Have you considered open sourcing your code? This *might* work if you could use its popularity as a lead-in to "more permanant/safer/secure/available" solutions such as BitVault. A loss-leader, I guess.
I recently began searching for a remote-backup solution for my home data. All I need to do is save QIF, email, sources... nothing commercial just my own stuff that nobody's going to miss when I die;)
I've gotten quotes from hosting outfits at like $20/GB/Mo.
Yeah. Hey, thanks, but I'll stick to monthly DVD burns....
The trick to profit$$$, IMO, is to grab me at the point that somebody ~is~ going to care about some of this data when I die. Sources that go commercial, books I may have or are writing, art and graphics, legal documents.
You could even grow this to a tiered model where you offer LeanOnMe hosting by subscription; versioned backups guaranteed to be on *your* servers. Where the normal shared files on P2P would be just a current snapshot for bare-bones restoration, but without history.
Or licensing of Enterprise local server. Secure tracker and datastore for all the desktops in a location. HAS to be cheaper than the labor intensive operations in use currently. And might allow power users to handle restores and file regressions without HelpDesk/Ops involvement.
Assuming LeanOnMe uses a very strong cypher, supports linux/win32/MacOSX, provides for pulling data to a freshly-installed OS.... then a P2P model might work. Educating the masses is a huge piece of the problem. As much as I ~know~ I need to keep backups, I don't as often as I should. And since my weeklies are tars kept on the same hardware as its data... well, one day I'll be sorry:0
I'd feel much safer if the code I'd run and the system it used were open to the review of many. And word-of-mouth comes from those invested, not from commercial PR.
And dammit, we *need* a generally available solution. Inexpensive (free is of course better). Simple enough my gramms can use it (~I~ don't even want to learn how to do tape backups and restores. Yes I know the theory and have assisted Operations at my company, but I mean on an intimate basis, I'd prefer not).
But I'd have to know that even if someone could break the cypher, they'd not have any complete piece on their machine and that they'd have to authenticate to a secure system (not your system, part of the P2P architecture -in case you all died like I did- LOL) to retrieve any missing pieces. Then, I think I'd take a serious look at using LeanOnMe.
I think one of your failing points was trust. That's a hard thing to grow. I don't know that any commercial enterprise of closed/proprietary offering can meet that hurdle in this space; given that their solution offering involves sharing my stuff with any number of random other entities. I was gonna say people or humans, but seriously, in this that's not even a given. There are some seriously deranged biological components out there. That cannot be taken lightly.
I have to say that P2P seems to me the obvious solution to the growth of personal data persistence. Truth: I would trust such approach as outlined *more* (way more) than if my ISP offered something, again due to the closed/proprietary nature that would entail, as well as the number of unsophisticated hands it would involve (I have a problem. "Please press #9 for...", beep, "I'm sorry our hours are from...", beep, "backups?! yeah, ok, I did that a little. Let me look at your account. Ok. Yeah, I need you to reboot. Linux?! Well, I need you to reboot. Ok, let me look at your data. Yeah, we can pull that file and send it too you if you want." BEEP,BEEP,BEEP,BEEP.... )
OT: to ISPs; forget it. I doubt I'd EVER use any backup services you offer....
from the article:"A software program downloaded by those signing up then visits the spammers' websites and fills in any online order forms it finds with complaints about the unsolicited mail."
You're talking reliability of features and I'm talking similariity in high level features. Like 911, always on... it was a generalization and for that I'll put myself in time-out for 10 minutes. But I think the intent of the FCC to have cell and VoIP customers equally safe and identified is clear.
The companies just need to make it that if you haven't yet set up your E911, whenever you try making a call, before the call connects, it gives a voice prompt telling you that E911 is not yet set up
The switch which routes your call probably doesn't hold the address information as it's busy enough doing other things. Even if it did maintain a 'flag' to detect whether your originating call was kosher or not, you may have moved your VoIP box. Maybe you're at a friends or you have actually moved. These systems work globally where ever there's IP.
The FCC has allowed that it's the customer's responsibility to update and the VoIP company's responsibility to respond to that update quickly (near real-time). The FCC, however, has no authority over the customer; can't confiscate his VoIP equipement, can't summons him to court... can't even aide in an effort to identify he who has changed his VoIP address but not told his VoIP company. (not that any of that would be a useful or desirable function of the FCC;)
The FCC has drawn a line in the sand; All "phones" should work similarily. Now, they also cannot do anything about the fact that current NET infrastructure is not powered (that may change) and that if your power goes, so does your VoIP phone. Those of us who have subscribed to VoIP have, supposedly, agreed and understood that.
