I ran Nylander Technologies for a while do this same thing. First suggestion, hire a bookeeper. I spent more time filling out government tax documents then doing real work (I incorporated, may be less if you do not). Second, I found that I was in moderate demand through word of mouth. Third, I eventually found that I tired of doing the same thing off hours that I did on hours. Good luck and heed suggestion #1.
We have this already, it is called digital certificates. I get one digital certificate that identifies me and I use it on multiple sites. Now if more sites just supported authentication by digital certificate, a process supported on all web servers already then we would be done. Why do so few webmasters understand digital cerficates? Do we expect them to understand this any better?
I have been playing for some time with the idea of "best of both worlds". With some applications, especially document oriented applications, there are benefits to working in XML directly. One of the largest drawbacks is search and query. I have played with the idea of storing most of the data in XML and using an RDBMS to index it. Often we can meet 90% (arbitrary) of searches with just a few well defined fields. I am exploring running each file through a SAX parser or even simpler string regular expression scripts on the way to the file system and extracting a few key fields to a RDBMS. Then execute my quries against the a combination of the RDBMS and the file system. Anyways, in direct answer to your question, no I have not used that software.
Lookup APRS from the HAM radio world. GPS plus radio equals real time position reporting. Some of the equiptment will also act as data repeaters so infrastructure is low and you may be able to use the HAM frequencies. Equiptment is becoming off the shelf. Add a laptop and a screen at the bus stops and you get a realtime map of the area with the location of the busses.
As a county DBA / Network Technician, I can tell you that most government computers are secure and often more secure then some of the vendors/businesses we deal with. Unlike corporations, we have mandated audit processes. Our agency just went through an extensive IT audit conducted by a legally seperate internal auditor who hired out much of the audit work. From a technology stand point we are very secure (biggest problem was lack or written policy). We take great strides to make sure our network and systems are secure and most other local government IT people I talk to do the same thing.
We as taxpayers/employees take great pride in protecting the public's information. And while one respondent asked about public record, yes most are public but we MUST control the way in which the public gets access.
I have used an apple AirPort for over 2 years now. I do not own a Mac but someone wrote a nice Java based configuration application so you do not need a Mac to use one. They have a lot of nice features and the new ones look even better. (This is my one and only Apple product.)
I started one at home and as long as I was not going to have customers driving up to my house and parking the city did not care. If you just have a home office there is nothing they can do.
I grew up in Mason County and I can assure you that they have NO money. My gues is PUD (for those on the east coast PUD is a Public Utility District, essentially an elected/democratic power company) still owns the fiber but the ISP is working with them on this. For some time now the PUDs have been looking at fiber optics to replace meeter readers. Wonder if this is related. By the way the PUDs get their power primarily from the Bonnivile Power Administration (BPA) who has for sometime now been running fiber allong its power transimission coridors.
First we have to know what it is!
on
Stopping Palladium?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
There has been alot of talk on this subject, almost all of it speculation. Do we have any concrete ideas about how it will stop open source? No we don't. We can only speculate (be like the x-box, secure hw, closed specifications). Short version, know thie enemy. We don't even know if it is the enemy.
I work for a small local government doing web developement. From accross the state we get together once a quarter to share ideas. One time we had a bunch of lawyers come and give a presentation. I got alot of information out of it and we actually discussed this topic. The lawyers say that linking is a problem and point to some of the existing deep linking precedints (M$ vs TicketMa$ter). They recomended putting such a policy on our websites. We argued that this is against the concept of the web but they argued back (don't remember all of the argument).
I believe that if you look at a lot of sites, especially large comercial sites they will include this policy.
While I do not have any numbers to support this, it would seem that most bugs and particularly exploits today are do to buffer overflows. This is a prime example of where programmers have not learned anything from the past.
THERE IS NO REASON WHY BUFFER OVERFLOWS SHOULD EXIST TODAY. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO FIX OVER 60% OF THE BUGS. WHY ARE WE SO STUPID?
I took C++ classes after learning Visual Basic and Java. After learning about pointers I realized why software is so shoddy. We have the technology to prevent buffer overflows, partially in better compilers, interpreted languages and partly in better object oriented programming languages.
I know this is a late post and almost no one will read it but I read alot of the above posts and everyone got caught up in the licencing.
Liability will extend to everyone and everything. I company x has to insure their network then they not only will have to purchase and use software that has a good record of not being sued for liability but they will have to follow best practices that are recommended/enforced by insurance companies. They will have to hire NetAdmins that stand up to insurance scrutiny. etc...
This is no different then many other areas of risk managment that companies already do. For example if Company X is a trucking company then for their insurance premiums to be low they have to make sure their trucks are in good shape and do not break down often, they have to hire good drivers, keep them drug and alchohol free, and give them safety training.
There will be a time when this is so, it happened everywhere else it is just that the field is still maturing. Eventually the job of a NetAdmin will be dictated by policies and procedures (you know those poorly written documents in the company manual).
