The ID card will carry a check-box and date: "Elegibility to vote in Federal elections demonstrated on [date]." Proving elegibility (i.e. citizenship, non-convicted-felon status where applicable) is not required to obtain the ID, but is required to get the box checked.
Just as long as there aren't any arrows pointing to the correct checkbox... that may be too confusing;)
It's been some time since Slashcode 2.25 has come out (which has the ability to import themes), yet I have not found any slash themes. It might be a good idea to add a themes section to freshmeat (or maybe sorceforge, or even on the slashcode page).
Hmm, maybe the television/cable industry should fine anyone who tapes shows on their VCR. Heck, they should probably look into fining anyone that gets up and goes to the bathroom or grabs a beer during commercials. And to those who don't watch TV, they should be fined too for missing those commrecials.
In my mind EULAs are like taking a cab or hitching a ride. Typical EULAs ask that you agree to their terms before using their software. If you don't agree with it, you can choose not to use the software. Likewise, if you don't like the rates, you don't have to take a cab. There are alternatives, in software there's the GPL (or other OSS license) which still has requirements to it. In transportation, there's always hitching a ride with someone, a bus, or the GPL/OSS transportation of hoofing it. Just like walking, using GPL/OSS may take a bit more work, but it is much healthier (at least for the wallet) and you don't end up with the nasty smell of shrinkwraped licenses.
-ok, so the analogy sucks, but when it comes down to it, either play fairly with the proprietary software game, or join the GPL/OSS game. Either way, play by the rules, or you may piss off the other players.
Thank you for contacting Foobar Widgets tech support. In order to serve you better, we have published help information on our website. Please visit http://support.foobarwidgets.com/faq.asp?q=1 where your problem will be answered. And don't forget to check out our new products at http://www.foobarwidgets.com/prod.asp?prodid=2002
Actually if you get that response (if the web page answers your question) I would regard it as very well done. The tech support is using an automated solution (always good in my book) and is probably populating an in place knowledge base (or other self-help solution). I would agree that sometimes faq's don't cut it for the real tough questions, but take it from someone who started in tech support (yeah, now my bias comes out), you get a lot of dumb questions and want to scream RTFM at the top of your lungs.
As far as confessional booths, I wouldn't know, I'm Lutheran;).
I do not feel that tech support has gotten worse. I actually feel that in the last 5-10 years it has improved. The percieved drop in tech support quality I believe is twofold.
1 - Many places, to keep up with tech support demand, have published some kind of self help tech support (which may be as simple as a faq). However, rather than using this, end users will still call before looking at the web page. A simple remedy that I find does work is to notify all callers of the on-line tech support options.
2 - As businesses grow (and conversly trimmed down). There seems to be a movement to place people without even minimal technical training in jobs that do require some technical knowledge. Thus when the "customer" calls for support, they are not able to have pre-diagnosed their inquiry (ie "my thingy doesn't work"). Most techies will then have to coax them through the task of finding out exactly what it is doesn't work. Again a remedy might be for the techies to point out some simple things that they can try to look for when a problem arises (ie "is a key not mapped correctly in your AS/400 emulator, here's how to check it.")
>What should we look for in evaluating who to contact and their proposals?
I would suggest looking at a large consulting/auditing firm (ie EDS or ISS). They will most likely be able to not only evaluate, but also implement any changes needed. Also, many larger firms are able to use both open and proprietary solutions, depending on what you already have in place and the knowledge of your staff.
>What services should we ask for? It appears you need (better) intrusion detection, preferrably both inside and outside of the firewall.
>How do we manage the contract to make sure we're not getting a snow-job? Get a good lawyer.
>How do we use the result to get buy-in from management (who will probably need to lay out money for changes) and from the developers (who may be adamantly opposed to changing their systems, either for ego reasons or it's just a lot of work)? Your developers should not have to change systems. If they are windows programmers, you can effectively stay in windows, if linux then linux. Whatever method should be unseen to most end users (with the exception of some change in procedure if that is what the problem is).
As others have mentioned most of it is all in the EULA. While I don't necessesarily agree with their practices, if your school/company/home decides to use proprietary software, you have an ethical obligation to meet the licensing requirements imposed by those companies.