But a visitor to your home/location would probably understand the connection between the lights not working and the phone not working. Certainly a dead phone is a pretty hard&crunchy piece of physical evidence to try something else.
But a visitor is not likely to know that the police in Austin are now responding to an emergency call where you last lived and the police in Chicago have no idea that your child is choking to death at your current residence. So sorry you did not explain that lack of ambition on your part when you left your child in her care....
And the FCC has outlined rules which leave the VoIP company little choice; get all customers on board or else. Is that a reasonable choice? Well, the U.S. market will eventually decide. VoIP companies have 120 days. Will the people rise up before then? Given that many/most won't even become aware of the issues until they get the notification in the mail sometime into that 120-day window, I doubt it.
The FCC also has a trial-baloon floating the idea that VoIP equipement should identify your location without human intervention (domain and IP are of no help so that pretty much means your VoIP must provide GPS info). Certainly costly. Probably unreliable (unlike cell phones, when you're calling and GPS isn't quite making it, you can't easily walk outdoors to try to get a better path).
My take on it as a VoIP customer is that I'd prefer the cost savings and forego the 911 service. I'd be happy to paste a label to my phone advising any potential user that they should use an alternative. I also have a cell phone. I also have regular POTS service. Even if I did not, I believe I should be allowed to make that choice.
Though I work for a VoIP provider I do not speak for them.
"2. We adopt an immediate E911 requirement that applies to all interconnected VoIP services. In
some cases, this requirement relies on the customer to self-report his or her location. We intend in a
future order to adopt an advanced E911 solution for interconnected VoIP that must include a method for
determining a user's location without assistance from the user as well as firm implementation deadlines
for that solution."
I don't think it matters much how the question was asked. The underlying assumption that we just know what an "in car coffee maker" is would be a failure point. The applicant mentioned he'd done considerable thinking aobut powering the unit, for example. What if, say, it just needed to work on standard AA batteries? Did it need to work while the car was operational, or just while the car was motionless for those times when the user was awaiting a passenger who'd gone into a shop or office?
The main thing is to understand what the user (customer, stakeholder, etc.) thinks it is. Until you understand the picture the user has of it (how it works, what it does, how it recovers from problems) you know nothing and cannot proceed on design!
ps- I also doubt that GP poster has much real experience in this....
then you should have to pay a tax on it. After all, if you own land, you have to pay rates
This makes a lot of sense to me, and may be the only suggestion I've ever heard that has the potential to minimize the downward pressure from "IP Holding Companies".
but it must be remembered that the GPL is a stopgap measure that would not be needed if it were not for abuse of copyright
GPL provides one significant benefit beyond what should be our natural right to access and modify product (my car's engine, my fishing rod, my financial software and its data API) which we've purchased; A pay-forward incentive to those who modify/access to contribute the work into the main. Unlike a modification to my mountain bike, where a picture and description are enough to publish in a fan magazine, software modifications generally don't play so well in print;)
It's bound to get worse before it get's better and I'm generally anit-taxation, lol, but this particular tax scheme is logically consistent with property law (IANAL) as I understand it.
While every attempt will be made to secure
the Child Protection Registry, registrants
and their guardians should be aware that their
contact points may be at a greater risk of being
misappropriated by marketers who choose to disobey
the law.
The law states that funding for this is zero. I'm pretty certain that setting up a database incurs at least some cost. So if it's to be managed in such an off-hand way, theft of some of the data is a near certainty.
What sane parent would allow h/er children's email, IM and phone numbers (all included according to the text of the law) to be registered to such a system ?!?!
see, here's the thing. As an example, I'm searching for a leather wallet with some kind of digital display of pictures. Probably not yet available. All the searches on 'wallet' bring up this lugubrious assault of internet and PDA, so-called wallet, results.
They're synonyms and marketing and commercial-internet versions of a physical thing I want to buy!
mod parent up. Newspapers also know where to put resources. They keep the classifieds in easily recognizable columnar listings. News in easily segregated sections. Yes there are adds interspersed, but generally they're easily recognizable and unobtrusive. (OT: this is something that really bugs me about Wired magazine)
But now the commercial advertising interests have all but taken over the internet. Searches for information come back with tons of crap that are just blatant adds or regurgitated summaries of real information propogated through mass-media conglomerates.
the end is truly near, but it has little to do with our miniscule attempts at sanitizing our online environment.
