Back in the 1980s, a Japanese worker was killed by a robot on an assembly line due to a software failure. And robot control systems are very throughly tested before a new model of robot is released. Microsoft is trying to muscle their way into the embedded marketplace; do you want software that has plenty of known defects/security issues running your robot?
Quicker Minds? BS! Try no social life
on
Ageism in IT?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
It's not about having a quicker mind, I know plenty of people who are in the late-30s, 40s, 50s, etc who are plenty sharp and on the ball. Having a wide experience base gives you more to draw from when envisioning a solution.
What I found out from several of the companies I've worked for is that they don't want you to have a bunch of social ties and responsibilities. Have a wife, kids, or aging parents? Don't call us, we won't call you. We'd rather hire someone who's brand-new in town with no social life and that we can work 80+ hours a week until they burn out. This is a technique that's been employed by the likes of MCI, Qwest, Enron, WorldCom, etc.
They don't like people who are older because we are typically married, have kids, and aging parents; all responsibilities that take time away from the 80+ work week. It also means that you have experience and typically want more money. Again, they'd rather hire 2 22-year-olds at $30K/year each rather than spending $60K on one person. 160+ hours of effort a week from the youngsters, or 40-60hrs/week from one person with family responsibilities? Which do you think a company would choose?
Is there ageism in the IT industry? Yes. Is it going away anytime soon? Hopefully when the corporations realize that experience counts.
To overhype/promise on the features of anything and then underdeliver is a sure way to kill a business. As a business owner, I've seen many businesses go under because of this. It's unfortunate that the software industry doesn't seem to understand this fact. It's also ridiculous for people to keep clinging to the hope that the software company will eventually produce instead of finding another product (OSS software anyone?) to fill the need.
Don't get me wrong: some of the vaporware EVENTUALLY becomes reality but how much of that actually lives up to the hype? Not much.
I've learned that, to keep my customers satisfied, I have to fulfill their NEEDS, deliver on those promises, then go the extra mile by providing more than they expect. It's the best way to get customers to come back for more.
Some catastrophic event brings everyone together and the locking up of ideas with overly broad patents finally ends?
Shouldn't the "Catastrophic Event" have been the terrorist attacks on the WTC?
Regardless whether it's Linux vs. MS, US vs. Saddam/bin Laden, etc everyone seems to want to protect and promote themselves as being the only "real" answer to the problem at hand. Until we all learn to respect each other and care more about the common good than just our own turf, we'll continue to have people creating stupid patents.
Here in Colorado they tried to implement a system called "Photo-Red" to catch red light runners. Unfortunately, the red light runners here managed to prevent the system from going in by saying it was a violation of their right to privacy while in their own car (since the car is their "property").
Look, if I have to watch you pick your nose while you're in your car, then you have no privacy. Not like the windows on your car come with curtains. And people who run red lights and kill someone else should be shot.
The government (especially the military) has been worried about this for some time. Pretty much since the first portable computer with a serial port came out.
It's amazing how slow the corporations are when it comes to realizing the security issues of portable computers (PDAs, laptops). It's like they expect all the people they hire to toe the line and not do anything dastardly after the company fscks them.
What I want to see is a poll on who we think "WILL GNAW OFF (their) OWN GENITALS FIRST", as Hemos so eloquently put it, if we do start seeing pop-up ads here.
Not that I'd care to see them actually do either one...
And just what is the definition of "secure enough"? No malformed headers for TCP/IP? No buffer overflowing URLs? Is all software supposed to be "secure enough" or only the components that access the Internet?
And what about flaws introduced into your software by buggy software that was used in development? Who will be at fault when you discover a buffer overflow due to a buggy compiler and not the code you wrote? Will your code have to take care of known (and unknown) bugs in your development tools in order to comply with "secure enough"?
Government intervention is just going to make a mess of the software industry and slow the growth of the Internet.
