My time spent in public accounting showed me that the industry will not properly monitor itself. Turning a blind eye toward what has happened, and waiting for the "market" to take care of itself is not the prudent thing to do in this case. The market would have a much better chance of working properly if all players had access to the same information. Unfortunately, it's more like a poker game where one side dictates what cards the other side will hold. Until investors can trust that the CFOs, CEOs, and auditors are playing fairly, the "market" will remain stagnant.
Corporate boards need to be composed of members with no ties to the organization, CEOs need to be removed from the boards, and auditors need to prove independence instead of posturing. Stock exchanges need to have stricter reporting requirements of their listed members. There are so many things wrong with the current structure, it's a miracle that things are still stumbling along as well as they are. The magnitude of what is happening cries for governmental intervention. I'm not a fan of government running rampant over free enterprise. But government is responsible for the creation of these intangible entities (corporations). As long as corporations are granted the freedoms that real individuals maintain, then government is obligated to ensure that corporations are held accountable for their actions.
Trading floors and brokers get a cut of the action. Yes, the stock exchanges should implement better standards for their listed members to adhere to. But by virtue of their vested interest in keeping things moving, they cannot be relied upon to do the "right thing." This is where the SEC is expected to step up and make sure things are on the up-and-up. But a Pitt-led SEC is a neutered SEC. Status-quo isn't going to cut it anymore, and the recent appointment of William Webster as head of the PCAOB can fairly be viewed as status-quo.
President Bush had an opportunity to show some leadership here, but instead he cowered. And don't claim that he's just letting markets work themselves out. It's purely a political move. If he were truly a fan of the market, he wouldn't have imposed tariffs on steel imports earlier this year.
Probably was referring to the administration's refusal to back meaningful accounting reforms. Despite the fraudulent activites of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and others we've still got an SEC chairman (Harvey Pitt) who is quite chummy with big business. And despite the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the ideal candidate (John H. Biggs) faces opposition by the GOP. Mr. Pitt, who had informally offered Mr. Biggs the position, is now waffling in his support.
Please don't credit us with being the MTV generation. We were there in the beginning, when it was a music video channel. But MTV strayed from us long ago.
If the motion picture industry estimates that they "lose" $3 billion each year to "piracy" why don't they cough up the $2 million investment into this technology? It could pay for itself very quickly. (If their numbers are anywhere near accurate, that is.)
From the NIST website:
The ATP views R&D projects from a broader perspective - its bottom line is how the project can benefit the nation. In sharing the relatively high development risks of technologies that potentially make feasible a broad range of new commercial opportunities, the ATP fosters projects with a high payoff for the nation as a whole - in addition to a direct return to the innovators.
So how exactly does this use of our tax dollars have a "high payoff for the nation as a whole?
"
I'm not good at physics, but have really enjoyed that book. And though I love Feynman's stories, I have no hope of understanding his or Hawking's writings on physics. (Maybe they should've made cartoons?)
There are different types of public-sector employment. I'm a municipal worker, and can't imagine being swallowed up in the county/state/federal system. Some municipalities (such as Los Angeles) might be as intimidating to me as a federal position too. But my city employs about 1500 people, most of which take a great deal of pride in their work.
It's true that the pay often doesn't match what the private sector offers. But as an IT employee I'm still earning more than the average American household, so I don't care that I'm not getting the maximum amount that my skills could provide on the "outside." We do have good job security, and our pay rates typically resemble a straight line with a gradual slope upward. (My private sector pay rate experience looked more like a sine wave.) Our city manager believes that it costs the organization more to re-hire and re-train people than it does to retain them during economic downturns. That doesn't mean we can just show up and collect a paycheck. It means that when we come to work we can focus on taking care of city operations for the citizens instead of looking over our shoulder wondering who's next to go. I also work with some very talented people. Most of us have pursued technical hobbies well before we were able to get paid to do it. (CBM 4032 with Headmaster system, anyone?) It's not like we suddenly became incompetent by virtue of being government employees.
