...can we *please* kill off software patents while we're at it?
(I know, too much to ask, etc. Knowing Congress, they'll just make it all that much easier for patent trolls and big corps to plow through even the silliest patents now.)
If the fine is big enough (25% of the guilty company's annual revenue would be perfect, IMHO), the surcharge would be a mother to slip under the radar.
Let's say that Verizon got busted for it. They get fined, say, $15bn - payable (to the last penny) within 120 days, else the fine doubles and/or the company charter is revoked, and it effectively gets its assets sold on the auction block. The figure effectively cuts Verizon's *revenue* by 25% (2010 shows ~$13bn/quarter), and their profits will likely evaporate.
Meanwhile, the other biggies will still keep their rates the same, if only to attract cross-over customers and avoid getting pimp-slapped in a similar manner.
Also, since that new surcharge materially changes the contract, every subscriber could leave within 90 days w/o paying an ETF.
I'm not exactly IBM's biggest fan (having to hammer on 370-series mainframes made me quite the IBM-hater for awhile), but to say that IBM automated the Nazis would be akin to saying that {insert item here} helped to {insert what that item does} the Nazis.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that WWII Germany had light bulbs, motion pictures, aircraft, NCR calculators (the old mechanical kind), and lots of other things pioneered by American individuals and companies. I'm also willing to bet that many of them were used directly in facilitating the Holocaust as well.
Hell, Henry Ford was an open admirer of Hitler's policies before (and even in the pre-US stages of) WWII, and an unabashed anti-semite... does that make the Ford Mustang a Nazimobile?
Asked to do something you think is illegal? Get it in writing, respond saying your department will do it but with objections. When it comes back, let it bite him in the ass.
No, you get it in writing, then take that writing to the company legal department to get it signed off first. If the legal department is dumb enough to sign it off, you take that whole wad and go to the SEC (if it breaks SOX), US Dep't of Health and Human Services (if it breaks HIPAA), DHS (if it breaks SCADA - depending), etc.
Then you pull copies of.pst files from all involved (if you can), and stall/estimate for enough time on the project to go find another job.
OTOH, the Cloud does have some big, fat hazards - security and politics-wise. When you have a bunch of sales/accounting folks setting up something IT-centric, it usually comes around to bite them (*and* IT) in the butt.
I remember a previous job when HR decided all by themselves to contract a SaaS for payroll stuff. The HR department head kept bragging about how IT was now useless to them, that they could do whatever they wanted to. They hired an HRIS person specifically for the SaaS provider......that is, until the SaaS provider went to set things up, and asked where the ADFS servers were (for employee sign-on/information integration - this way they could see their payroll info at home as well as at work - a *major* selling point, politically). It was funny watching the same department head come crawling around, because suddenly he couldn't deliver what he bragged on. It wasn't funny because someone in IT had to quickly evaluate, then crap out money and bandwidth for two servers and a wad of SSL certs, and then spend time working out the kinks.
My wee story is minor. There are far worse out there, usually when the rogue department comes across outages (and thus can't deliver), security breaches (and because IT wasn't told about it, they usually they find out the hard way - after A/P starts screaming that money is being lost, or employees start seeing identity theft), and general goof-ups that cause a great big mess that IT has to suddenly clean up.
A strong IT department head/manager/CIO will cut that shit off at the knees politically, and make sure it all funnels through his department, or that he/she at least knows about it before it goes in. That, or at the very least he/she can make sure all other department heads know there's a big disclaimer: If you don't involve us, we ain't responsible for what happens to it. It's as simple as insuring the firewalls block things in *both* directions, and that users are fairly locked-down. That way if some schmoe in another department wants to start FTP'ing files or opening oddball ports, for the most part they'll have to come to IT to do it, and the IT folks can ask "why".
The best way to prevent such things though is to have three things:
* a responsive and agile IT department. Not always 100% possible, but at least do your level best to serve, not block. * IT management worth a fsck, who will insure that most stupid things don't happen. * push (and get) a simple policy: If we don't build it or endorse it, then it's *your* ass on the block when it breaks/explodes/whatever, not ours. This includes any failure to deliver something specifically from that cloud service due to any network/server outages on our end.
