Part of the cost of maintenance on the Linux platform is surely regular installation of upgrades which are freely available.
By contrast, who keeps a Microsoft product for five years without upgrading it? Especially in a corporate environment? That means that two years down the road, it's time to pay for a new version. . .
I agree. It's entirely unfair to stretch the TCO out over five years without including the cost of *forced* upgrades. And what about cost savings by enabling managers to move to other (open source) tools instead of being 'locked in' to the Microsoft world ?
Another job well done the IDC advertising department... Slashdot has better editors.
Anyone read about the Black Hole found to be moving at us in our galactic plane ?
Since scenarios designed to divert objects definitely won't work on these, it seems we may want to get away at some point in the next several hundred million years or so.
"This is the first black hole found to be moving fast through the plane of our galaxy," said Felix Mirabel, a researcher at the French Atomic Energy Commission who led the work.
A black hole shot from a spectacular cosmic explosion is racing across the Milky Way four times faster than the stars around it, astronomers announced today. The discovery is among the best evidence that black holes are indeed the invisible offspring of supernova, the catastrophic and explosive deaths of massive stars.
The object is at least 6,000 light years away and is headed roughly in our direction but poses no immediate threat.
The matter-slurping monster was detected because it has a visible companion star from which it feeds. The visible star orbits the black hole once every 2.6 days as they race around the main plain of the galaxy in a looping, off-kilter orbit.
How close will it come to Earth?
"Not closer than 1,000 light-years in the next 230 million years," Mirabel told SPACE.com.
The phenomenon is one of about one million wayward black holes zooming through our galaxy, said Mirabel.
I knew I should have ordered a bunch before posting this item, oh well. ! It seems that the link is dead and even a site search (look at the bottom right, bass-ackards place to put that) on "Atari" or "Games" doesn't find it any more...
Thank goodness for the alternative locations to find these posted by a few people... Thanks !
I was very much hoping to find a few more locations where these could be purchased - maybe someone will find a seller that I don't have to *wait* for the 4-6 weeks shipping;)
Officer: "Do you have anything you wish to declare ?" Us: "One human-like robot designed to perform around-the-house tasks and remotely monitor our premises" Officer: "Uh... ?" Us: "Say 'Hello' to the nice officer Dr. Robot..." Robot: "Hello to the nice officer Dr. Robot"
Technically speaking, I'm very familiar with the server platform they use (Domino) and it's extremely secure (NSA, CIA, etc use it). For them to characterize this as a 'break in' is stretching it a bit. Domino provides security from server level down to individual user roles and fields. It's very simple to secure a file or page. Additionally, the standard procedure is to not replicate data you don't want made public to an external box, just in case you forget to secure a document.
For those of you interested in the technical/legal issues of 'publishing' the link, let's not forget that Domino has a few well-known powerful facilities to search and index content on a site...
(ie: ?SearchView)
Considering what some other vendors have done to standards, one tiny addition (which is an improvement) proposed by IBM shouldn't be a big deal. Sure, it feeds the news hounds, but seriously, compare the scale of the impact of one desirable change to all the suffering caused by other such changes in emerging standards (Microsoft's in particular).
IBM has contributed so much, it's only natural that some changes might be characterized in the news as benefitting them more than other parties. Is anyone that worried about adding a new EOL character in 1.1 that XML 1.0 "chokes" on ?
There is already a mature, reliable, inexpensive (for professional use), robust groupware platform for Linux that supports open standards... ...it's IBM's Lotus Domino.
I agree with the other posted who mentions that typically, these are tools used by businesses and should be managed by *professional* sysadmins and developers [shameless plug]. KDE can and should create an "Outlook Killer" but I doubt we'll ever see the range and depth provided by something like Domino. They seem to have quite a well-defined plan there, but for those of you who are interested, these are some other great Open Source groupware initiatives for Linux that build on the Domino idea and in most cases extend it (say hi to Nate for me). You may also want to cross-reference this with IBM's Domino Groupware for Linux information at their site.
I thought the previous comment on applying the RICO statute was interesting (too bad I'm not modding today)...
"the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. there's also a negative side."
~ hunter s. thompson
If there is any chance that anyone could identify RIAA crackers from REAL crackers, the RIAA must be registering or keeping records of it's actions. Would any unrecorded or unapproved action then be classified as a REAL attack - along with REAL liability ? Would every report of cracking need to be cross-referenced or would they all be ignored ?