I guess like anything else, it all comes down to balancing your priorities. I don't miss the BS of the private sector. I don't miss the profit motive. I don't miss the high turnover rates. It's nice to be surrounded by predominantly good people who take pride in what they do, and are not intimidated by the thought of losing their job at the whim of a knuckle-headed boss.
Of course, this is my experience at my various places of employment. YMMV.
It's not like the customers of this service are getting up during the naughty (fun?) parts of the show and going to the bathroom. (We all know that would be theft.)
Customer: "I want you to cut the objectionable parts from this movie for me."
Clerk: "Ok, give me your Ishtar and $20. I'll give you a blank tape, and we'll call it even."
DGA: "Wait a minute! Ishtar was somebody's work of art! And we all know that a film that speaks to you does so because it was made with a great deal of care."
Senator Hollings: We need new legislation to protect the rights of the directors of this film!
Gates: We modeled our new Security Initiative after the quality-control mechanisms present during the production of Ishtar.
Valenti: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes when I fly to Europe on the Concorde, I wonder, am I inside some sort of giant bird? Am I gonna be digested? I don't know, because I'm a caveman, and that's the way I think!
Rosen: When will you pesky customers leave us alone???
Stallman: Maybe in this case, information doesn't really want to be free...
I fired off an e-mail to my HP support rep yesterday morning, and am awaiting his response. (He's out of office until next week.) Basically I told him that as a customer, I resent this behavior toward those who would offer us information about the security of the products we're using.
My support rep does an awesome job for us, and is our "foot in the door" to HP. That's why I felt it necessary to get the message to him quickly. Now I'll have a good opportunity to follow-up with him regarding HP's response. They've typically done a good job for us, but we've been curious as to how the post-merger HP would behave. I hope this isn't an indication.
So are they honestly expecting people to flood the stores and buy their overpriced boy-band (or eye-candy) CDs as a result of these lawsuits? I just can't see people responding favorably to this behavior. But then again, the RIAA has been suffering from denial for a LONG time.
They weren't happy digging their own graves with a shovel, so it looks like they switched to a backhoe.
If you're interested in college, and if you can work AND go to school, then you'll have the opportunity to have the best of both worlds. Many employers have some sort of college degree requirement for promotions beyond a certain level. While the propriety of such requirements can be argued forever, it doesn't change the fact that they exist. And it's not like college is a waste of time, either. You'll come out with additional experiences and knowledge that you wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.
I did "grunt" work for 40-60 hrs/week while taking full class loads (including summers) in college. But I also kept up with computers as my longtime hobby. Because of this, I was able to get into the tech field and move forward with my career.
There are worse things than having a college degree behind you. But if you don't like the idea of going to school, then don't. You certainly don't need a degree to do sysadmin work. But be aware of the limitations that will likely be present if you choose not to obtain the degree. It's all about choice.
We put out a Request For Names to the group. Best pun, or most appropriate name wins. (There are several stages of voting to narrow down the list.) This way we avoid the constraints of other naming conventions, and servers are easier to remember. For example, our Omniback Cell management server is named Warden. And the server that manages our vehicle maintenance and parts database is named Tonka.
Sure, it's not the best name selection method for everybody. But it works well for us.
I've always found 2 particular things odd about this whole situation. First, that Yucca Mountain was the ONLY site studied for something as critical as storing the nation's nuclear waste. And second, that only Nevadans seem to care that it is being ramrodded through.
Think about it for a minute. What would your response be if the Feds decided to put the nation's nuclear waste 90 miles away from where you live, on a fault line no less. Any takers? Didn't think so. If this happens, your state might be next. Wake up, America. You're about to drop the soap in the shower.
they were going to name it...
on
Apple PDA?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
e-walk, but some guy named Lucas threatened to sue. (Also couldn't get NSYNC to agree to perform at product launch.)
My original contract had language indicating that the cable provider (Cox) was not responsible if someone on the network broke into my machine. But it also said that firewalls were not permitted. Didn't stop me from putting up a firewall.
The VPN clause has been in there since I first had service installed (6/89), yet I've had no problem using Nortel VPN client or ssh. What I find amusing is that they claim that VPN clients eat up bandwidth, yet they've already placed bandwidth restrictions on us.