The three major issues you ask about are ones that the military put much time and effort to address on their satellite programs. Having worked on projects for a military contractor, here are suggestions:
1. DOS attacks - I've actually seen a military site lose all communications to the satellites that it was controlling because of an inadvertant DOS attack. A company near the base had installed a transmitter that was MUCH more powerful than was allowed by the FCC in that area (because of the military base). When they switched it on, it disrupted all the transmitters on the base. The military used specially equipped helicopters to triangulate the source of the signal and deployed a security unit to shutdown the transmitter. The FCC revoked the company's license the same day.
Note: The military did NOT lose command or control of the satellites because they use multiple command and control sites; they simply had another site take master control while the site I was at was disrupted.
2. Deciphering the C&C structure:
This is something that many foreign countries have been active in doing for quite awhile. Don't think it hasn't been tried.
3. SCPS
A really stupid idea; it would be better if the command and control aspect were NOT part of this (keep it separate) and only those things that the public or scientists would be interested in be part of SCPS (Cameras, science instruments, etc). Make C&C accessible from the Internet is just plain foolish.
NOTE: There are three things that the military determined were of the utmost necessity for ANY satellite communications (uplink and downlink):
1. Isolation of command and control networks (NO outside access allowed)
2. Multiple command and control sites that monitor each other and
3. CRYPTO - it's best to do hardware-based crypto on your up and down links. A fool and his satellite communications will be monitored if you don't encrypt your commincations.
FYI:
MOST military satellites (at least the IMPORTANT ones) are in geosynchronous orbit (about 20K miles up). Most commercial satellites are below 2000 miles and definitely do NOT have the fuel to reach geosynchronous orbit.
What would be worse is using one commercial satellite to kill another commercial satellite (say, a communiations satellite).
Of course, you're assuming that the hacker in question will have control of the satellite long enough to do such a thing. All the control center would have to do is pull the plug on the antenna the hacker is using (if it is owned by the company that owns the satellite) and switch to a backup. The time it takes for a satellite to change orbit makes an attempt to do so easy to detect.
..."Microsoft leads off with... a guy in a boxy outfit with a title for a name, his humanity masked off by a faceplate of tinted glass.
Come to think of it, for a Microsoft product, this is the perfect figurehead. It's also branding suicide."
Sounds like "Bill the Borg" is trying to make their brand's personality a Borg. Whould this be considered plagerism?
Wow, big question!
My path was fairly convoluted: I started out as a programmer and....
Wrote software for a dental lab to select teeth for dentures.
Moved on to write COBOL code for a newspaper's billing system.
Wrote a problem tracking database for the International Space Station.
Took a job working at IBM's RS/6000 division as a hardware tech. Cut my teeth on AIX and the first Slackware Linux distro.
A layoff began my dark days as a Windows NT system administrator. 3 years of 80+ hour weeks later...
Went to work for an aerospace company as a AIX SysAdmin.
Not hard to become a Unix Admin as long as you are willing to learn new things and take a chance. Sometimes you have to look for an opportunity in obscure places; say, offer to teach a course on webpage design or writing documentation using SGML on Linux systems and offer to be the SysAdmin for the machine used by the class.
Also realize that many of the job listings you see often are looking for gobs of experience, but are not willing to pay the money for the right person to fit the job. See if you can find an employer who would be willing to send you to training to help you fit the position.
Don't let anyone tell you you are "too old" to start a new career in the tech field. The day you're too old is the day they bury you!
If you work for the government or work for a company that has contractors on government facilities, you are out of luck. When you were hired, one of the documents you signed (if you remember it) gave the government the right to subject you to searches ANYTIME you are at work or coming or going.
IANAL, but I do work for a government contractor and my job is at a military base. My base ID has a little statement on the back that says I have consented to searches and questioning anytime they feel like it. And I had to sign the back of my ID before they'd let me on base.
A line from "The Witch Doctor" by David Seville or voice command to shutdown Windows? Decide for yourself by playing it for your voice recognition software.
This is clearly the fault of just one company: RedHat. Their programmers are the ones who "wrote" the code. The vast majority of Linux coders give credit where credit is due.