The other route to go is to use open/free software without such restrictions. Yet still as a corporation/school, it would be foolish to abandon auditing/inventorying your machines. It makes good business sense. If you can show that you have x computers that were orginally purchased for x dollars and are now worth x dollars, this is valuable information to the accountants who can see this as a company asset. If you chose proprietary software, a good audit will show the amount of money that can reported as total computer assets. If you choose free software, you still see the computers as an asset, however, you can show the cost savings of using free software over proprietary software.
Again whatever software you use, you should respect the licensing that comes with it, whether it be Microsoft's or the GPL.
Not necessarily. If the person has a disability, ie bad fine motor skill as a result of a stroke, then it would make for a decent device. For the clicks, a large - family feud style - button could be made. It sounds weird, but similar things are being used for occupational therapy technology.
I'm not quite sure if that is the right route to go. As MS continues down the sprial path of proprietary software, shouldn't the open source community develope open standards for documents, spread sheets, and presentations rather than endlessly chasing after the newest service release that "fixes" compatibility issues?
Other than games, Photshop, Iluustrator, and Premiere are just about the only apps that I'd be willing to spend money on... Luckily as a student, the cost for an ed license is extremely low in comparison. There is just no way that I could do the stuff with GIMP that I can with Photoshop. I especially have problems with anti-aliasing large fonts in GIMP. Then when you get into the nitty gritty (but fun) stuff like the art history brushes, etc, you can see why you shell out the requisition forms (cause really who personally pays for PS? unless they get an ed discount).
Right now I'd put GIMP on par with PS 4. It needs much work, and I'm sure that as developement continues, it will get much better.
While the other reply I think was trying to make a point, I'll try to repute in a more civilized manner.
1 - If you're going to condemn any kind of game whether it be Solitare or Quake it doesn't matter. Even talking to the person in the cubie next to you (unless work related) is taking you away from your work. So either condemn unrelated activities at work or not.
2 - People cannot work for 8 hours straight. In fact many psychologists and scociologists suggest that the average time someone can be doing a task is roughly 15 minutes without intterruption. At that point the person usually will pull away and do something "unproductive" as checking their email, making a coffee/Mt. Dew run etc. And then on top of it every couple or so hours people will take an even longer break, ie smoking, playing games, talking.
Now, looking at the alternative, playing a game for 10-20 minutes a couple times during the day may not be the worst thing for the employees, especially if it is in place of smoking for example, which is bad for their health (and everyone's health insurance) and if they interact with anyone, they will be forcing the smoke odor on others, which may irrate those with strong allergies.
Finally, most of the people that work on Gnome and KDE do it for pure shits and giggles, ok and some pride. They have other jobs and then come home and work on their pet projects because they want to. Now if you are a *BSD user and are griping about the lack of compatibility of KDE and Gnome, then get off your ass and fix the problem yourself you "lazy SOB."
I'm still leery of "natural" suppliments.
1- The FDA has yet to speak on the effictiveness of "natural" drugs ie ginko.
2- There are no regulations that control the dosage of the actual chemical that creates the desired effect - 60 mg of ginko may vary in potency as it the chemical that creates the effect is not typically titrated.
3- I have yet to see any medical journal (yes I do read them quite regularly JAMA, NEJoM etc) prove that "natural" suppliments are more effective than a placebo.
4- The effects that you are experiencing may be all in your head... in other words you train your brain to react to taking the pills into making you more alert, releasing chemicals as needed (check out various psychology journals on this effect).
5- I like Mountain Dew, in fact I don't want to give it up... or more I can't:)
I like my natural way - take mountain dew to stay awake, drink beer/wine to relax/go to sleep.
Not sure but is the ISBN db proprietary and if so, what ramifications would that have on you distributing this info. (I looked for about 15 min, alas to no success)
In the last two years I have not had to reboot hardly any of my machines. I run, Linux, Solaris, MacOSX, Novel, and yes even Windows 2000/XP all of which rarely make you reboot, even with a system update.
While teaching them some points will be great, if you can inspire them to toy around and learn, that would be truly great. You might want to give them a copy of Linux Administration Made Easy and a copy of the latest slackware. If it a class of 15, you might be looking at total costs of around $40 (US) for copying the iso's to CD and for printing costs of the LAME. If you want a more user friendly distro go with Mandrake or Lycoris.