They can manage the traffic if they want. But claiming that VPNs cause "excessive" traffic is ridiculous. I've either purchased bandwidth, or I haven't. They shouldn't care what protocols I'm using (none of their business). And in fairness to Cox, they have NEVER raised the issue of VPN use with me. (Contract language is probably there to cover their a$$ in case they do decide to get nasty.) None of this should be news to anyone with the service. Read the contract before you sign it, and decide whether or not it's worth signing.
I know I'll get clobbered for this, but I think Insurrection was great. Saw it several times. Bought the DVD and the soundtrack CD. I don't understand the Insurrection-bashing, but it seems to be quite popular. Oh well. Guess I fail that section of the geek-test.
Thanks so much for the link. Should help us find a good technical solution, instead of the political solutions that have been creeping in from the sides.
At least we've got decent notice from HP regarding the 3000 demise.
We found out yesterday morning. An HP service rep called one of our supervisors at home to break the news. While I'm not the one who manages these boxes at our site (I've got the UX machines), I do know that they are the most reliable of anything we've got. They just don't go down, and I guess this is bad news for HP. They need stuff to break so they can boost sales and services.
We've still got several critical apps running on MPE, including our 911 software for PD. These things are bulletproof, and I cringe at the thought of the PD folks going out and choosing an NT solution now. I can only hope a decent 911 app for UX exists.
The problem is that Microsoft is allowed to dictate to OEMs precisely how the OS may be configured. The OEMs are the ones with the most at stake, as they are going to be the ones who are contacted by customers with problems. But for some reason MS is allowed to dictate the OS installation configuration.
MS should be in the software sales business, not the "restrict how a PC builder can configure the software on the hardware" business. This is perhaps their greatest weapon in monopoly maintenance, and if it were revoked I expect we would see a great deal of competition arise. OEMs should not face restrictions from Microsoft on icons, software pre-loads, business partner tie-ins, splash-screens, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
My time spent in public accounting showed me that the industry will not properly monitor itself. Turning a blind eye toward what has happened, and waiting for the "market" to take care of itself is not the prudent thing to do in this case. The market would have a much better chance of working properly if all players had access to the same information. Unfortunately, it's more like a poker game where one side dictates what cards the other side will hold. Until investors can trust that the CFOs, CEOs, and auditors are playing fairly, the "market" will remain stagnant.
Corporate boards need to be composed of members with no ties to the organization, CEOs need to be removed from the boards, and auditors need to prove independence instead of posturing. Stock exchanges need to have stricter reporting requirements of their listed members. There are so many things wrong with the current structure, it's a miracle that things are still stumbling along as well as they are. The magnitude of what is happening cries for governmental intervention. I'm not a fan of government running rampant over free enterprise. But government is responsible for the creation of these intangible entities (corporations). As long as corporations are granted the freedoms that real individuals maintain, then government is obligated to ensure that corporations are held accountable for their actions.
Trading floors and brokers get a cut of the action. Yes, the stock exchanges should implement better standards for their listed members to adhere to. But by virtue of their vested interest in keeping things moving, they cannot be relied upon to do the "right thing." This is where the SEC is expected to step up and make sure things are on the up-and-up. But a Pitt-led SEC is a neutered SEC. Status-quo isn't going to cut it anymore, and the recent appointment of William Webster as head of the PCAOB can fairly be viewed as status-quo.
President Bush had an opportunity to show some leadership here, but instead he cowered. And don't claim that he's just letting markets work themselves out. It's purely a political move. If he were truly a fan of the market, he wouldn't have imposed tariffs on steel imports earlier this year.
Probably was referring to the administration's refusal to back meaningful accounting reforms. Despite the fraudulent activites of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and others we've still got an SEC chairman (Harvey Pitt) who is quite chummy with big business. And despite the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the ideal candidate (John H. Biggs) faces opposition by the GOP. Mr. Pitt, who had informally offered Mr. Biggs the position, is now waffling in his support.
Please don't credit us with being the MTV generation. We were there in the beginning, when it was a music video channel. But MTV strayed from us long ago.