The last part is just as important, because it removes any political cover that rogue department heads might have.
(A thought - if you can't stop it politically, but wanted to go all BOFH on that rogue cloud service connection, a little QoS action that ratchets connections to those IP addys down to the speed of a 14k modem would be an excellent start... >:) )
Funny. I work at a fairly large Auto manufacturer (in the US) and RedHat isn't visible here at all.
Hate to sound snarky, but that might be part of why the US auto industry is having such a hard time staying in the black...
I mean, I've seen 7-figure Microsoft EA agreements at companies with only 1500 people in it. I can only imagine how much dosh an automaker regularly forks over.
You're saying that we (as in humanity) do not really know if what we do affects the climate, but we should stop doing all the little impactful things that we might be doing in case those things actually be affecting the climate at large?
I'm all for ending wanton pollution and disregard for the environment, but some of what's being proposed was sold to us as a 'do this or else' proposition, and was based on iron-willed certainty when spoken, not "we do not know the effect of mankind on climate and the ecology".
If I were driving a regular car, then he would have still gotten his front-end caved in (though not as much), *and* my back-end would have eaten it pretty hard too. The damage would have just been spread out.
I'm not seeing how a giant piece of rubber is any more damaging than a regular car back-bumper with crumple-zones around it, honestly.
but if you call their support line because you can't get a connection, well, good luck with that
Protip: keep a VM around with an old copy of XP installed. I just use my Mac, but if all you have is Linux, then a VM will give them all the appearance they want or need.
That cheaper company has to pay overhead as well - that includes the price they pay Verizon for renting the b/w and gear.
If their personnel overhead is smaller than Verizon's (esp. since Verizon would have an economy of scale advantage of sorts), then perhaps the problem lies with Verizon's internal business practices.
Also, service is more than just making sure the lines are up: It also includes billing, timely response to requests for bandwidth upgrade (or downgrade), timely response to troubleshooting calls, etc.
they also lobby against bad automotive designs like those spare tires that hang on the back of SUVs which causes large dollar amount damages if the SUV was involved in a parking lot fender bender.
Point of order here...
Anecdotal, but years ago, I had that spare tire save me from enduring a metric ton of damage once. I was in a 1979 Jeep CJ-7 with friends out cruising. I was just about to pull out at a fresh green light when a pickup truck slammed into the back of me. It wasn't his fault, as a drunk driver slammed into his backside.
I had the clutch in at the time, so all we got was a hard jolt and a bit of forward roll until I applied the brakes. The truck behind me had his grille and radiator caved in, and his pickup bed twisted up by the initial impact. The drunk driver in back had the entire front-end of his car crumpled down under the truck.
Total damage: Drunk driver: totaled car, and a trip to jail Pickup dude: totaled truck from damage both front and back My Jeep: One punctured spare tire and dented spare rim, with a total replacement cost of $130.
Now, I can't speak for the soccer mom SUV designs, but as most actual Jeeps (until recent years) have no back bumper to speak of (just a couple of steel hoops at best), that spare tire pretty much *is* the back bumper. I can say from experience that it does its job more than admirably, thanks much.:)
Slashdot Mirror
...can we *please* kill off software patents while we're at it?
(I know, too much to ask, etc. Knowing Congress, they'll just make it all that much easier for patent trolls and big corps to plow through even the silliest patents now.)
Yeah... that would be called "motive", and is (at least in the US) a huge factor in what charges are being faced, and in how someone is sentenced.
I'm fairly sure the UK has similar modifiers.
If the fine is big enough (25% of the guilty company's annual revenue would be perfect, IMHO), the surcharge would be a mother to slip under the radar.
Let's say that Verizon got busted for it. They get fined, say, $15bn - payable (to the last penny) within 120 days, else the fine doubles and/or the company charter is revoked, and it effectively gets its assets sold on the auction block. The figure effectively cuts Verizon's *revenue* by 25% (2010 shows ~$13bn/quarter), and their profits will likely evaporate.