If ISPs report every instance of cracking by the RIAA, wouldn't the limited resources of the FBI be required to investigate so many 'approved' federal crimes that the real criminals would be getting away with more ?
These guys have the right idea, document, blacklist, AND report - treat the RIAA attempts like any other illicit action on their network !
I actually do introduce, or leave in, certain bugs. It's not so much to get a definite percentage of bugs found or anything. I do it to get a feel for how extensive and how detailed the testing was performed.
Amazingly, I was once asked to help fix a production application so I decided 'kick the tires' a bit. The very first button on the very first screen was broken...
I'm glad none of *MY* (Lotus Notes) applications have these problems;)
(If a bug is embedded in a system, and no user ever triggers it, is it really a bug ?)
This is just a Snapshot of the Privacy Agreement at the Meetup service this/. event is being managed on... just in case.
Oh, and don't miss their TOS either.
Protecting your privacy is a serious matter and doing so is very important to us. Please read this privacy policy
statement (the "Policy") to learn more about our privacy policy. This Policy describes the information we collect from
you and what may happen to that information. This Policy applies to all sites under the MEETUP.com domain. This
Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that MEETUP does not own or control, or to people that we do
not employ or manage.
1. Information Collection
We collect information about you and your use of our service in order to create a better, more personalized
experience for you.
You must register with our web site in order for you to be able to fully access our service. During registration, you
must provide us with your e-mail address and password and, if you are located within the United States, your zip
code. In addition, in order to use any topic group that is available on our site, you must register for that topic group.
>During registration for a topic group, you may choose a nickname by which you will be known to other members
of that topic group. If you do not assign yourself a nickname during registration for a topic group, we will
automatically assign you one. In addition, with respect to each topic group that you join, we permit you to create
and store a short description or statement which will be viewed by anyone who is accessing that topic group. Once
you register with MEETUP and sign in to use our service, you are no longer anonymous to MEETUP to the extent you
have provided us with this information.
We automatically track certain basic information about our users. We use this information to do internal research on
your usage patterns, demographics, interests and general behavior to better understand and serve you and our
community. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider
(ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the
site, track usersÕ movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We do
not directly link these types of information (e.g., IP addresses) with your personally identifiable information.
For our users convenience, we use "cookies" to allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session
and to provide for an easier registration process. A "cookie" is a piece of data stored on your computer that is tied
to information about you. We do not use cookies for any other purpose (for example, we do not use cookies to
monitor your activities or otherwise track information about you). If you configure your browser or otherwise
choose to reject the cookies, you may still use our site. However, to best experience our web site and most easily
use our service you must have cookies enabled.
Also, if you post messages in message areas (including the personal introduction section of each topic group) on our
web site, send us personal correspondence, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your
activities or postings on our web site, we may collect such information and include it in your profile. Your profile is
not accessible to other users or third parties other than MEETUP personnel.
2. Use of Information
We use (and you agree that we may so use) the information we collect about you (including your personally
identifiable information) to create a better, more personalized experience for you based on your individual usage
habits, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, analyze site usage, improve our content and product
offerings, and customize our siteÕs content, layout and services. These uses improve our site and allow us to better
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you to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, and enforce our Terms of Service Agreement.
You also agree that we may compile the information we collect about you and use it, in an aggregate form only,
in the negotiation and establishment of service agreements with public and/or private enterprises under which such
enterprises will serve as venues for meetings between our users ("meetups").
You also agree that we may use your information to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases,
are targeted to your interests, such as topic group newsletters or meetup announcements (which also may include
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3. Disclosure of Your Information
EXCEPT AS MAY BE SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION 3, WE DO NOT SELL, RENT OR OTHERWISE SHARE YOUR
PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WITH OTHER THIRD PARTIES. INSTEAD, TO THE EXTENT WE
SHARE INFORMATION WITH OUR PARTNERS AND ADVERTISERS, WE SHARE ONLY AGGREGATED INFORMATION
THAT IS NOT LINKED TO YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. Aggregated information that we may
share with our marketing partners includes, but is not limited to, information showing the relative popularity of one
meetup venue over another (for example, the number of individuals present at a meetup).
Required disclosures. Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose your
personal information when required by law or if we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a)
comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our web site, (b) enforce this
Statement or the Terms of Service Agreement, (c) respond to claims that your Personal Information violates the
rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property or personal safety of MEETUP, its users and the public. You
authorize us to disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our
sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property
infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us or you to legal liability.