At our small to mid size government shop we looked long and hard at the subscription service. The flaw for us it that the subscription service is based on upgrading every two years. We do not have the resources to roll out new OS/Productivity every two years. We are now upgrading from Win95 to Win2K and that will take 2 years alone. We calculated a 4 to 5 year cycle and with that purchasing the software outright is cheaper.
As a County IT guy we are always struggling with this. We have to major web applications (I was involved in both). The first allows you to pay property taxes online. In order to do that it posts all kind of information about you, your properties and your taxes. The second service is similar in that it allows you to search property parcel information and check assesment, ownership, past ownership, taxes, etc. I was more involved in the second system. The only security measure was to prohibit searching by owners name. In fact both systems just require an address. When discussing the issue with the politicians (elected Treasurer and elected Assessor) they both said that there goal was to reduce staff time and that the records are already public info. Very little concern was given even though myself and others brought up these same points.
In a time when the demands on government services is increasing but the taxes are decreasing (well in our state anyways) county agencies will do whatever they can to reduce the counter load.
The fact is that just about every corresponce with the government is public record. One example is the checks you mail in to pay your taxes. I was involved (over serous objections) with a project where a company outsourced by the Treasurer scans the front and back of the checks you mail in. The company then provides those images over the internet to the Treasurers staff. If you have questions about how you paid your taxes, you can walk in and see the check used, including signature. Technically this is public record and anyone can request the info.
The bigger question is what should be public. Right now the only things not public are County Health records (only specific things are restricted), preliminary evedince, Juvenile court documents, and certain sealed court records(stalking). Everything else is there.
To combat this many states have passed record retention laws. These say that you only have to keep things so long. The idea is that one we reduce storage costs and two if it is detroyed after so long than no one can request it.
Sorry guys but it is all public and until you change the laws on what can be public, government will continue to try things to reduce staff (remember you want lower taxes too).
I would like to spread a Social Engineering worm to fix VBS worms (most often spreading with Outlook). The problem is not Outlook persay but Windows Scripting Host.
To prevent the spread of VBS worms on your computers, simply change the VBS extension in Explorer to something else like SBV. This way there will be no association with VBS and Windows Scripting.
If you want to run a script of your own, use the SBV extension instead of VBS. If enough of us change the extension, especially you who are IT prof. on corporate computers then VBS worms will be less harmfull.
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I ran Nylander Technologies for a while do this same thing. First suggestion, hire a bookeeper. I spent more time filling out government tax documents then doing real work (I incorporated, may be less if you do not). Second, I found that I was in moderate demand through word of mouth. Third, I eventually found that I tired of doing the same thing off hours that I did on hours. Good luck and heed suggestion #1.
We have this already, it is called digital certificates. I get one digital certificate that identifies me and I use it on multiple sites. Now if more sites just supported authentication by digital certificate, a process supported on all web servers already then we would be done. Why do so few webmasters understand digital cerficates? Do we expect them to understand this any better?
I have been playing for some time with the idea of "best of both worlds". With some applications, especially document oriented applications, there are benefits to working in XML directly. One of the largest drawbacks is search and query. I have played with the idea of storing most of the data in XML and using an RDBMS to index it. Often we can meet 90% (arbitrary) of searches with just a few well defined fields. I am exploring running each file through a SAX parser or even simpler string regular expression scripts on the way to the file system and extracting a few key fields to a RDBMS. Then execute my quries against the a combination of the RDBMS and the file system. Anyways, in direct answer to your question, no I have not used that software.
I work for local (County) government. Cities, Counties, School Districts and the State are always looking for just that.
Lookup APRS from the HAM radio world. GPS plus radio equals real time position reporting. Some of the equiptment will also act as data repeaters so infrastructure is low and you may be able to use the HAM frequencies. Equiptment is becoming off the shelf. Add a laptop and a screen at the bus stops and you get a realtime map of the area with the location of the busses.
As a county DBA / Network Technician, I can tell you that most government computers are secure and often more secure then some of the vendors/businesses we deal with. Unlike corporations, we have mandated audit processes. Our agency just went through an extensive IT audit conducted by a legally seperate internal auditor who hired out much of the audit work. From a technology stand point we are very secure (biggest problem was lack or written policy). We take great strides to make sure our network and systems are secure and most other local government IT people I talk to do the same thing.
We as taxpayers/employees take great pride in protecting the public's information. And while one respondent asked about public record, yes most are public but we MUST control the way in which the public gets access.
I have used an apple AirPort for over 2 years now. I do not own a Mac but someone wrote a nice Java based configuration application so you do not need a Mac to use one. They have a lot of nice features and the new ones look even better. (This is my one and only Apple product.)
I started one at home and as long as I was not going to have customers driving up to my house and parking the city did not care. If you just have a home office there is nothing they can do.