I believe that the Norwegian DeCSS case stated that code is a form of speech. Although script kiddies should be damned to tech support (or hell I don't know which is worse) for the rest of their adolescence, it puts a twist on this case. And as many of us believe, code should be not only free as in beer... but free as in speech.
About the only case I have ever seen where breaking up big business was a bad thing was when AT&T was split up. The folks that brought you Unix, C, and effective management of nuclear facilities, was just too much for the gov't. Now we still pay as much, while in some cases having to endure substandard service.
In saying that Unix isn't dead, I thought that the only Unix was that from Bell Labs. Other operating systems ie HP-UX, xBSD, and GNU/Linux are not Unix, since Unix is proprietary AT&T software that has not been able to be sold since the mid 80's. Having taken classes from a former Bell Labs employee, this point has been engrained into my cranium. Loath to anyone who calls Linux/BSD/MacOSX Unix in front of a former/current Bell Labs employee from that era.
Why? 1. Your typical user (read incompetant) has a tough time either typing or remembering a random password, especially if change frequently. 2. If they can't type it easily they will hunt and peck, and type the password in slowly, which any malicious user can pick up easily. 3. If they can't remeber it they most likely will write it down, and equally as likely put it on a post it note on their monitor.
Solution? Use long passwords (over 8 characters) with alphanumeric replacement that alternate between hands ie dismantlement (the longest alternating qwerty word) could be dism4ntl3m3nt. And no.. that is not my password on Slashdot or anything else for that matter;-)
I thought that was Python, which is a language that is not dead in its evolutionary cycle as it appears that Perl is... not knocking the great merits of perl, but I just see python as a better language than perl, java, or even c++. If CPAN were to shift focus to python, it could save quite a bit of money on reprinting all those nifty office supplies... just a thought.
Slashdot Mirror
The ID card will carry a check-box and date: "Elegibility to vote in Federal elections demonstrated on [date]." Proving elegibility (i.e. citizenship, non-convicted-felon status where applicable) is not required to obtain the ID, but is required to get the box checked.
;)
Just as long as there aren't any arrows pointing to the correct checkbox... that may be too confusing
It's been some time since Slashcode 2.25 has come out (which has the ability to import themes), yet I have not found any slash themes. It might be a good idea to add a themes section to freshmeat (or maybe sorceforge, or even on the slashcode page).
Hmm, maybe the television/cable industry should fine anyone who tapes shows on their VCR. Heck, they should probably look into fining anyone that gets up and goes to the bathroom or grabs a beer during commercials. And to those who don't watch TV, they should be fined too for missing those commrecials.
In my mind EULAs are like taking a cab or hitching a ride. Typical EULAs ask that you agree to their terms before using their software. If you don't agree with it, you can choose not to use the software. Likewise, if you don't like the rates, you don't have to take a cab. There are alternatives, in software there's the GPL (or other OSS license) which still has requirements to it. In transportation, there's always hitching a ride with someone, a bus, or the GPL/OSS transportation of hoofing it. Just like walking, using GPL/OSS may take a bit more work, but it is much healthier (at least for the wallet) and you don't end up with the nasty smell of shrinkwraped licenses.
-ok, so the analogy sucks, but when it comes down to it, either play fairly with the proprietary software game, or join the GPL/OSS game. Either way, play by the rules, or you may piss off the other players.
Thank you for contacting Foobar Widgets tech support. In order to serve you better, we have published help information on our website. Please visit http://support.foobarwidgets.com/faq.asp?q=1 where your problem will be answered. And don't forget to check out our new products at http://www.foobarwidgets.com/prod.asp?prodid=2002
Actually if you get that response (if the web page answers your question) I would regard it as very well done. The tech support is using an automated solution (always good in my book) and is probably populating an in place knowledge base (or other self-help solution). I would agree that sometimes faq's don't cut it for the real tough questions, but take it from someone who started in tech support (yeah, now my bias comes out), you get a lot of dumb questions and want to scream RTFM at the top of your lungs.
As far as confessional booths, I wouldn't know, I'm Lutheran ;).