Venue providers; Advertisers. We aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information in
a non-personally identifiable manner to (1) public and/or private enterprises who may or do serve as venues for
meetups in order to enable us to negotiate and establish service agreements with such enterprises under which the
enterprises will serve as venues for meetups, and (2) to other third parties, including advertisers, for marketing and
promotional purposes. However, in these situations we do not disclose to these third parties any information that
could be used to identify you personally (for example, we never disclose your e-mail address to such third parties).
Business transitions. In the event that MEETUP goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being
acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, usersÕ personal information will, in most instances,
be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via e-mail and/or prominent notice on our web site for at
least fifteen (15) days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the
business transition, the usersÕ personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated
at the time of collection they will be given choices consistent with Section 8 ("Notification of Changes").
4. Communications from Us
We will send you a welcoming e-mail to verify your e-mail address. You will occasionally receive other information
from us (see below).
Topic group newsletters and meetup notifications. If you are a member of a topic group, you will receive periodic
notifications from us of upcoming meetups and other information relevant to topic group members. >These
notifications may include promotional communications. You may not opt-out of these communications while you are
a member of that topic group, but you may end your membership in that group at any time.
Service announcements. On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For
instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send you an e-mail. You may not
opt-out of these communications, though you can deactivate your account. However, these communications are not
promotional in nature.
Customer service. We communicate with you on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to
issues relating to your account we reply via e-mail or phone, in accordance with your wishes. >You may not opt-out
of these communications, though you can deactivate your account. However, these communications are not
promotional in nature.
5.Other Parties; Links
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Policy, this Policy only addresses the use and disclosure of
information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties, different rules
may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them.
Our web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that MEETUP is not responsible for the privacy practices
of any other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy
statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement
applies solely to information collected by our web site.
6. Security
MEETUP uses industry standard network security practices to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal
information. We treat our data (including your personally identifiable information) as an asset that must be
protected against loss and unauthorized access. However, it is impossible for us to provide our service using the
internet and simultaneously ensure perfect security of our data.
7. Reviewing, Updating, Deleting and Deactivating Personal Information
After registration for our service and for specific topic groups, we provide a way to correct, update, or
delete/deactivate your personally identifiable information, for example:
-to change your nickname or password;
-to change your e-mail or zip code;
-to join or leave particular topic groups;
-to change your personal introduction for particular topic groups;
-to otherwise update your personal information; or
-to deactivate your account.
Upon your request, we will deactivate your account and remove your personally identifiable information from our
active databases. To make this request, e-mail privacy@meetup.com. Such information will be deactivated as soon
as reasonably possible in accordance with our deactivation policy and applicable law.
Nonetheless, we will retain in our files information you may have requested us to remove if, in our discretion,
retention of the information is necessary to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems or to enforce the Terms of
Service Agreement. Furthermore, your information is never completely removed from our databases due to
technical and legal constraints (for example, we will not remove your information from our back up storage).
8. Notification of Changes
If we decide to change this Policy, we will post those changes on http://www.meetup.com/privacy or post a notice of
the changes to this Policy on the homepage (http://www.meetup.com) and other places we deem appropriate, so
you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we
disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy statement under which the information was
collected.
If we make any material changes in our privacy practices, we will post a prominent notice on our web site notifying
you and our other users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also e-mail you and other
users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
>However, if you have deleted/deactivated your account, then you will not be contacted, nor will your previously
collected personal information be used in this new manner.
All changes to this Policy are effective after we provide you with at least thirty (30) days notice of the changes and
provide notice of the changes as described above. You must notify us within this 30 day period if you do not agree
to the changes to the Policy and wish to deactivate your account as provided under Section 7.
9. Dispute Resolution
Any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to this Policy or previous privacy policy statements shall
be resolved through negotiation, mediation and arbitration as provided under our Terms of Service Agreement.
10. Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding this Policy, please contact the Secretary of MEETUP using
postal mail or e-mail, as follows:
Postal Address:
MEETUP LLC
225 Lafayette Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10012
E-mail: privacy@meetup.com
You need to go to college for the training in the underlying concepts. This is invaluable over the years as things (technologies) change and you'll need to change with them.
On the flip side, many things you learn in college are crap;) but that problem should be sufficiently offset by the opportunity to develop personal relationships (with professional colleagues, bartenders, cheerleaders, and if you are lucky - a few good advisors who can mentor you).