I grew up in Mason County and I can assure you that they have NO money. My gues is PUD (for those on the east coast PUD is a Public Utility District, essentially an elected/democratic power company) still owns the fiber but the ISP is working with them on this. For some time now the PUDs have been looking at fiber optics to replace meeter readers. Wonder if this is related. By the way the PUDs get their power primarily from the Bonnivile Power Administration (BPA) who has for sometime now been running fiber allong its power transimission coridors.
There has been alot of talk on this subject, almost all of it speculation. Do we have any concrete ideas about how it will stop open source? No we don't. We can only speculate (be like the x-box, secure hw, closed specifications). Short version, know thie enemy. We don't even know if it is the enemy.
I work for a small local government doing web developement. From accross the state we get together once a quarter to share ideas. One time we had a bunch of lawyers come and give a presentation. I got alot of information out of it and we actually discussed this topic. The lawyers say that linking is a problem and point to some of the existing deep linking precedints (M$ vs TicketMa$ter). They recomended putting such a policy on our websites. We argued that this is against the concept of the web but they argued back (don't remember all of the argument).
I believe that if you look at a lot of sites, especially large comercial sites they will include this policy.
While I do not have any numbers to support this, it would seem that most bugs and particularly exploits today are do to buffer overflows. This is a prime example of where programmers have not learned anything from the past.
THERE IS NO REASON WHY BUFFER OVERFLOWS SHOULD EXIST TODAY. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO FIX OVER 60% OF THE BUGS. WHY ARE WE SO STUPID?I took C++ classes after learning Visual Basic and Java. After learning about pointers I realized why software is so shoddy. We have the technology to prevent buffer overflows, partially in better compilers, interpreted languages and partly in better object oriented programming languages.
I know this is a late post and almost no one will read it but I read alot of the above posts and everyone got caught up in the licencing.
Liability will extend to everyone and everything. I company x has to insure their network then they not only will have to purchase and use software that has a good record of not being sued for liability but they will have to follow best practices that are recommended/enforced by insurance companies. They will have to hire NetAdmins that stand up to insurance scrutiny. etc...
This is no different then many other areas of risk managment that companies already do. For example if Company X is a trucking company then for their insurance premiums to be low they have to make sure their trucks are in good shape and do not break down often, they have to hire good drivers, keep them drug and alchohol free, and give them safety training.
There will be a time when this is so, it happened everywhere else it is just that the field is still maturing. Eventually the job of a NetAdmin will be dictated by policies and procedures (you know those poorly written documents in the company manual).
At our small to mid size government shop we looked long and hard at the subscription service. The flaw for us it that the subscription service is based on upgrading every two years. We do not have the resources to roll out new OS/Productivity every two years. We are now upgrading from Win95 to Win2K and that will take 2 years alone. We calculated a 4 to 5 year cycle and with that purchasing the software outright is cheaper.
As a County IT guy we are always struggling with this. We have to major web applications (I was involved in both). The first allows you to pay property taxes online. In order to do that it posts all kind of information about you, your properties and your taxes. The second service is similar in that it allows you to search property parcel information and check assesment, ownership, past ownership, taxes, etc. I was more involved in the second system. The only security measure was to prohibit searching by owners name. In fact both systems just require an address. When discussing the issue with the politicians (elected Treasurer and elected Assessor) they both said that there goal was to reduce staff time and that the records are already public info. Very little concern was given even though myself and others brought up these same points.
In a time when the demands on government services is increasing but the taxes are decreasing (well in our state anyways) county agencies will do whatever they can to reduce the counter load.
The fact is that just about every corresponce with the government is public record. One example is the checks you mail in to pay your taxes. I was involved (over serous objections) with a project where a company outsourced by the Treasurer scans the front and back of the checks you mail in. The company then provides those images over the internet to the Treasurers staff. If you have questions about how you paid your taxes, you can walk in and see the check used, including signature. Technically this is public record and anyone can request the info.
The bigger question is what should be public. Right now the only things not public are County Health records (only specific things are restricted), preliminary evedince, Juvenile court documents, and certain sealed court records(stalking). Everything else is there.
To combat this many states have passed record retention laws. These say that you only have to keep things so long. The idea is that one we reduce storage costs and two if it is detroyed after so long than no one can request it.
Sorry guys but it is all public and until you change the laws on what can be public, government will continue to try things to reduce staff (remember you want lower taxes too).
Yours trully,
County IT Guy
I would like to spread a Social Engineering worm to fix VBS worms (most often spreading with Outlook). The problem is not Outlook persay but Windows Scripting Host.
To prevent the spread of VBS worms on your computers, simply change the VBS extension in Explorer to something else like SBV. This way there will be no association with VBS and Windows Scripting.
If you want to run a script of your own, use the SBV extension instead of VBS. If enough of us change the extension, especially you who are IT prof. on corporate computers then VBS worms will be less harmfull.