Yep. Personal responsibility is not trendy. It requires integrity and effort. "Groupthink" is in.
From the NIST website: The ATP views R&D projects from a broader perspective - its bottom line is how the project can benefit the nation. In sharing the relatively high development risks of technologies that potentially make feasible a broad range of new commercial opportunities, the ATP fosters projects with a high payoff for the nation as a whole - in addition to a direct return to the innovators.
So how exactly does this use of our tax dollars have a "high payoff for the nation as a whole? "
I guess if warchalkers are thieves, then wireless providers are litterbugs.
I'm not good at physics, but have really enjoyed that book. And though I love Feynman's stories, I have no hope of understanding his or Hawking's writings on physics. (Maybe they should've made cartoons?)
There are different types of public-sector employment. I'm a municipal worker, and can't imagine being swallowed up in the county/state/federal system. Some municipalities (such as Los Angeles) might be as intimidating to me as a federal position too. But my city employs about 1500 people, most of which take a great deal of pride in their work.
It's true that the pay often doesn't match what the private sector offers. But as an IT employee I'm still earning more than the average American household, so I don't care that I'm not getting the maximum amount that my skills could provide on the "outside." We do have good job security, and our pay rates typically resemble a straight line with a gradual slope upward. (My private sector pay rate experience looked more like a sine wave.) Our city manager believes that it costs the organization more to re-hire and re-train people than it does to retain them during economic downturns. That doesn't mean we can just show up and collect a paycheck. It means that when we come to work we can focus on taking care of city operations for the citizens instead of looking over our shoulder wondering who's next to go. I also work with some very talented people. Most of us have pursued technical hobbies well before we were able to get paid to do it. (CBM 4032 with Headmaster system, anyone?) It's not like we suddenly became incompetent by virtue of being government employees.
I guess like anything else, it all comes down to balancing your priorities. I don't miss the BS of the private sector. I don't miss the profit motive. I don't miss the high turnover rates. It's nice to be surrounded by predominantly good people who take pride in what they do, and are not intimidated by the thought of losing their job at the whim of a knuckle-headed boss.
Of course, this is my experience at my various places of employment. YMMV.
That's what we need, another Neil Diamond.
Customer: "I want you to cut the objectionable parts from this movie for me."
Clerk: "Ok, give me your Ishtar and $20. I'll give you a blank tape, and we'll call it even."
DGA: "Wait a minute! Ishtar was somebody's work of art! And we all know that a film that speaks to you does so because it was made with a great deal of care."
Senator Hollings: We need new legislation to protect the rights of the directors of this film!
Gates: We modeled our new Security Initiative after the quality-control mechanisms present during the production of Ishtar.
Valenti: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes when I fly to Europe on the Concorde, I wonder, am I inside some sort of giant bird? Am I gonna be digested? I don't know, because I'm a caveman, and that's the way I think!
Rosen: When will you pesky customers leave us alone???
Stallman: Maybe in this case, information doesn't really want to be free...
I fired off an e-mail to my HP support rep yesterday morning, and am awaiting his response. (He's out of office until next week.) Basically I told him that as a customer, I resent this behavior toward those who would offer us information about the security of the products we're using.
My support rep does an awesome job for us, and is our "foot in the door" to HP. That's why I felt it necessary to get the message to him quickly. Now I'll have a good opportunity to follow-up with him regarding HP's response. They've typically done a good job for us, but we've been curious as to how the post-merger HP would behave. I hope this isn't an indication.
I will not buy this record, it is scratched!
So are they honestly expecting people to flood the stores and buy their overpriced boy-band (or eye-candy) CDs as a result of these lawsuits? I just can't see people responding favorably to this behavior. But then again, the RIAA has been suffering from denial for a LONG time.
They weren't happy digging their own graves with a shovel, so it looks like they switched to a backhoe.
If you're interested in college, and if you can work AND go to school, then you'll have the opportunity to have the best of both worlds. Many employers have some sort of college degree requirement for promotions beyond a certain level. While the propriety of such requirements can be argued forever, it doesn't change the fact that they exist. And it's not like college is a waste of time, either. You'll come out with additional experiences and knowledge that you wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.