In short, go to college and get the sheepskin, at least a 4-year. You never know what you'll do from there as college can change your perspective on things.
Hope that helps, and good luck !
Dave
p.s. You may find that being a sysadmin is not as glamorous as you think:) hehehe.
p.p.s. Check out Lotus Notes and don't be fooled into thinking everything runs on Java !
You want to see what Gabe Luther and and William Towler,current "holders" of Big G, used to measure it ? Here's a great shot of the torsion balance device from this short summary .
Here's a link to the press room at LANL
Look for "17) Measuring the Gravitational Constant ("Big G") -- In the Lab of Gabe Luther, Los Alamos scientist. Sound bite on methodology." - no link but an interesting page of resources.
I'm not joking;) Yeah, I know/. is not a telco or ISP but I'll bet Someone has asked you for Something by now.
Anyone else here feel safe enough to post 'anonymous' or otherwise on what they have been asked for ?
Spam for spyware, 3rd sign of the apocalypse
on
Spy v. Spy
·
· Score: 1
Nahhhhh, these companies only want you to use the tools for 'monitoring and protecting your kids'
Bastards
rather apropos that I received this the other day:
Return-Path:
Received: from www.chibanet.or.jp (www.chibanet.or.jp [210.226.24.1]) by EDIT.jaguNET.com (X.Y.Z/jag-2.6) with SMTP id SAA16209 for ; Sun, 24 Mar 2002 18:02:48 -0500 (EST)
Received: from mx10.hotmail.com (ppp-216-143-217-101.mclass.broadwing.net [216.143.217.101]) by www.chibanet.or.jp (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id HAA07385; Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:52:58 +0900
Message-ID:
To: [EDIT]
Cc: [EDIT]
From: "Kimberly"
Subject: Secretly Record all internet activity on any computer... HW
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 15:09:20 -2000
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Reply-To: mi9kigc5t7@hotmail.com
X-UIDL: \m?"!7AL"!:BD"!0L@"!
Status: U
FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE CHATTING/E-MAILING WITH ALL THOSE HOURS!
Is your spouse cheating online?
Are your kids talking to dangerous people on instant messenger?
Find out NOW! - with Big Brother instant software download.
Click on this link NOW to see actual screenshots and to order!
http://www2.coveragedirect.com/bigbro/M30/
To be excluded from future contacts send to: xo4bezp0m0@hotmail.com
johnch
TheRegister has a more balanced/truthful story
on
ORBZ Shuts Down
·
· Score: 1
Regarding
"Of course, if common sense prevailed, it would be the mail server vendor in court for producing insecure mail server software, not a third party for happening to send requests that unintentionally crash poorly-written servers."
As a Notes developer/admin with 7+ years exp., let me inform anyone here who doesn't know, that the Timothy's (both the poster and apparently the editor?) have written a gross exageration and obviously biased opinion.
Check theReg for a more balanced and truthful approach, and be sure to note the update at the bottom of the story.
Lotus has always been highly responsive to the very, very few issues that they have had to issue updates for. Suggesting they should be "in court" is only demonstrates the bias and a lack of simple fact checking.
From theReg:
A Notes administrator has kindly informed us that the potential undetected routing loop bug which is the focus of all the flak was fixed in Lotus Domino version R5.0.9. You can read the details on this here.
With normal anti-relay configuration in place, the exploit didn't work anyway, according to the admin.
"There was an additional workaround available, for situations where normal anti relay settings couldn't be used. This vulnerability never has been a big issue, in my opinion," he writes.
p.s. For you slashdot posters who apparently didn't RTFA, Lotus and IBM aren't suing anyone, some idiot admin is going after ORBZ and ORBZ is using this as an excuse to close up shop... seen that one before !!!
I mean, haven't you ever watched VH1's "Pop-Up Video" program before ? hehehe... sounds like fun !
Imagine
EP User looking at potential employee at interview, pop-up reveals...
"According to DoubleClick Sam here surfs pron 3-4 hours a days since he was layed off"
"His hobbies include knitting, Linux, reading SlashDot..." ...
... hehehe. I wonder if there will be any of those annoying product placements or even worse - a launch featuring the members of N'Sync playing main characters.
In prior years, the olympics.com sites were handled by IBM. They did a great job, considering the way that the web and the Internet were growing through those years. Here's a report they created discussing the their "User-Centered" design approach. For a cool example of a portion of the site targeted for the people at the events, check out the details of the regional weather site they did.
