people who may or may not be, but likely aren't, qualified for the posted position. How does this happen? Here's the shortage I see most often: HR departments aren't being properly trained in valid, effective hiring practices. Much like the UPO they don't understand what they'd dealing with.
It's understandable to want documentation to support claims being made by an applicant. Degrees are fine examples of documentation like this, but I'm afraid this practice breaks down on the IT level (is anyone else reminded of the standard argument about common sense breaking down on the subatomic level?). I started college in 1984 - how many IT degrees do you think were available then? A grand total of two, and I was attending one of the many larger state universities at the time. I had a choice between becoming a computer programmer, or a systems analyst. I decided to become a systems administrator, instead. In a world of bright white shirts, pressed slacks, sport jackets and neck ties I slapped on the warpaint and donned a feathered headdress. That's possibly the best analogy I can come up with (especially at 8am).
We're voodoo priests to most of them. They don't understand what a systems administrator does, how he or she does it, or what skills are required to work that particular brand of voodoo we do (anyone who understands the rule, "Read the man pages. If that makes the process either ridiculously easy or bloody impossible, STOP! You don't know what you're doing. Read them again!" knows what I'm referring to as 'voodoo').
Perhaps if the HR departments and upper management were better trained they would be able to modify their screening practices for IT categories and we wouldn't hear this near-constant cry of a shortage of workers.
Just remember, there's no shortage of call center technicians. But being able to walk someone through reinstalling modem drivers over the phone doesn't qualify you to upgrade the kernel on a Sparc station. Conversely, being able to compile your own kernels or make custom modifications to them doesn't, by itself, make you a systems administrator.
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According to the Fair Debt Collection Act, a credit collection agency is NOT allowed to do any of the following: (a) they may not call you on the phone without prior authorization from you to do so, (b) they may not mention your debt to any third party (ie: your family, employer, business associates, employees, etc), (c) they may not visit you in person without prior consent from you to do so. In fact, without recorded voice permission, or written consent from you, the only contact option they possess is to type up the request for payment, lick it and put a stamp on it.
These restrictions do not apply to the original creditor (ie: AT&T can call you about a phone bill, and Sears can call you about your credit card payments), though they aren't allowed to mention the debts (see part B) to any third parties either, and visiting in person can easily be turned into a matter of criminal trespass, resulting in the arrest and removal of the in-house collection agent.
According to NCO's web site, they appear to be a third-party collection agency. They can't call you to collect a debt unless you've given them permission to do so.
Good Times is a hoax.
Symantec has a write-up on it, and has had for a long time now.
It's English.
It's just not American.
I submitted this same story a week ago, when the original alerts came out. It was, of course, turned down with no reason given.
I guess it's not what you submit, but who submits it?
Whatever.
Alienation of the leaders ... yeah. I can see that happen, and have. Now, how about when the 'leaders' alienate the projects? Eric S. Raymond recently started slinging flames at the Pennmush folks, citing their lack of a GPL license as reason to threaten the developers with OSS community sanctions (which were never voted on by the OSI board, btw), because they were using the words 'open' and 'source' in their license. A definition did follow. It read "meaning that the source is freely available and you can modify it however you like". But this wasn't good enough. I don't know if the OSI folks realize what ESR did when he sent that Nastygram(tm), but I'm more than willing to point out a portion of the damage done.
Many developers decided not to support the OSI once they heard about this. I'm one of them. It's not worth our time or effort to stand behind a project that, while espousing lofty goals, stoops to such politically motiviated activities as attempting to hijack a common phrase (anyone else remember the Pilsbury vs whoever over 'bake-off' thing? I do).
Ego? Maybe. I have no idea what sort of bug got into his pants. But this was really, really WRONG. Perhaps if ESR had sent an email asking for some sort of clarification of the license, instead of threatening sanctions against the Pennmush project right from the word go, things might have gone better. But, as it stands, the OSI now has an image very similar to that of any other corporate entity that starts any correspondence with threats and bullying tactics. I'm sure this is the sort of thing Micro$oft and other corporations love to see, and expected and hoped for, you know. Open Source eating its own young, biting its own tail off, that sort of thing.
I feel I must pause to applaud. [golf clap] Way to go Mr.Raymond. Just let me know when I should start calling you Mr.Gates, OK?
By the way, I think an open apology might be in order, from the entire OSI board, since ESR wrote his threats with the big Open Source Intimidation label all over them. Take responsibility, even if you won't accept blame.
In case you're wondering, yes, this annoys me slightly. Cope.
I'm a 14 year veteran of the IT industry, and I see no labor shortage. I do see shortages, but not where people think they are. There's certainly no shortage of applicants. But once you use standard HR screening tactics you've tossed out a good majority of your qualified applicants. This leaves you with a run of people who may or may not be, but likely aren't, qualified for the posted position. How does this happen? Here's the shortage I see most often: HR departments aren't being properly trained in valid, effective hiring practices. Much like the UPO they don't understand what they'd dealing with.
It's understandable to want documentation to support claims being made by an applicant. Degrees are fine examples of documentation like this, but I'm afraid this practice breaks down on the IT level (is anyone else reminded of the standard argument about common sense breaking down on the subatomic level?). I started college in 1984 - how many IT degrees do you think were available then? A grand total of two, and I was attending one of the many larger state universities at the time. I had a choice between becoming a computer programmer, or a systems analyst. I decided to become a systems administrator, instead. In a world of bright white shirts, pressed slacks, sport jackets and neck ties I slapped on the warpaint and donned a feathered headdress. That's possibly the best analogy I can come up with (especially at 8am).
We're voodoo priests to most of them. They don't understand what a systems administrator does, how he or she does it, or what skills are required to work that particular brand of voodoo we do (anyone who understands the rule, "Read the man pages. If that makes the process either ridiculously easy or bloody impossible, STOP! You don't know what you're doing. Read them again!" knows what I'm referring to as 'voodoo').
Perhaps if the HR departments and upper management were better trained they would be able to modify their screening practices for IT categories and we wouldn't hear this near-constant cry of a shortage of workers.
Just remember, there's no shortage of call center technicians. But being able to walk someone through reinstalling modem drivers over the phone doesn't qualify you to upgrade the kernel on a Sparc station. Conversely, being able to compile your own kernels or make custom modifications to them doesn't, by itself, make you a systems administrator.