I admit I'm as interested as the next guy in having the fastest connection as the next guy, but there is another piece to the equation that most people seem to care less about.
How much does it cost the end user.
I'm recently tired of being dealing with TWC and am axing Cable and Internet from them. Just the internet piece cost ~$50 a month for 10Mb/350Kb connection. For $30 I'm replacing it DSL from Verizon for a 3Mb/750Kb connection (that has been much more reliable in the short time I've had it).
Yeah, things take a little longer to download, but I've noticed fewer sudden drops in speed (things have been more consistent), and how fast do we really need?
100 Mb down seems great, but the $100 a month equals $1200 a year (plus taxes and fees). Compared to the DSL package I'm getting thats over $800 a year extra that you could spend on things like food, rent, movies, video games, etc. How much of that pipe are you actually going to use, and how much do you need to use before you feel like you've justified blowing that money on the connection?
I know if the offer it for $40 you'll have lots of takers and blow your over-subscribe model out of the water, but there must be some middle ground.
Yes, but as we've seen, the public is now in the position to bypass the government for passing news and information via SMS (of all things), using SARS as the example in that also.
Because popping in a USB key and letting the system boot, and then unplugging the USB key and walking away:
- can be done relatively unobtrusive
- does not demand lots of attention so you can keep an eye open and stay "hidden"
- does not leave something behind for you to "clean up" later. If you want to erase the evidence that the machine is compromised, you have it reboot.
Of course, this is just based on a guess that the system needs no user interaction to activate.
I am sure that will work real well on the target platform for this version of Windows 7: the netbook.
Why? My netbook has 2GB of RAM, 64GB SSD and an Atom processor.
Yeah, its limited to software based virtualization, but XP seems to run just fine (granted I'm running XP in VMWare on top of OSX installed a Dell Mini9).
should be enough for any Dell pre-installed with Windows.
My Mini9 runs OSX just fine (with quite a few apps open).
I also hear the Ubuntu pre-install works rather well.
The WindowsXP Home it came bundled with? Not so well, but others have had good experiences after re-installing WIndows (XP/Vista/Win7 Beta) from scratch.
Let's say you have 2 viruses and 1 piece of spyware running on your computer, does it prevent you from launching the applications you actually want to use... Like the malware removal tool?
Actually I would expect viruses to remove the app restrictions as much as possible, so that they can launch other instances of themselves (and to remove worries from users so they don't try to "figure out what is wrong" with their computer). Either that or the viruses/spyware will switch more toward running as "services" which I'm guessing aren't as regulated by MS, since they wouldn't normally require user interaction.
Expect to see a rash of "Want to use more apps at once on Windows? Download our new Advanced Application Launcher" Utility and Trojan, all in one.
The OS type suggests there could be non-windows versions
Fine, then play the Intelligence game and feed them disinformation.
Set your user agent to IE while running Linux, and disable JavaScript/Java and any other extensions so they think you're running one OS, and have no way of pulling info to request more information.
For extra points run on a VM that you can strip down to the bare essentials, configure once, and then wipe after each "communication".
If the only ports its allowed to get to is the anonymizer's website/port, and its feeding wrong information about what it is, and not letting anything run, then its about as secure as you can make it... and still let it connect to the internet.
I wouldn't say peanuts; 21% of U.S. federal spending is a significant portion, and is more than 8 times what the owner of the next-largest military, China, spends. Before you begin to say that we can't trust China's reported military budget, I would point out that the U.S's reported military budget is also suspect.
Is that "8 times" when you look at the amount spent as a Percentage, or in Monetary Units?
It's fashionable to be "libertarian" nowadays in the Bill Maher sense--that is, you think pot should be legal.
And what does holding Libertarian views on government regulation of morality (stop banning drugs/prostitution/etc., legalize them, regulate them, tax the shit out of them), not mesh with also holding views in favor of limited government welfare (since ultimately we all need some support structure in our lives, and not everyone is lucky enough to have it), a primarily Capitalistic view toward economic matters, or an Isolationist view of dealing with the the rest of the world?
Not that I hold all of these views myself, but the fact is that most people (above the age of 18), often have complex views about the world, because the world is a complex place, that is very difficult to model, let alone regulate and take care of.
The infrastructure to check membership is trivial, and a yearly license fee is (theoretically) already covered in the existing membership fee (or could easily be tacked onto it).
Inclusion of CE would be an excellent idea considering that other much more static fields require it. Not all bodies require proof to be submitted at time of renewal, just that it needs to be available if audited, but it would make sense, since we're talking about designing this from the ground up, to include that requirement.