They broke several Internet world-records each year (most hits in a day, hits per minute, etc) they ran the technology using the Lotus Notes Domino servers on RS/6000. The story I heard was that IBM had faced all the tech challenges it wanted to, and that the inter-personal challenges were making their involvement in upcoming olympics less attractive (ie NBC being a pain). I remember at the time that I chuckled to myself "lets see who else thinks they can pull this one off!"
Now that Microsoft is involved (remember when they blocked non-IE browsers from their MSN site?) I'm not surprised at the results so far.
p.s. The fact that the site is not international, here in the year 2002, is an absolute shame! Hell, the 1998 site was at least in English French AND Japanese !
I have friends that know Judge Motz here in Baltimore. He was described to me as a person with "A strong sense of fairness" and a good judge. I had a feeling he would reject that BS settlement ! woohoo !
Slashdot Mirror
I guess the joke was on all of you in the end ;)
I agree. It's entirely unfair to stretch the TCO out over five years without including the cost of *forced* upgrades. And what about cost savings by enabling managers to move to other (open source) tools instead of being 'locked in' to the Microsoft world ?
Another job well done the IDC advertising department... Slashdot has better editors.
Anyone read about the Black Hole found to be moving at us in our galactic plane ?
Since scenarios designed to divert objects definitely won't work on these, it seems we may want to get away at some point in the next several hundred million years or so.
From space.com
I knew I should have ordered a bunch before posting this item, oh well. ! It seems that the link is dead and even a site search (look at the bottom right, bass-ackards place to put that) on "Atari" or "Games" doesn't find it any more...
Thank goodness for the alternative locations to find these posted by a few people... Thanks !
I was very much hoping to find a few more locations where these could be purchased - maybe someone will find a seller that I don't have to *wait* for the 4-6 weeks shipping ;)
Thanks !
Hehehe... she's real, at least the picture she sent me in IRC looks real (and a lot like Alissa Milano?)
...just kidding
;)
Really though, how cool is it that she emails me links to Atari games
Scene at a Canadian border crossing... 2003
Officer: "Do you have anything you wish to declare ?"
Us: "One human-like robot designed to perform around-the-house tasks and remotely monitor our premises"
Officer: "Uh... ?"
Us: "Say 'Hello' to the nice officer Dr. Robot..."
Robot: "Hello to the nice officer Dr. Robot"
Technically speaking, I'm very familiar with the server platform they use (Domino) and it's extremely secure (NSA, CIA, etc use it). For them to characterize this as a 'break in' is stretching it a bit. Domino provides security from server level down to individual user roles and fields. It's very simple to secure a file or page. Additionally, the standard procedure is to not replicate data you don't want made public to an external box, just in case you forget to secure a document.
For those of you interested in the technical/legal issues of 'publishing' the link, let's not forget that Domino has a few well-known powerful facilities to search and index content on a site... (ie: ?SearchView)
Domino Developers Site
Search URL Syntax
Documentation on R5 Search
Documentation Library
Considering what some other vendors have done to standards, one tiny addition (which is an improvement) proposed by IBM shouldn't be a big deal. Sure, it feeds the news hounds, but seriously, compare the scale of the impact of one desirable change to all the suffering caused by other such changes in emerging standards (Microsoft's in particular).
IBM has contributed so much, it's only natural that some changes might be characterized in the news as benefitting them more than other parties. Is anyone that worried about adding a new EOL character in 1.1 that XML 1.0 "chokes" on ?
There is already a mature, reliable, inexpensive (for professional use), robust groupware platform for Linux that supports open standards...
I agree with the other posted who mentions that typically, these are tools used by businesses and should be managed by *professional* sysadmins and developers [shameless plug]. KDE can and should create an "Outlook Killer" but I doubt we'll ever see the range and depth provided by something like Domino. They seem to have quite a well-defined plan there, but for those of you who are interested, these are some other great Open Source groupware initiatives for Linux that build on the Domino idea and in most cases extend it (say hi to Nate for me). You may also want to cross-reference this with IBM's Domino Groupware for Linux information at their site.
I really do wish these folks the best of luck.
I thought the previous comment on applying the RICO statute was interesting (too bad I'm not modding today)...
"the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
there's also a negative side." ~ hunter s. thompson
If there is any chance that anyone could identify RIAA crackers from REAL crackers, the RIAA must be registering or keeping records of it's actions. Would any unrecorded or unapproved action then be classified as a REAL attack - along with REAL liability ? Would every report of cracking need to be cross-referenced or would they all be ignored ?