I did "grunt" work for 40-60 hrs/week while taking full class loads (including summers) in college. But I also kept up with computers as my longtime hobby. Because of this, I was able to get into the tech field and move forward with my career.
There are worse things than having a college degree behind you. But if you don't like the idea of going to school, then don't. You certainly don't need a degree to do sysadmin work. But be aware of the limitations that will likely be present if you choose not to obtain the degree. It's all about choice.
Yeah, anything except links to instructions on how to unlock a copy-protected DVD that you've purchased for viewing on your home computer.
We put out a Request For Names to the group. Best pun, or most appropriate name wins. (There are several stages of voting to narrow down the list.) This way we avoid the constraints of other naming conventions, and servers are easier to remember. For example, our Omniback Cell management server is named Warden. And the server that manages our vehicle maintenance and parts database is named Tonka.
Sure, it's not the best name selection method for everybody. But it works well for us.
I've always found 2 particular things odd about this whole situation. First, that Yucca Mountain was the ONLY site studied for something as critical as storing the nation's nuclear waste. And second, that only Nevadans seem to care that it is being ramrodded through.
Think about it for a minute. What would your response be if the Feds decided to put the nation's nuclear waste 90 miles away from where you live, on a fault line no less. Any takers? Didn't think so. If this happens, your state might be next. Wake up, America. You're about to drop the soap in the shower.
e-walk, but some guy named Lucas threatened to sue. (Also couldn't get NSYNC to agree to perform at product launch.)
My original contract had language indicating that the cable provider (Cox) was not responsible if someone on the network broke into my machine. But it also said that firewalls were not permitted. Didn't stop me from putting up a firewall.
The VPN clause has been in there since I first had service installed (6/89), yet I've had no problem using Nortel VPN client or ssh. What I find amusing is that they claim that VPN clients eat up bandwidth, yet they've already placed bandwidth restrictions on us.
They can manage the traffic if they want. But claiming that VPNs cause "excessive" traffic is ridiculous. I've either purchased bandwidth, or I haven't. They shouldn't care what protocols I'm using (none of their business). And in fairness to Cox, they have NEVER raised the issue of VPN use with me. (Contract language is probably there to cover their a$$ in case they do decide to get nasty.) None of this should be news to anyone with the service. Read the contract before you sign it, and decide whether or not it's worth signing.
I know I'll get clobbered for this, but I think Insurrection was great. Saw it several times. Bought the DVD and the soundtrack CD. I don't understand the Insurrection-bashing, but it seems to be quite popular. Oh well. Guess I fail that section of the geek-test.
Thanks so much for the link. Should help us find a good technical solution, instead of the political solutions that have been creeping in from the sides.
At least we've got decent notice from HP regarding the 3000 demise.
We found out yesterday morning. An HP service rep called one of our supervisors at home to break the news. While I'm not the one who manages these boxes at our site (I've got the UX machines), I do know that they are the most reliable of anything we've got. They just don't go down, and I guess this is bad news for HP. They need stuff to break so they can boost sales and services.
We've still got several critical apps running on MPE, including our 911 software for PD. These things are bulletproof, and I cringe at the thought of the PD folks going out and choosing an NT solution now. I can only hope a decent 911 app for UX exists.
He shouldn't have "open-sourced" the playbook. Doh!
Much of what is going on here is intellectual discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of current U.S. copyright law. Discussions of encryption mechanisms are beneficial to society at large. Therefore, this forum should be viewed as a grand virtual meeting place where intellectual discourse can occur, free from the clutter of messy grits.
The problem is that Microsoft is allowed to dictate to OEMs precisely how the OS may be configured. The OEMs are the ones with the most at stake, as they are going to be the ones who are contacted by customers with problems. But for some reason MS is allowed to dictate the OS installation configuration.
MS should be in the software sales business, not the "restrict how a PC builder can configure the software on the hardware" business. This is perhaps their greatest weapon in monopoly maintenance, and if it were revoked I expect we would see a great deal of competition arise. OEMs should not face restrictions from Microsoft on icons, software pre-loads, business partner tie-ins, splash-screens, etc.