I do not feel that tech support has gotten worse. I actually feel that in the last 5-10 years it has improved. The percieved drop in tech support quality I believe is twofold.
1 - Many places, to keep up with tech support demand, have published some kind of self help tech support (which may be as simple as a faq). However, rather than using this, end users will still call before looking at the web page. A simple remedy that I find does work is to notify all callers of the on-line tech support options.
2 - As businesses grow (and conversly trimmed down). There seems to be a movement to place people without even minimal technical training in jobs that do require some technical knowledge. Thus when the "customer" calls for support, they are not able to have pre-diagnosed their inquiry (ie "my thingy doesn't work"). Most techies will then have to coax them through the task of finding out exactly what it is doesn't work. Again a remedy might be for the techies to point out some simple things that they can try to look for when a problem arises (ie "is a key not mapped correctly in your AS/400 emulator, here's how to check it.")
>What should we look for in evaluating who to contact and their proposals?
I would suggest looking at a large consulting/auditing firm (ie EDS or ISS). They will most likely be able to not only evaluate, but also implement any changes needed. Also, many larger firms are able to use both open and proprietary solutions, depending on what you already have in place and the knowledge of your staff.
>What services should we ask for?
It appears you need (better) intrusion detection, preferrably both inside and outside of the firewall.
>How do we manage the contract to make sure we're not getting a snow-job?
Get a good lawyer.
>How do we use the result to get buy-in from management (who will probably need to lay out money for changes) and from the developers (who may be adamantly opposed to changing their systems, either for ego reasons or it's just a lot of work)?
Your developers should not have to change systems. If they are windows programmers, you can effectively stay in windows, if linux then linux. Whatever method should be unseen to most end users (with the exception of some change in procedure if that is what the problem is).
As others have mentioned most of it is all in the EULA. While I don't necessesarily agree with their practices, if your school/company/home decides to use proprietary software, you have an ethical obligation to meet the licensing requirements imposed by those companies.
The other route to go is to use open/free software without such restrictions. Yet still as a corporation/school, it would be foolish to abandon auditing/inventorying your machines. It makes good business sense. If you can show that you have x computers that were orginally purchased for x dollars and are now worth x dollars, this is valuable information to the accountants who can see this as a company asset. If you chose proprietary software, a good audit will show the amount of money that can reported as total computer assets. If you choose free software, you still see the computers as an asset, however, you can show the cost savings of using free software over proprietary software.
Again whatever software you use, you should respect the licensing that comes with it, whether it be Microsoft's or the GPL.
Not necessarily. If the person has a disability, ie bad fine motor skill as a result of a stroke, then it would make for a decent device. For the clicks, a large - family feud style - button could be made. It sounds weird, but similar things are being used for occupational therapy technology.
I believe I saw another slashdot article about a similar technology used to aim missles on fighter jets.
I'm not quite sure if that is the right route to go. As MS continues down the sprial path of proprietary software, shouldn't the open source community develope open standards for documents, spread sheets, and presentations rather than endlessly chasing after the newest service release that "fixes" compatibility issues?
Other than games, Photshop, Iluustrator, and Premiere are just about the only apps that I'd be willing to spend money on... Luckily as a student, the cost for an ed license is extremely low in comparison. There is just no way that I could do the stuff with GIMP that I can with Photoshop. I especially have problems with anti-aliasing large fonts in GIMP. Then when you get into the nitty gritty (but fun) stuff like the art history brushes, etc, you can see why you shell out the requisition forms (cause really who personally pays for PS? unless they get an ed discount).
Right now I'd put GIMP on par with PS 4. It needs much work, and I'm sure that as developement continues, it will get much better.
While the other reply I think was trying to make a point, I'll try to repute in a more civilized manner.
1 - If you're going to condemn any kind of game whether it be Solitare or Quake it doesn't matter. Even talking to the person in the cubie next to you (unless work related) is taking you away from your work. So either condemn unrelated activities at work or not.
2 - People cannot work for 8 hours straight. In fact many psychologists and scociologists suggest that the average time someone can be doing a task is roughly 15 minutes without intterruption. At that point the person usually will pull away and do something "unproductive" as checking their email, making a coffee/Mt. Dew run etc. And then on top of it every couple or so hours people will take an even longer break, ie smoking, playing games, talking.