Meanwhile, the other biggies will still keep their rates the same, if only to attract cross-over customers and avoid getting pimp-slapped in a similar manner.
Also, since that new surcharge materially changes the contract, every subscriber could leave within 90 days w/o paying an ETF.
A little bit.
I'm not exactly IBM's biggest fan (having to hammer on 370-series mainframes made me quite the IBM-hater for awhile), but to say that IBM automated the Nazis would be akin to saying that {insert item here} helped to {insert what that item does} the Nazis.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that WWII Germany had light bulbs, motion pictures, aircraft, NCR calculators (the old mechanical kind), and lots of other things pioneered by American individuals and companies. I'm also willing to bet that many of them were used directly in facilitating the Holocaust as well.
Hell, Henry Ford was an open admirer of Hitler's policies before (and even in the pre-US stages of) WWII, and an unabashed anti-semite... does that make the Ford Mustang a Nazimobile?
But yeah, basically, TFA is a Godwin.
They can fight over 'em if they want, but I doubt that anyone would actually *use* them.
Asked to do something you think is illegal? Get it in writing, respond saying your department will do it but with objections. When it comes back, let it bite him in the ass.
No, you get it in writing, then take that writing to the company legal department to get it signed off first. If the legal department is dumb enough to sign it off, you take that whole wad and go to the SEC (if it breaks SOX), US Dep't of Health and Human Services (if it breaks HIPAA), DHS (if it breaks SCADA - depending), etc.
Then you pull copies of .pst files from all involved (if you can), and stall/estimate for enough time on the project to go find another job.
SQL Server, Exchange, AD, CALs for everyone, SharePoint, etc etc etc etc.
Trust me, MSFT usually sells more than just Office/Window seats to a typical org.
Let's not forget breaking SOX, SCADA...
Hate to say it, but AC has one hell of a point here.
Agreed...
OTOH, who usually cleans up any messes that happens with it? Who gets blamed if the cloud provider has an outage?
This is true to a point.
OTOH, the Cloud does have some big, fat hazards - security and politics-wise. When you have a bunch of sales/accounting folks setting up something IT-centric, it usually comes around to bite them (*and* IT) in the butt.
I remember a previous job when HR decided all by themselves to contract a SaaS for payroll stuff. The HR department head kept bragging about how IT was now useless to them, that they could do whatever they wanted to. They hired an HRIS person specifically for the SaaS provider... ...that is, until the SaaS provider went to set things up, and asked where the ADFS servers were (for employee sign-on/information integration - this way they could see their payroll info at home as well as at work - a *major* selling point, politically). It was funny watching the same department head come crawling around, because suddenly he couldn't deliver what he bragged on. It wasn't funny because someone in IT had to quickly evaluate, then crap out money and bandwidth for two servers and a wad of SSL certs, and then spend time working out the kinks.
My wee story is minor. There are far worse out there, usually when the rogue department comes across outages (and thus can't deliver), security breaches (and because IT wasn't told about it, they usually they find out the hard way - after A/P starts screaming that money is being lost, or employees start seeing identity theft), and general goof-ups that cause a great big mess that IT has to suddenly clean up.
A strong IT department head/manager/CIO will cut that shit off at the knees politically, and make sure it all funnels through his department, or that he/she at least knows about it before it goes in. That, or at the very least he/she can make sure all other department heads know there's a big disclaimer: If you don't involve us, we ain't responsible for what happens to it. It's as simple as insuring the firewalls block things in *both* directions, and that users are fairly locked-down. That way if some schmoe in another department wants to start FTP'ing files or opening oddball ports, for the most part they'll have to come to IT to do it, and the IT folks can ask "why".
The best way to prevent such things though is to have three things:
* a responsive and agile IT department. Not always 100% possible, but at least do your level best to serve, not block.
* IT management worth a fsck, who will insure that most stupid things don't happen.
* push (and get) a simple policy: If we don't build it or endorse it, then it's *your* ass on the block when it breaks/explodes/whatever, not ours. This includes any failure to deliver something specifically from that cloud service due to any network/server outages on our end.
The last part is just as important, because it removes any political cover that rogue department heads might have.