Yes, an Investigative branch is missing.
You don't need to require code be in a revision control system, but any code that isn't in one, might not be subject to as stringent an examination, exactly because of the issues you mention (among others).
As for investigative "power", if the project is public, then it should be able to be reviewed without a problem, source code included. If the project (or code), is privately held, then NDAs might be workable. If corporations still won't let you review the code, then you shrug, note it in a file and move on. This is a new idea, and without much support it is going to go slowly. The only reason most other Professional organizations exist is that their existence is to a large degree codified by law.
We haven't been important enough to deal with that way (and most of the people who make laws would prefer we remain UnProfessional and can be had for cheaper prices).
Something else to note: These guys have been defending using extremely questionable methods to gather "evidence" for years. I'm sure that experience goes a long ways in the Justice dept. You think pulling an old lady who doesn't own a computer up on charges for sharing music over the Internet was bad... wait until they have the power of the NSA/CIA/FBI behind them.
An E.E. SHOULD be able qualified to rewire his house, but he might not be as familiar with things like Local Codes/Ordinances, which might involve things besides the electrical system itself, such as placement of outlets, or wire runs relative to other utilities, irrelevant from the perspective of merely rewiring a room.
Making functional and beautiful page that renders properly across all major browsers is still something that takes a fair bit of knowledge and skill. I know plenty of good programmers who can't really do it.
Yes, but those "simple" pages WILL probably be functional, and beautiful (eye of the beholder), and render properly across all the major browsers.
The places you usually start hitting browser issues is when you start getting "fancy" (again, eye of the beholder:) ).
Some of the simplest web designs I've seen are incredibly useable, and close to 10 years old (with no updates).
Is the technology "old" that they are using? Yes.
Does it make the site less intuitive/useful/pretty/functional? Not as much as you'd imagine.
Member grade is limited to those who have satisfied IEEE-specified educational requirements and/or who have demonstrated professional competence in IEEE-designated fields of interest. For admission or transfer to the grade of Member, a candidate shall be either:
(a) An individual who shall have received a three-to-five year university-level or higher degree (i) from an accredited institution or program and (ii) in an IEEE-designated field
(b) An individual who shall have received a three-to-five year university-level or higher degree from an accredited institution or program and who has at least three years of professional work experience engaged in teaching, creating, developing, practicing or managing in IEEE-designated fields; or
(c) An individual who, through at least six years of professional work experience, has demonstrated competence in teaching, creating, developing, practicing or managing within IEEE-designated fields.
This approach covers all of the "traditional" CompSci paths: getting a degree in a CompSci field, getting a degree in something else and falling into CompSci, and just "falling into it" and never getting a degree.
They also provide a Code of Ethics:http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ethics/code.html, something most Professional organizations do. The only things missing to convert them into a "proper" body like Lawyers or Accountants is to institute some sort of entrance exam (which is difficult unless you test only on the lowest common pieces), and for members to start including initials after their names.
Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Divinity probably outweigh Medical Doctors (you know, M.D.), even if you throw in Doctors of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), or D.V.M.s (Doctors of Veterinary Medicine).
The question though is one of Credentials. You obviously wouldn't (and shouldn't) trust a Doctor of Philosophy to handle your medical needs, any more than you'd trust a Civic Engineer to design a circuit in place of an Electrical Engineer (though an E.E. usually can't wire their house since they'd need to be a Licensed Electrical Contractor).
So, the REAL question is "What are (or should be) the different type of "engineers" in the field of Computers, and what are (or should be) the qualifications/responsibilities for those titles?"
The main problem with Computer titles is one of standardization (especially odd considering how much computers rely on standardized protocols for communication:) ).
It's not nonsense it's true (everywhere but the U.S.). Engineering is a profession. If you can't bother meeting that profession's standards then don't identify yourself with it.
Yes, okay, but, saying I'm an "Engineer" isn't sufficient to define your credentials. Are you a Physical Engineer? An Electrical Engineer?
So what are the Profession's requirements for being a Software Engineer?
NASA: Steven, we'd really like to thank you for all of the support and attention you helped draw to this endeavor.
Colbert: So you're naming the module after me?
NASA: No. We decided to name something even more critical, the waste reclamation unit.
Colbert: And thats more important because... ?
NASA: When you're out in space, you only have whatever you bring with you, so all of the water and other items need to be reclaimed from the astronauts waste for reuse.
Colbert: So, without the "Colbert Waste Reclamation Unit" the station wouldn't be able to function.