The Internet
Just another way for strangers to invade your privacy
The web form allows you to personalize your message. I thought the following may be helpful. YMMV.;)
"It is our constitutional right to be represented and it is my belief that legislation un-read or un-analyzed is misrepresentation of a near-criminal kind. I'm certain that many in Congress make a good faith attempt to fairly represent their constituents but it is my belief also that the process needs some additional shoring-up, similar in kind to that which Congress routinely legislates as incentive to the citizenry. I strongly support the RTBA and urge you to support this legislation on my behalf. "
>>I tried my best to get out of homework (along with others here).
I did all of my homework. This taught me thouroughness. When I began my adult life I was able to apply that persistence to jobs for which I had little qualification. Electronics. QA. Development.
I think when/.'rs say they didn't do homework, I suspect they mean something more along the lines of "didn't do it their way".
That's the cool answer;)
but I didn't do all my homework their way either. And, I have not expected my sons to do it their way either. But for all whatever I turned in, I actually did the work.
>>In the end, too much homework is bad for obvious reasons
>>IT needs can be met using only 1% of my work week
this is clearly impossible. 40hrs X.01 =.4hrs and.4hrs X 60 = 24 minutes per week.
I can't keep my own & personal & home-based machine in line, with what I want to do with it, in half an hour a week.
Clearly, your guy just wants it to... uh.. I accept our evil just-work overbeings....
sorry...
how 'bout you agree to 1% of your time (or was that ten? 4 hrs/wk?) and get your guy to agree that some tasks will go beyond 4 hrs per week and that you will pick-up those over-ridden tasks up as soon as the new week allows.
or accept that this is a new responsibility with no thank-you.
I honestly hope you never get your wish of removing homework from the curriculum.
My son has had problems with 6th grade math. The teacher allows retakes on tests. Last chapter I lined up 4-5 hours worth of exercises from the chapter for him on a weekend. His retake came up 3 whole letter grades, two points shy of an A.
I think "homework" has its place as the brain sometimes needs exposure and re-exposure to content to make sense of it all - to internalize it.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you considered open sourcing your code? This *might* work if you could use its popularity as a lead-in to "more permanant/safer/secure/available" solutions such as BitVault. A loss-leader, I guess.
;)
:0
I recently began searching for a remote-backup solution for my home data. All I need to do is save QIF, email, sources... nothing commercial just my own stuff that nobody's going to miss when I die
I've gotten quotes from hosting outfits at like $20/GB/Mo.
Yeah. Hey, thanks, but I'll stick to monthly DVD burns....
The trick to profit$$$, IMO, is to grab me at the point that somebody ~is~ going to care about some of this data when I die. Sources that go commercial, books I may have or are writing, art and graphics, legal documents.
You could even grow this to a tiered model where you offer LeanOnMe hosting by subscription; versioned backups guaranteed to be on *your* servers. Where the normal shared files on P2P would be just a current snapshot for bare-bones restoration, but without history.
Or licensing of Enterprise local server. Secure tracker and datastore for all the desktops in a location. HAS to be cheaper than the labor intensive operations in use currently. And might allow power users to handle restores and file regressions without HelpDesk/Ops involvement.
Assuming LeanOnMe uses a very strong cypher, supports linux/win32/MacOSX, provides for pulling data to a freshly-installed OS.... then a P2P model might work. Educating the masses is a huge piece of the problem. As much as I ~know~ I need to keep backups, I don't as often as I should. And since my weeklies are tars kept on the same hardware as its data... well, one day I'll be sorry
I'd feel much safer if the code I'd run and the system it used were open to the review of many. And word-of-mouth comes from those invested, not from commercial PR.
And dammit, we *need* a generally available solution. Inexpensive (free is of course better). Simple enough my gramms can use it (~I~ don't even want to learn how to do tape backups and restores. Yes I know the theory and have assisted Operations at my company, but I mean on an intimate basis, I'd prefer not).
But I'd have to know that even if someone could break the cypher, they'd not have any complete piece on their machine and that they'd have to authenticate to a secure system (not your system, part of the P2P architecture -in case you all died like I did- LOL) to retrieve any missing pieces. Then, I think I'd take a serious look at using LeanOnMe.
I think one of your failing points was trust. That's a hard thing to grow. I don't know that any commercial enterprise of closed/proprietary offering can meet that hurdle in this space; given that their solution offering involves sharing my stuff with any number of random other entities. I was gonna say people or humans, but seriously, in this that's not even a given. There are some seriously deranged biological components out there. That cannot be taken lightly.