Now, looking at the alternative, playing a game for 10-20 minutes a couple times during the day may not be the worst thing for the employees, especially if it is in place of smoking for example, which is bad for their health (and everyone's health insurance) and if they interact with anyone, they will be forcing the smoke odor on others, which may irrate those with strong allergies.
Finally, most of the people that work on Gnome and KDE do it for pure shits and giggles, ok and some pride. They have other jobs and then come home and work on their pet projects because they want to. Now if you are a *BSD user and are griping about the lack of compatibility of KDE and Gnome, then get off your ass and fix the problem yourself you "lazy SOB."
Which goes on to support my theory that Microsoft is the anti-Christ.
I'm still leery of "natural" suppliments. 1- The FDA has yet to speak on the effictiveness of "natural" drugs ie ginko. :)
2- There are no regulations that control the dosage of the actual chemical that creates the desired effect - 60 mg of ginko may vary in potency as it the chemical that creates the effect is not typically titrated.
3- I have yet to see any medical journal (yes I do read them quite regularly JAMA, NEJoM etc) prove that "natural" suppliments are more effective than a placebo.
4- The effects that you are experiencing may be all in your head... in other words you train your brain to react to taking the pills into making you more alert, releasing chemicals as needed (check out various psychology journals on this effect).
5- I like Mountain Dew, in fact I don't want to give it up... or more I can't
I like my natural way - take mountain dew to stay awake, drink beer/wine to relax/go to sleep.
Fair enough, but i think the content on whitehouse.com is near slanderous/libelous. (which does not fall under the protection of free speech)
Not sure but is the ISBN db proprietary and if so, what ramifications would that have on you distributing this info. (I looked for about 15 min, alas to no success)
In the last two years I have not had to reboot hardly any of my machines. I run, Linux, Solaris, MacOSX, Novel, and yes even Windows 2000/XP all of which rarely make you reboot, even with a system update.
While teaching them some points will be great, if you can inspire them to toy around and learn, that would be truly great. You might want to give them a copy of Linux Administration Made Easy and a copy of the latest slackware. If it a class of 15, you might be looking at total costs of around $40 (US) for copying the iso's to CD and for printing costs of the LAME. If you want a more user friendly distro go with Mandrake or Lycoris.
I believe that the Norwegian DeCSS case stated that code is a form of speech. Although script kiddies should be damned to tech support (or hell I don't know which is worse) for the rest of their adolescence, it puts a twist on this case. And as many of us believe, code should be not only free as in beer... but free as in speech.
You gotta be kidding me. Are they inferring that IIS is secure? Unless I am misunderstanding isn't IIS that which runs M$'s web server etc?
About the only case I have ever seen where breaking up big business was a bad thing was when AT&T was split up. The folks that brought you Unix, C, and effective management of nuclear facilities, was just too much for the gov't. Now we still pay as much, while in some cases having to endure substandard service.
-------
In saying that Unix isn't dead, I thought that the only Unix was that from Bell Labs. Other operating systems ie HP-UX, xBSD, and GNU/Linux are not Unix, since Unix is proprietary AT&T software that has not been able to be sold since the mid 80's. Having taken classes from a former Bell Labs employee, this point has been engrained into my cranium. Loath to anyone who calls Linux/BSD/MacOSX Unix in front of a former/current Bell Labs employee from that era.
Pet pieve alert!
;-)
randomness != security
Why?
1. Your typical user (read incompetant) has a tough time either typing or remembering a random password, especially if change frequently.
2. If they can't type it easily they will hunt and peck, and type the password in slowly, which any malicious user can pick up easily.
3. If they can't remeber it they most likely will write it down, and equally as likely put it on a post it note on their monitor.
Solution?
Use long passwords (over 8 characters) with alphanumeric replacement that alternate between hands ie dismantlement (the longest alternating qwerty word) could be dism4ntl3m3nt. And no.. that is not my password on Slashdot or anything else for that matter
I thought that was Python, which is a language that is not dead in its evolutionary cycle as it appears that Perl is... not knocking the great merits of perl, but I just see python as a better language than perl, java, or even c++. If CPAN were to shift focus to python, it could save quite a bit of money on reprinting all those nifty office supplies... just a thought.