I recently moved from a "boring" job (working for a defense contractor) to an "exciting" job at a telecommunications company. The group I work with used to be an ISP before they were bought buy the telcom company.
I must admit that the people I work with now are some of the sharpest I've come across in a long time. I'm learning things from them instead of begging management for training. The pay is great (with performance bonuses!) and the stock options aren't bad. Hell, I even have a window to look out of now instead of being trapped in a fluorescent-lit room with steel walls and no windows. And, yes, we even have Nerf toys even though no one has used them yet.
However, I find that I'm stuck on a relatively meaningless project, begging vendors for hardware and software that we need to complete said project. We're doing this because our budget was SLASHED (reduced 90%) and we barely have money to meet operational costs until the end of the year. So, while we wait for the vendors, err Business Partners, to ante up not much is happening. Aside from some computer-based training, I spend most of my time surfing the web.
When I left my previous job, it was because of management issues. Now I realize that, regardless of management issues, I really did like what I was doing because it was in support of our armed forces and I WAS making a difference. At my current job, I feel like a cog, easily replacable, even though it is a "fun" work environment. This has forced me to ask myself some important questions about what exactly I want out of a job and what I'm willing to put up with to do something I feel is meaningful.
You might want to spend sometime thinking about what YOU want out of a job before deciding on your next move. You may find that what you want to do is not conducive to a "fun" environment but is something you'll feel good about doing. Or, you may be just the person that group/company needs to show them how to have fun doing their work.
Why NOT? Would you allow a computer to flood your network with a packet storm? Or would you take it off-line so as not to interrupt service to your other machines? The probing that Nimda and Code Red do can bring an ISP to their knees with traffic depending on the number of servers probing them. When an ISP cannot (or will not) provide reliable service to paying customers, the cusomers WILL go elsewhere.
For those paying customers who do not pay attention to what is going on with their systems, they deserve to have their Net access cut. Why should they be allowed to ruin it for everyone else through their stupidity?
Sometimes you have to do what is hard to do what is right.
on CD-Rs/CD-RWs, diskettes, harddrives, paper, cloth, vellum, sheepskins,....Hell, anything that you can write on or to! I don't want to have to pay a tax on the sheepskin seat covers I want for my car just because some fool can scribble a copyrighted (or maybe that should be copywronged as I don't think the RIAA is in the right on this) song on them.
Why should we have to pay a tax on media for something we may or may not do with it? That's like saying that guys who date have to pay a childcare tax because they may or may not get someone pregnant.
AIX and Linux are already merging
on
IBM Wants Linux
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· Score: 2
AIX and Linux are already merging: many of the GNU and open-source software packages are available for AIX. Redhat Package Manager and RPM packaged software is available for AIX 4.3.3 and the new 5.1L (no indication yet if they are going to move away from the installp format to rpm only). New filesystems have been added to 5.1L (/opt,/proc) to be more compatible with Linux oriented software packages. Gnome and KDE are even included with 5.1L and can be installed as your default desktop when you load a new system.
Many other people have pointed our the areas where Linux needs growth and AIX is strong. AIX is weak in areas where Linux provides strength:
Multimedia - Linux has better sound support
User Business Software - Love to see Star/OpenOffice or Applixware for AIX
Desktop Interface - Until AIX 5.1L, only desktops available were X11/Motif and CDE.
As someone who works with AIX, I'm very excited about the improvements Linux will bring to AIX.
How about an ignoble solution?
Spray paint Cygwin on as many sidewalks as you can to advertise the product. After all, IBM tried that with Linux and look at all the publicity THEY got!;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Back in the 1980s, a Japanese worker was killed by a robot on an assembly line due to a software failure. And robot control systems are very throughly tested before a new model of robot is released. Microsoft is trying to muscle their way into the embedded marketplace; do you want software that has plenty of known defects/security issues running your robot?