I have to say that P2P seems to me the obvious solution to the growth of personal data persistence. Truth: I would trust such approach as outlined *more* (way more) than if my ISP offered something, again due to the closed/proprietary nature that would entail, as well as the number of unsophisticated hands it would involve (I have a problem. "Please press #9 for...", beep, "I'm sorry our hours are from...", beep, "backups?! yeah, ok, I did that a little. Let me look at your account. Ok. Yeah, I need you to reboot. Linux?! Well, I need you to reboot. Ok, let me look at your data. Yeah, we can pull that file and send it too you if you want." BEEP,BEEP,BEEP,BEEP.... )
OT: to ISPs; forget it. I doubt I'd EVER use any backup services you offer....
-rsh
from the article:" A software program downloaded by those signing up then visits the spammers' websites and fills in any online order forms it finds with complaints about the unsolicited mail."
I don't think so!
You're talking reliability of features and I'm talking similariity in high level features. Like 911, always on... it was a generalization and for that I'll put myself in time-out for 10 minutes. But I think the intent of the FCC to have cell and VoIP customers equally safe and identified is clear.
The switch which routes your call probably doesn't hold the address information as it's busy enough doing other things. Even if it did maintain a 'flag' to detect whether your originating call was kosher or not, you may have moved your VoIP box. Maybe you're at a friends or you have actually moved. These systems work globally where ever there's IP.
The FCC has allowed that it's the customer's responsibility to update and the VoIP company's responsibility to respond to that update quickly (near real-time). The FCC, however, has no authority over the customer; can't confiscate his VoIP equipement, can't summons him to court... can't even aide in an effort to identify he who has changed his VoIP address but not told his VoIP company. (not that any of that would be a useful or desirable function of the FCC
The FCC has drawn a line in the sand; All "phones" should work similarily. Now, they also cannot do anything about the fact that current NET infrastructure is not powered (that may change) and that if your power goes, so does your VoIP phone. Those of us who have subscribed to VoIP have, supposedly, agreed and understood that.
But a visitor to your home/location would probably understand the connection between the lights not working and the phone not working. Certainly a dead phone is a pretty hard&crunchy piece of physical evidence to try something else.
But a visitor is not likely to know that the police in Austin are now responding to an emergency call where you last lived and the police in Chicago have no idea that your child is choking to death at your current residence. So sorry you did not explain that lack of ambition on your part when you left your child in her care....
And the FCC has outlined rules which leave the VoIP company little choice; get all customers on board or else. Is that a reasonable choice? Well, the U.S. market will eventually decide. VoIP companies have 120 days. Will the people rise up before then? Given that many/most won't even become aware of the issues until they get the notification in the mail sometime into that 120-day window, I doubt it.
The FCC also has a trial-baloon floating the idea that VoIP equipement should identify your location without human intervention (domain and IP are of no help so that pretty much means your VoIP must provide GPS info). Certainly costly. Probably unreliable (unlike cell phones, when you're calling and GPS isn't quite making it, you can't easily walk outdoors to try to get a better path).
My take on it as a VoIP customer is that I'd prefer the cost savings and forego the 911 service. I'd be happy to paste a label to my phone advising any potential user that they should use an alternative. I also have a cell phone. I also have regular POTS service. Even if I did not, I believe I should be allowed to make that choice.
Though I work for a VoIP provider I do not speak for them.
You may read the FCC order here
try this:
I don't think it matters much how the question was asked. The underlying assumption that we just know what an "in car coffee maker" is would be a failure point. The applicant mentioned he'd done considerable thinking aobut powering the unit, for example. What if, say, it just needed to work on standard AA batteries? Did it need to work while the car was operational, or just while the car was motionless for those times when the user was awaiting a passenger who'd gone into a shop or office?
The main thing is to understand what the user (customer, stakeholder, etc.) thinks it is. Until you understand the picture the user has of it (how it works, what it does, how it recovers from problems) you know nothing and cannot proceed on design!
ps- I also doubt that GP poster has much real experience in this....
GPL provides one significant benefit beyond what should be our natural right to access and modify product (my car's engine, my fishing rod, my financial software and its data API) which we've purchased; A pay-forward incentive to those who modify/access to contribute the work into the main. Unlike a modification to my mountain bike, where a picture and description are enough to publish in a fan magazine, software modifications generally don't play so well in print
It's bound to get worse before it get's better and I'm generally anit-taxation, lol, but this particular tax scheme is logically consistent with property law (IANAL) as I understand it.
---
the first is the last is the first is...