If ISPs report every instance of cracking by the RIAA, wouldn't the limited resources of the FBI be required to investigate so many 'approved' federal crimes that the real criminals would be getting away with more ?
These guys have the right idea, document, blacklist, AND report - treat the RIAA attempts like any other illicit action on their network !
I actually do introduce, or leave in, certain bugs. It's not so much to get a definite percentage of bugs found or anything. I do it to get a feel for how extensive and how detailed the testing was performed.
Amazingly, I was once asked to help fix a production application so I decided 'kick the tires' a bit. The very first button on the very first screen was broken...
I'm glad none of *MY* (Lotus Notes) applications have these problems
(If a bug is embedded in a system, and no user ever triggers it, is it really a bug ?)
Tell the users that they are simply "Undocumented Features"
(Ok, someone had to say it...)
This is just a Snapshot of the Privacy Agreement at the Meetup service this /. event is being managed on... just in case.
Oh, and don't miss their TOS either.
From the MEETUP Privacy Policy Statement
Protecting your privacy is a serious matter and doing so is very important to us. Please read this privacy policy statement (the "Policy") to learn more about our privacy policy. This Policy describes the information we collect from you and what may happen to that information. This Policy applies to all sites under the MEETUP.com domain. This Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that MEETUP does not own or control, or to people that we do not employ or manage.
1. Information Collection
We collect information about you and your use of our service in order to create a better, more personalized experience for you.
You must register with our web site in order for you to be able to fully access our service. During registration, you must provide us with your e-mail address and password and, if you are located within the United States, your zip code. In addition, in order to use any topic group that is available on our site, you must register for that topic group. >During registration for a topic group, you may choose a nickname by which you will be known to other members of that topic group. If you do not assign yourself a nickname during registration for a topic group, we will automatically assign you one. In addition, with respect to each topic group that you join, we permit you to create and store a short description or statement which will be viewed by anyone who is accessing that topic group. Once you register with MEETUP and sign in to use our service, you are no longer anonymous to MEETUP to the extent you have provided us with this information.
We automatically track certain basic information about our users. We use this information to do internal research on your usage patterns, demographics, interests and general behavior to better understand and serve you and our community. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track usersÕ movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We do not directly link these types of information (e.g., IP addresses) with your personally identifiable information. For our users convenience, we use "cookies" to allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session and to provide for an easier registration process. A "cookie" is a piece of data stored on your computer that is tied to information about you. We do not use cookies for any other purpose (for example, we do not use cookies to monitor your activities or otherwise track information about you). If you configure your browser or otherwise choose to reject the cookies, you may still use our site. However, to best experience our web site and most easily use our service you must have cookies enabled.
Also, if you post messages in message areas (including the personal introduction section of each topic group) on our web site, send us personal correspondence, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on our web site, we may collect such information and include it in your profile. Your profile is not accessible to other users or third parties other than MEETUP personnel.
2. Use of Information
We use (and you agree that we may so use) the information we collect about you (including your personally identifiable information) to create a better, more personalized experience for you based on your individual usage habits, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, analyze site usage, improve our content and product offerings, and customize our siteÕs content, layout and services. These uses improve our site and allow us to better customize it to meet your needs. We also use (and you agree that we may so use) the information we collect about you to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, and enforce our Terms of Service Agreement.
You also agree that we may compile the information we collect about you and use it, in an aggregate form only, in the negotiation and establishment of service agreements with public and/or private enterprises under which such enterprises will serve as venues for meetings between our users ("meetups").
You also agree that we may use your information to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, are targeted to your interests, such as topic group newsletters or meetup announcements (which also may include promotional communications), administrative notices, product or service offerings, and other communications relevant to your use of our service.
3. Disclosure of Your Information
EXCEPT AS MAY BE SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION 3, WE DO NOT SELL, RENT OR OTHERWISE SHARE YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WITH OTHER THIRD PARTIES. INSTEAD, TO THE EXTENT WE SHARE INFORMATION WITH OUR PARTNERS AND ADVERTISERS, WE SHARE ONLY AGGREGATED INFORMATION THAT IS NOT LINKED TO YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. Aggregated information that we may share with our marketing partners includes, but is not limited to, information showing the relative popularity of one meetup venue over another (for example, the number of individuals present at a meetup).