It's not about having a quicker mind, I know plenty of people who are in the late-30s, 40s, 50s, etc who are plenty sharp and on the ball. Having a wide experience base gives you more to draw from when envisioning a solution.
What I found out from several of the companies I've worked for is that they don't want you to have a bunch of social ties and responsibilities. Have a wife, kids, or aging parents? Don't call us, we won't call you. We'd rather hire someone who's brand-new in town with no social life and that we can work 80+ hours a week until they burn out. This is a technique that's been employed by the likes of MCI, Qwest, Enron, WorldCom, etc.
They don't like people who are older because we are typically married, have kids, and aging parents; all responsibilities that take time away from the 80+ work week. It also means that you have experience and typically want more money. Again, they'd rather hire 2 22-year-olds at $30K/year each rather than spending $60K on one person. 160+ hours of effort a week from the youngsters, or 40-60hrs/week from one person with family responsibilities? Which do you think a company would choose?
Is there ageism in the IT industry? Yes. Is it going away anytime soon? Hopefully when the corporations realize that experience counts.
To overhype/promise on the features of anything and then underdeliver is a sure way to kill a business. As a business owner, I've seen many businesses go under because of this. It's unfortunate that the software industry doesn't seem to understand this fact. It's also ridiculous for people to keep clinging to the hope that the software company will eventually produce instead of finding another product (OSS software anyone?) to fill the need.
Don't get me wrong: some of the vaporware EVENTUALLY becomes reality but how much of that actually lives up to the hype? Not much.
I've learned that, to keep my customers satisfied, I have to fulfill their NEEDS, deliver on those promises, then go the extra mile by providing more than they expect. It's the best way to get customers to come back for more.
If you had some of these cells implanted, how would you answer the question, "Are you a man or a mouse?"?
Some catastrophic event brings everyone together and the locking up of ideas with overly broad patents finally ends?
Shouldn't the "Catastrophic Event" have been the terrorist attacks on the WTC?
Regardless whether it's Linux vs. MS, US vs. Saddam/bin Laden, etc everyone seems to want to protect and promote themselves as being the only "real" answer to the problem at hand. Until we all learn to respect each other and care more about the common good than just our own turf, we'll continue to have people creating stupid patents.
Where's Ben Franklin when we need him?
Here in Colorado they tried to implement a system called "Photo-Red" to catch red light runners. Unfortunately, the red light runners here managed to prevent the system from going in by saying it was a violation of their right to privacy while in their own car (since the car is their "property").
Look, if I have to watch you pick your nose while you're in your car, then you have no privacy. Not like the windows on your car come with curtains. And people who run red lights and kill someone else should be shot.
As Hemos said, this really isn't news.
The government (especially the military) has been worried about this for some time. Pretty much since the first portable computer with a serial port came out.
It's amazing how slow the corporations are when it comes to realizing the security issues of portable computers (PDAs, laptops). It's like they expect all the people they hire to toe the line and not do anything dastardly after the company fscks them.
What I want to see is a poll on who we think "WILL GNAW OFF (their) OWN GENITALS FIRST", as Hemos so eloquently put it, if we do start seeing pop-up ads here.
Not that I'd care to see them actually do either one...
And just what is the definition of "secure enough"? No malformed headers for TCP/IP? No buffer overflowing URLs? Is all software supposed to be "secure enough" or only the components that access the Internet?
And what about flaws introduced into your software by buggy software that was used in development? Who will be at fault when you discover a buffer overflow due to a buggy compiler and not the code you wrote? Will your code have to take care of known (and unknown) bugs in your development tools in order to comply with "secure enough"?
Government intervention is just going to make a mess of the software industry and slow the growth of the Internet.
Hey!
I already HAVE that; my wife's a midget (and a hottie too) and she brings me my meals, massages my feet, and even changes the channels for me.
And I have her permission to say so!
I'd like to se AOLTW beat my Sprint Broadband connection: 3.5 Mbps up & down links for only $49.95/mo.