>>but I could see an argument that communication lines are comparable to roads.
and if the government handling my cable access is as "bumpy" as our roads... I'll pass on that too!
The law states that funding for this is zero. I'm pretty certain that setting up a database incurs at least some cost. So if it's to be managed in such an off-hand way, theft of some of the data is a near certainty.
What sane parent would allow h/er children's email, IM and phone numbers (all included according to the text of the law) to be registered to such a system ?!?!
see, here's the thing. As an example, I'm searching for a leather wallet with some kind of digital display of pictures. Probably not yet available. All the searches on 'wallet' bring up this lugubrious assault of internet and PDA, so-called wallet, results.
They're synonyms and marketing and commercial-internet versions of a physical thing I want to buy!
Crap!
mod parent up. Newspapers also know where to put resources. They keep the classifieds in easily recognizable columnar listings. News in easily segregated sections. Yes there are adds interspersed, but generally they're easily recognizable and unobtrusive. (OT: this is something that really bugs me about Wired magazine)
But now the commercial advertising interests have all but taken over the internet. Searches for information come back with tons of crap that are just blatant adds or regurgitated summaries of real information propogated through mass-media conglomerates.
the end is truly near, but it has little to do with our miniscule attempts at sanitizing our online environment.
The Internet Just another way for strangers to invade your privacy
why do people always forget Iowa? damnit!
thanks for the tip!
;)
The web form allows you to personalize your message. I thought the following may be helpful. YMMV.
"It is our constitutional right to be represented and it is my belief that legislation un-read or un-analyzed is misrepresentation of a near-criminal kind. I'm certain that many in Congress make a good faith attempt to fairly represent their constituents but it is my belief also that the process needs some additional shoring-up, similar in kind to that which Congress routinely legislates as incentive to the citizenry. I strongly support the RTBA and urge you to support this legislation on my behalf.
"
>>On a side note, ever wonder why plumbing terms are so sexual?
well it's obvious isn't it?
the penis was the first plumbing that uber-apes had use of....
---
the way to distraction is fraught with intent
huh?
>>I tried my best to get out of homework (along with others here).
/.'rs say they didn't do homework, I suspect they mean something more along the lines of "didn't do it their way".
;)
I did all of my homework. This taught me thouroughness. When I began my adult life I was able to apply that persistence to jobs for which I had little qualification. Electronics. QA. Development.
I think when
That's the cool answer
but I didn't do all my homework their way either. And, I have not expected my sons to do it their way either. But for all whatever I turned in, I actually did the work.
>>In the end, too much homework is bad for obvious reasons
which reasons are obvious?
well it's certainly true that this was work that I decided that he needed and not daily work assigned to the whole class.
though perhaps if he'd had all the exercises repeated during the normal course of his classwork? like I did?!
>>IT needs can be met using only 1% of my work week
.01 = .4hrs and .4hrs X 60 = 24 minutes per week.
this is clearly impossible. 40hrs X
I can't keep my own & personal & home-based machine in line, with what I want to do with it, in half an hour a week.
Clearly, your guy just wants it to... uh.. I accept our evil just-work overbeings....
sorry...
how 'bout you agree to 1% of your time (or was that ten? 4 hrs/wk?) and get your guy to agree that some tasks will go beyond 4 hrs per week and that you will pick-up those over-ridden tasks up as soon as the new week allows.
or accept that this is a new responsibility with no thank-you.
>>Now my question for Cringely: how do I get a job where I'd actually get paid to write crap like that?
no, that would require you take over IBM. Wait. You posted using an IBM compatable machine... so you ARE taking over IBM, obviously.
-the Cringley
editor: good comments tho. pls keep up the good works.
Well, gotta hand it to the Cringe... he's not gonna get any dates from this article, either!
Bill knows what they were planning. They know what they were planning. You do not know what they were planning.
>>Let some Linux fan port the code if they want to use it.
;)
That's pretty much how it all started. 'let the slackware folks have a port on it if it's important to them'...
do you doubt that they will?
I honestly hope you never get your wish of removing homework from the curriculum.
My son has had problems with 6th grade math. The teacher allows retakes on tests. Last chapter I lined up 4-5 hours worth of exercises from the chapter for him on a weekend. His retake came up 3 whole letter grades, two points shy of an A.
I think "homework" has its place as the brain sometimes needs exposure and re-exposure to content to make sense of it all - to internalize it.
and let me tell you, they'll bore the paints off you ...
if you're at parties where it's possible to lose your paints, then you should never, ever, be bored! lol
or the more you understand of what you'll never be able to change or affect ;)