Required disclosures. Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose your personal information when required by law or if we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our web site, (b) enforce this Statement or the Terms of Service Agreement, (c) respond to claims that your Personal Information violates the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property or personal safety of MEETUP, its users and the public. You authorize us to disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us or you to legal liability.
Venue providers; Advertisers. We aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to (1) public and/or private enterprises who may or do serve as venues for meetups in order to enable us to negotiate and establish service agreements with such enterprises under which the enterprises will serve as venues for meetups, and (2) to other third parties, including advertisers, for marketing and promotional purposes. However, in these situations we do not disclose to these third parties any information that could be used to identify you personally (for example, we never disclose your e-mail address to such third parties). Business transitions. In the event that MEETUP goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, usersÕ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via e-mail and/or prominent notice on our web site for at least fifteen (15) days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the usersÕ personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choices consistent with Section 8 ("Notification of Changes").
4. Communications from Us
We will send you a welcoming e-mail to verify your e-mail address. You will occasionally receive other information from us (see below).
Topic group newsletters and meetup notifications. If you are a member of a topic group, you will receive periodic notifications from us of upcoming meetups and other information relevant to topic group members. >These notifications may include promotional communications. You may not opt-out of these communications while you are a member of that topic group, but you may end your membership in that group at any time.
Service announcements. On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send you an e-mail. You may not opt-out of these communications, though you can deactivate your account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
Customer service. We communicate with you on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to your account we reply via e-mail or phone, in accordance with your wishes. >You may not opt-out of these communications, though you can deactivate your account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
5.Other Parties; Links
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Policy, this Policy only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them.
Our web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that MEETUP is not responsible for the privacy practices of any other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by our web site.
6. Security
MEETUP uses industry standard network security practices to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information. We treat our data (including your personally identifiable information) as an asset that must be protected against loss and unauthorized access. However, it is impossible for us to provide our service using the internet and simultaneously ensure perfect security of our data.
7. Reviewing, Updating, Deleting and Deactivating Personal Information
After registration for our service and for specific topic groups, we provide a way to correct, update, or delete/deactivate your personally identifiable information, for example:
-to change your nickname or password;
-to change your e-mail or zip code;
-to join or leave particular topic groups;
-to change your personal introduction for particular topic groups;
-to otherwise update your personal information; or
-to deactivate your account.
Upon your request, we will deactivate your account and remove your personally identifiable information from our active databases. To make this request, e-mail privacy@meetup.com. Such information will be deactivated as soon as reasonably possible in accordance with our deactivation policy and applicable law.
Nonetheless, we will retain in our files information you may have requested us to remove if, in our discretion, retention of the information is necessary to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems or to enforce the Terms of Service Agreement. Furthermore, your information is never completely removed from our databases due to technical and legal constraints (for example, we will not remove your information from our back up storage).
8. Notification of Changes
If we decide to change this Policy, we will post those changes on http://www.meetup.com/privacy or post a notice of the changes to this Policy on the homepage (http://www.meetup.com) and other places we deem appropriate, so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy statement under which the information was collected.
If we make any material changes in our privacy practices, we will post a prominent notice on our web site notifying you and our other users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also e-mail you and other users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
>However, if you have deleted/deactivated your account, then you will not be contacted, nor will your previously collected personal information be used in this new manner.
All changes to this Policy are effective after we provide you with at least thirty (30) days notice of the changes and provide notice of the changes as described above. You must notify us within this 30 day period if you do not agree to the changes to the Policy and wish to deactivate your account as provided under Section 7.
9. Dispute Resolution
Any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to this Policy or previous privacy policy statements shall be resolved through negotiation, mediation and arbitration as provided under our Terms of Service Agreement.
10. Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding this Policy, please contact the Secretary of MEETUP using postal mail or e-mail, as follows:
Postal Address:
MEETUP LLC
225 Lafayette Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10012
E-mail: privacy@meetup.com
You need to go to college for the training in the underlying concepts. This is invaluable over the years as things (technologies) change and you'll need to change with them.
;) but that problem should be sufficiently offset by the opportunity to develop personal relationships (with professional colleagues, bartenders, cheerleaders, and if you are lucky - a few good advisors who can mentor you).
:) hehehe.
On the flip side, many things you learn in college are crap
In short, go to college and get the sheepskin, at least a 4-year. You never know what you'll do from there as college can change your perspective on things.