The three major issues you ask about are ones that the military put much time and effort to address on their satellite programs. Having worked on projects for a military contractor, here are suggestions:
1. DOS attacks - I've actually seen a military site lose all communications to the satellites that it was controlling because of an inadvertant DOS attack. A company near the base had installed a transmitter that was MUCH more powerful than was allowed by the FCC in that area (because of the military base). When they switched it on, it disrupted all the transmitters on the base. The military used specially equipped helicopters to triangulate the source of the signal and deployed a security unit to shutdown the transmitter. The FCC revoked the company's license the same day.
Note: The military did NOT lose command or control of the satellites because they use multiple command and control sites; they simply had another site take master control while the site I was at was disrupted.
2. Deciphering the C&C structure:
This is something that many foreign countries have been active in doing for quite awhile. Don't think it hasn't been tried.
3. SCPS
A really stupid idea; it would be better if the command and control aspect were NOT part of this (keep it separate) and only those things that the public or scientists would be interested in be part of SCPS (Cameras, science instruments, etc). Make C&C accessible from the Internet is just plain foolish.
NOTE: There are three things that the military determined were of the utmost necessity for ANY satellite communications (uplink and downlink):
1. Isolation of command and control networks (NO outside access allowed)
2. Multiple command and control sites that monitor each other and
3. CRYPTO - it's best to do hardware-based crypto on your up and down links. A fool and his satellite communications will be monitored if you don't encrypt your commincations.
FYI:
MOST military satellites (at least the IMPORTANT ones) are in geosynchronous orbit (about 20K miles up). Most commercial satellites are below 2000 miles and definitely do NOT have the fuel to reach geosynchronous orbit.
What would be worse is using one commercial satellite to kill another commercial satellite (say, a communiations satellite).
Of course, you're assuming that the hacker in question will have control of the satellite long enough to do such a thing. All the control center would have to do is pull the plug on the antenna the hacker is using (if it is owned by the company that owns the satellite) and switch to a backup. The time it takes for a satellite to change orbit makes an attempt to do so easy to detect.
Are you aware that what is now FedEx Ground used to be RPS?
Scary!
Sounds like "Bill the Borg" is trying to make their brand's personality a Borg. Whould this be considered plagerism?
Actually, for the Micro$oft reps I've dealt with, this is practical advice. These guys have their heads up there most of the time, anyway.
Wow, big question!
My path was fairly convoluted: I started out as a programmer and....
Wrote software for a dental lab to select teeth for dentures.
Moved on to write COBOL code for a newspaper's billing system.
Wrote a problem tracking database for the International Space Station.
Took a job working at IBM's RS/6000 division as a hardware tech. Cut my teeth on AIX and the first Slackware Linux distro.
A layoff began my dark days as a Windows NT system administrator. 3 years of 80+ hour weeks later...
Went to work for an aerospace company as a AIX SysAdmin.
Not hard to become a Unix Admin as long as you are willing to learn new things and take a chance. Sometimes you have to look for an opportunity in obscure places; say, offer to teach a course on webpage design or writing documentation using SGML on Linux systems and offer to be the SysAdmin for the machine used by the class.
Also realize that many of the job listings you see often are looking for gobs of experience, but are not willing to pay the money for the right person to fit the job. See if you can find an employer who would be willing to send you to training to help you fit the position.
Don't let anyone tell you you are "too old" to start a new career in the tech field. The day you're too old is the day they bury you!
Take a look at these E-bay auctions:
IBM PCI Cryptography Encryption Card 4758
IBM PCI CRYPTOGRAPHIC COPROCESSOR 4758 002
Looks like the banking industry already knew about this and are trying to get rid of the problem.
If you work for the government or work for a company that has contractors on government facilities, you are out of luck. When you were hired, one of the documents you signed (if you remember it) gave the government the right to subject you to searches ANYTIME you are at work or coming or going.
IANAL, but I do work for a government contractor and my job is at a military base. My base ID has a little statement on the back that says I have consented to searches and questioning anytime they feel like it. And I had to sign the back of my ID before they'd let me on base.