(A thought - if you can't stop it politically, but wanted to go all BOFH on that rogue cloud service connection, a little QoS action that ratchets connections to those IP addys down to the speed of a 14k modem would be an excellent start... >:) )
Depends on the industry.
If you buy any large tools in manufacturing and they have computers? They still almost always come with XP installed.
Funny. I work at a fairly large Auto manufacturer (in the US) and RedHat isn't visible here at all.
Hate to sound snarky, but that might be part of why the US auto industry is having such a hard time staying in the black...
I mean, I've seen 7-figure Microsoft EA agreements at companies with only 1500 people in it. I can only imagine how much dosh an automaker regularly forks over.
I wonder if they'll make it another 100 years?
I mean, they got this far by spotting tech trends and successfully parlaying them into products. They don't seem to be doing much of that anymore.
Now we're using Pat Benatar as a troll.
It's official... civilization is done with.
So, wait a moment here.
You're saying that we (as in humanity) do not really know if what we do affects the climate, but we should stop doing all the little impactful things that we might be doing in case those things actually be affecting the climate at large?
I'm all for ending wanton pollution and disregard for the environment, but some of what's being proposed was sold to us as a 'do this or else' proposition, and was based on iron-willed certainty when spoken, not "we do not know the effect of mankind on climate and the ecology".
...and put it into that abomination called Access....
...and Exchange, and a whole host of other places where a fscking database (of any kind!) should never *ever* reside.
But he's not the only one...
Question: Are they doing the friending/sifting/etc, or are their PA's/secretaries/admins doing it?
No joke... most CxO types would probably have their staff do that kind of scut-work for them.
Depends on what particular pleasures you want from it, I suppose.
If they had some clever programmers they could insert data packets into any air bubbles in the oil pipeline already coming from Alaska.
Bad idea - that would mean the packets would then have to be transported to the lower 48... via ships like the Exxon Valdez.
An oil spill is bad enough... now you want email spills to be a distinct possibility?
If I were driving a regular car, then he would have still gotten his front-end caved in (though not as much), *and* my back-end would have eaten it pretty hard too. The damage would have just been spread out.
I'm not seeing how a giant piece of rubber is any more damaging than a regular car back-bumper with crumple-zones around it, honestly.
but if you call their support line because you can't get a connection, well, good luck with that
Protip: keep a VM around with an old copy of XP installed. I just use my Mac, but if all you have is Linux, then a VM will give them all the appearance they want or need.
Just one bit that keeps getting left out...
That cheaper company has to pay overhead as well - that includes the price they pay Verizon for renting the b/w and gear.
If their personnel overhead is smaller than Verizon's (esp. since Verizon would have an economy of scale advantage of sorts), then perhaps the problem lies with Verizon's internal business practices.
Also, service is more than just making sure the lines are up: It also includes billing, timely response to requests for bandwidth upgrade (or downgrade), timely response to troubleshooting calls, etc.
they also lobby against bad automotive designs like those spare tires that hang on the back of SUVs which causes large dollar amount damages if the SUV was involved in a parking lot fender bender.
Point of order here...
Anecdotal, but years ago, I had that spare tire save me from enduring a metric ton of damage once. I was in a 1979 Jeep CJ-7 with friends out cruising. I was just about to pull out at a fresh green light when a pickup truck slammed into the back of me. It wasn't his fault, as a drunk driver slammed into his backside.
I had the clutch in at the time, so all we got was a hard jolt and a bit of forward roll until I applied the brakes. The truck behind me had his grille and radiator caved in, and his pickup bed twisted up by the initial impact. The drunk driver in back had the entire front-end of his car crumpled down under the truck.
Total damage:
Drunk driver: totaled car, and a trip to jail
Pickup dude: totaled truck from damage both front and back
My Jeep: One punctured spare tire and dented spare rim, with a total replacement cost of $130.
Now, I can't speak for the soccer mom SUV designs, but as most actual Jeeps (until recent years) have no back bumper to speak of (just a couple of steel hoops at best), that spare tire pretty much *is* the back bumper. I can say from experience that it does its job more than admirably, thanks much. :)