Hope that helps, and good luck !
Dave
p.s. You may find that being a sysadmin is not as glamorous as you think
p.p.s. Check out Lotus Notes and don't be fooled into thinking everything runs on Java !
You want to see what Gabe Luther and and William Towler,current "holders" of Big G, used to measure it ? Here's a great shot of the torsion balance device from this short summary .
Here's a link to the press room at LANL Look for "17) Measuring the Gravitational Constant ("Big G") -- In the Lab of Gabe Luther, Los Alamos scientist. Sound bite on methodology." - no link but an interesting page of resources.
"The problem that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face is not insufficient information -- "they are choking on information,"
Good point.
It sounds as if the FBI is browsing the world at -1
What have they asked you for lately ?
;) Yeah, I know /. is not a telco or ISP but I'll bet Someone has asked you for Something by now.
I'm not joking
Anyone else here feel safe enough to post 'anonymous' or otherwise on what they have been asked for ?
Nahhhhh, these companies only want you to use the tools for 'monitoring and protecting your kids'
Bastards
rather apropos that I received this the other day:
Return-Path:
Received: from www.chibanet.or.jp (www.chibanet.or.jp [210.226.24.1]) by EDIT.jaguNET.com (X.Y.Z/jag-2.6) with SMTP id SAA16209 for ; Sun, 24 Mar 2002 18:02:48 -0500 (EST)
Received: from mx10.hotmail.com (ppp-216-143-217-101.mclass.broadwing.net [216.143.217.101]) by www.chibanet.or.jp (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id HAA07385; Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:52:58 +0900
Message-ID:
To: [EDIT]
Cc: [EDIT]
From: "Kimberly"
Subject: Secretly Record all internet activity on any computer... HW
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 15:09:20 -2000
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Reply-To: mi9kigc5t7@hotmail.com
X-UIDL: \m?"!7AL"!:BD"!0L@"!
Status: U
FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE CHATTING/E-MAILING WITH ALL THOSE HOURS!
Is your spouse cheating online?
Are your kids talking to dangerous people on instant messenger?
Find out NOW! - with Big Brother instant software download.
Click on this link NOW to see actual screenshots and to order!
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johnch
As a Notes developer/admin with 7+ years exp., let me inform anyone here who doesn't know, that the Timothy's (both the poster and apparently the editor?) have written a gross exageration and obviously biased opinion.
Check theReg for a more balanced and truthful approach, and be sure to note the update at the bottom of the story.
Lotus has always been highly responsive to the very, very few issues that they have had to issue updates for. Suggesting they should be "in court" is only demonstrates the bias and a lack of simple fact checking.
From theReg:
p.s. For you slashdot posters who apparently didn't RTFA, Lotus and IBM aren't suing anyone, some idiot admin is going after ORBZ and ORBZ is using this as an excuse to close up shop... seen that one before !!!
Thanks - Domino Dave
I mean, haven't you ever watched VH1's "Pop-Up Video" program before ? hehehe... sounds like fun !
Imagine
EP User looking at potential employee at interview, pop-up reveals...
"According to DoubleClick Sam here surfs pron 3-4 hours a days since he was layed off"
"His hobbies include knitting, Linux, reading SlashDot..."
... hehehe. I wonder if there will be any of those annoying product placements or even worse - a launch featuring the members of N'Sync playing main characters.
argh...
In prior years, the olympics.com sites were handled by IBM. They did a great job, considering the way that the web and the Internet were growing through those years. Here's a report they created discussing the their "User-Centered" design approach. For a cool example of a portion of the site targeted for the people at the events, check out the details of the regional weather site they did.
They broke several Internet world-records each year (most hits in a day, hits per minute, etc) they ran the technology using the Lotus Notes Domino servers on RS/6000. The story I heard was that IBM had faced all the tech challenges it wanted to, and that the inter-personal challenges were making their involvement in upcoming olympics less attractive (ie NBC being a pain). I remember at the time that I chuckled to myself "lets see who else thinks they can pull this one off!"
Now that Microsoft is involved (remember when they blocked non-IE browsers from their MSN site?) I'm not surprised at the results so far.
p.s. The fact that the site is not international, here in the year 2002, is an absolute shame! Hell, the 1998 site was at least in English French AND Japanese !
I have friends that know Judge Motz here in Baltimore. He was described to me as a person with "A strong sense of fairness" and a good judge. I had a feeling he would reject that BS settlement ! woohoo !