"Ooo eee ooo ah ah, ting tang walla walla, bing bang"
A line from "The Witch Doctor" by David Seville or voice command to shutdown Windows? Decide for yourself by playing it for your voice recognition software.
Hey!
Paint not with a broad brush!
This is clearly the fault of just one company: RedHat. Their programmers are the ones who "wrote" the code. The vast majority of Linux coders give credit where credit is due.
I recently moved from a "boring" job (working for a defense contractor) to an "exciting" job at a telecommunications company. The group I work with used to be an ISP before they were bought buy the telcom company.
I must admit that the people I work with now are some of the sharpest I've come across in a long time. I'm learning things from them instead of begging management for training. The pay is great (with performance bonuses!) and the stock options aren't bad. Hell, I even have a window to look out of now instead of being trapped in a fluorescent-lit room with steel walls and no windows. And, yes, we even have Nerf toys even though no one has used them yet.
However, I find that I'm stuck on a relatively meaningless project, begging vendors for hardware and software that we need to complete said project. We're doing this because our budget was SLASHED (reduced 90%) and we barely have money to meet operational costs until the end of the year. So, while we wait for the vendors, err Business Partners, to ante up not much is happening. Aside from some computer-based training, I spend most of my time surfing the web.
When I left my previous job, it was because of management issues. Now I realize that, regardless of management issues, I really did like what I was doing because it was in support of our armed forces and I WAS making a difference. At my current job, I feel like a cog, easily replacable, even though it is a "fun" work environment. This has forced me to ask myself some important questions about what exactly I want out of a job and what I'm willing to put up with to do something I feel is meaningful.
You might want to spend sometime thinking about what YOU want out of a job before deciding on your next move. You may find that what you want to do is not conducive to a "fun" environment but is something you'll feel good about doing. Or, you may be just the person that group/company needs to show them how to have fun doing their work.
Why NOT? Would you allow a computer to flood your network with a packet storm? Or would you take it off-line so as not to interrupt service to your other machines? The probing that Nimda and Code Red do can bring an ISP to their knees with traffic depending on the number of servers probing them. When an ISP cannot (or will not) provide reliable service to paying customers, the cusomers WILL go elsewhere.
For those paying customers who do not pay attention to what is going on with their systems, they deserve to have their Net access cut. Why should they be allowed to ruin it for everyone else through their stupidity?
Sometimes you have to do what is hard to do what is right.
on CD-Rs/CD-RWs, diskettes, harddrives, paper, cloth, vellum, sheepskins, ....Hell, anything that you can write on or to! I don't want to have to pay a tax on the sheepskin seat covers I want for my car just because some fool can scribble a copyrighted (or maybe that should be copywronged as I don't think the RIAA is in the right on this) song on them.
Why should we have to pay a tax on media for something we may or may not do with it? That's like saying that guys who date have to pay a childcare tax because they may or may not get someone pregnant.
AIX and Linux are already merging: many of the GNU and open-source software packages are available for AIX. Redhat Package Manager and RPM packaged software is available for AIX 4.3.3 and the new 5.1L (no indication yet if they are going to move away from the installp format to rpm only). New filesystems have been added to 5.1L (/opt, /proc) to be more compatible with Linux oriented software packages. Gnome and KDE are even included with 5.1L and can be installed as your default desktop when you load a new system.
Many other people have pointed our the areas where Linux needs growth and AIX is strong. AIX is weak in areas where Linux provides strength:
Multimedia - Linux has better sound support
User Business Software - Love to see Star/OpenOffice or Applixware for AIX
Desktop Interface - Until AIX 5.1L, only desktops available were X11/Motif and CDE.
As someone who works with AIX, I'm very excited about the improvements Linux will bring to AIX.
How about an ignoble solution? ;-)
Spray paint Cygwin on as many sidewalks as you can to advertise the product. After all, IBM tried that with Linux and look at all the publicity THEY got!