NASA: Exactly
Colbert: [Insert jokes as he preens and pretends his ego is stroked]
------------
I could VERY easily see them do something like this. It would allow them to name the module something else, let Steven Colbert get a lot of millage out of how "important" he is, and provide coverage for NASA on the deployment of the module, all while essentially naming the toilet after him, something Steven Colbert (the satirist, not the character) would probably get a kick out of.
Slashdot Mirror
No we don't ... ... Damn.
I heard it wasn't the size alone, but also the width. Make sure it supports USB 2.0 for the better bandwidth.
Okay,
I admit I'm as interested as the next guy in having the fastest connection as the next guy, but there is another piece to the equation that most people seem to care less about.
How much does it cost the end user.
I'm recently tired of being dealing with TWC and am axing Cable and Internet from them. Just the internet piece cost ~$50 a month for 10Mb/350Kb connection.
For $30 I'm replacing it DSL from Verizon for a 3Mb/750Kb connection (that has been much more reliable in the short time I've had it).
Yeah, things take a little longer to download, but I've noticed fewer sudden drops in speed (things have been more consistent), and how fast do we really need?
100 Mb down seems great, but the $100 a month equals $1200 a year (plus taxes and fees). Compared to the DSL package I'm getting thats over $800 a year extra that you could spend on things like food, rent, movies, video games, etc. How much of that pipe are you actually going to use, and how much do you need to use before you feel like you've justified blowing that money on the connection?
I know if the offer it for $40 you'll have lots of takers and blow your over-subscribe model out of the water, but there must be some middle ground.
Yes, but as we've seen, the public is now in the position to bypass the government for passing news and information via SMS (of all things), using SARS as the example in that also.
Do they live in their parent's basement, and can we get them hooked on a MMORPG?
Because popping in a USB key and letting the system boot, and then unplugging the USB key and walking away:
- can be done relatively unobtrusive
- does not demand lots of attention so you can keep an eye open and stay "hidden"
- does not leave something behind for you to "clean up" later. If you want to erase the evidence that the machine is compromised, you have it reboot.
Of course, this is just based on a guess that the system needs no user interaction to activate.
I was thinking the same thing.
Ironically enough, if it worked well, this would get me to buy a license of Win7, and move my main machine from XP.
Unfortunately for MS, It'd probably move to Linux or OSX and the Win7 license would go toward virtualization.
Why? My netbook has 2GB of RAM, 64GB SSD and an Atom processor.
Yeah, its limited to software based virtualization, but XP seems to run just fine (granted I'm running XP in VMWare on top of OSX installed a Dell Mini9).
My Mini9 runs OSX just fine (with quite a few apps open).
I also hear the Ubuntu pre-install works rather well.
The WindowsXP Home it came bundled with? Not so well, but others have had good experiences after re-installing WIndows (XP/Vista/Win7 Beta) from scratch.
Actually I would expect viruses to remove the app restrictions as much as possible, so that they can launch other instances of themselves (and to remove worries from users so they don't try to "figure out what is wrong" with their computer). Either that or the viruses/spyware will switch more toward running as "services" which I'm guessing aren't as regulated by MS, since they wouldn't normally require user interaction.
Expect to see a rash of "Want to use more apps at once on Windows? Download our new Advanced Application Launcher" Utility and Trojan, all in one.
Fine, then play the Intelligence game and feed them disinformation.
Set your user agent to IE while running Linux, and disable JavaScript/Java and any other extensions so they think you're running one OS, and have no way of pulling info to request more information.
For extra points run on a VM that you can strip down to the bare essentials, configure once, and then wipe after each "communication".
If the only ports its allowed to get to is the anonymizer's website/port, and its feeding wrong information about what it is, and not letting anything run, then its about as secure as you can make it ... and still let it connect to the internet.
To paraphrase a SciFi clash of Ideologies: "The Bytes must flow"
Is that "8 times" when you look at the amount spent as a Percentage, or in Monetary Units?
I don't know.
I feel like I read that comment before in a previous life when I had a four digit Slashdot ID.
And what does holding Libertarian views on government regulation of morality (stop banning drugs/prostitution/etc., legalize them, regulate them, tax the shit out of them), not mesh with also holding views in favor of limited government welfare (since ultimately we all need some support structure in our lives, and not everyone is lucky enough to have it), a primarily Capitalistic view toward economic matters, or an Isolationist view of dealing with the the rest of the world?
Not that I hold all of these views myself, but the fact is that most people (above the age of 18), often have complex views about the world, because the world is a complex place, that is very difficult to model, let alone regulate and take care of.
The infrastructure to check membership is trivial, and a yearly license fee is (theoretically) already covered in the existing membership fee (or could easily be tacked onto it).
Inclusion of CE would be an excellent idea considering that other much more static fields require it. Not all bodies require proof to be submitted at time of renewal, just that it needs to be available if audited, but it would make sense, since we're talking about designing this from the ground up, to include that requirement.
Yes, an Investigative branch is missing.
You don't need to require code be in a revision control system, but any code that isn't in one, might not be subject to as stringent an examination, exactly because of the issues you mention (among others).
As for investigative "power", if the project is public, then it should be able to be reviewed without a problem, source code included.
If the project (or code), is privately held, then NDAs might be workable. If corporations still won't let you review the code, then you shrug, note it in a file and move on. This is a new idea, and without much support it is going to go slowly. The only reason most other Professional organizations exist is that their existence is to a large degree codified by law.
We haven't been important enough to deal with that way (and most of the people who make laws would prefer we remain UnProfessional and can be had for cheaper prices).
I'd think that Carlos serving jail time after the feds caught him for tax evasion to be more relevant.
Thats actually on par for his other appointees.
His Appointment to run the IRS was a tax dodger.
You're right though some exceptions can vary from place to place, and he may need it inspected/certified if he decided to sell it.
http://www.neca-neis.org/state/state_regs.cfm
An E.E. SHOULD be able qualified to rewire his house, but he might not be as familiar with things like Local Codes/Ordinances, which might involve things besides the electrical system itself, such as placement of outlets, or wire runs relative to other utilities, irrelevant from the perspective of merely rewiring a room.
Yes, but those "simple" pages WILL probably be functional, and beautiful (eye of the beholder), and render properly across all the major browsers.
The places you usually start hitting browser issues is when you start getting "fancy" (again, eye of the beholder :) ).
Some of the simplest web designs I've seen are incredibly useable, and close to 10 years old (with no updates).
Is the technology "old" that they are using? Yes.
Does it make the site less intuitive/useful/pretty/functional? Not as much as you'd imagine.
I also have an ACM and AMS membership, so I guess its a draw, but I would point out that IEEE DOES have a standard for Professional Membership http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/qualifications/qualifications.html#Member
This approach covers all of the "traditional" CompSci paths: getting a degree in a CompSci field, getting a degree in something else and falling into CompSci, and just "falling into it" and never getting a degree.
They also provide a Code of Ethics:http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ethics/code.html, something most Professional organizations do. The only things missing to convert them into a "proper" body like Lawyers or Accountants is to institute some sort of entrance exam (which is difficult unless you test only on the lowest common pieces), and for members to start including initials after their names.
Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Divinity probably outweigh Medical Doctors (you know, M.D.), even if you throw in Doctors of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), or D.V.M.s (Doctors of Veterinary Medicine).
The question though is one of Credentials. You obviously wouldn't (and shouldn't) trust a Doctor of Philosophy to handle your medical needs, any more than you'd trust a Civic Engineer to design a circuit in place of an Electrical Engineer (though an E.E. usually can't wire their house since they'd need to be a Licensed Electrical Contractor).
So, the REAL question is "What are (or should be) the different type of "engineers" in the field of Computers, and what are (or should be) the qualifications/responsibilities for those titles?"
The main problem with Computer titles is one of standardization (especially odd considering how much computers rely on standardized protocols for communication :) ).
I for one welcome the dogma of our recursive commenting Karmic overlords.
Yes, okay, but, saying I'm an "Engineer" isn't sufficient to define your credentials. Are you a Physical Engineer? An Electrical Engineer?
So what are the Profession's requirements for being a Software Engineer?
(Asked as a card carrying member of IEEE)
Yes, but picture this:
------------
NASA: Steven, we'd really like to thank you for all of the support and attention you helped draw to this endeavor.
Colbert: So you're naming the module after me?
NASA: No. We decided to name something even more critical, the waste reclamation unit.
Colbert: And thats more important because ... ?
NASA: When you're out in space, you only have whatever you bring with you, so all of the water and other items need to be reclaimed from the astronauts waste for reuse.
Colbert: So, without the "Colbert Waste Reclamation Unit" the station wouldn't be able to function.
NASA: Exactly
Colbert: [Insert jokes as he preens and pretends his ego is stroked]
------------
I could VERY easily see them do something like this. It would allow them to name the module something else, let Steven Colbert get a lot of millage out of how "important" he is, and provide coverage for NASA on the deployment of the module, all while essentially naming the toilet after him, something Steven Colbert (the satirist, not the character) would probably get a kick out of.