Find a license agreement (even if you have to go to a store that will let you read one). It's like a lot of services and automatically renews. On any service like this, once you sign up and pay, it is up to you to cancel. The fact that you didn't cancel it, give them an updated e-mail addy, or check your bill when it came in is your fault.
I wish I could say this is another cause of Microsoft giving customers the shaft, but I can't when you ignored your responsibilities.
I will say, as someone who tried MSN, that Microsoft does make it tough to cancel, often requiring passwords you may have forgotten, or specifically notifying them at least 60 days before renewal, but, again, most services automatically renew. It's their way of increasing income. A lot of services count on people forgetting to cancel accounts, which is what you did. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of accounts with only a small fraction forgetting to cancel their subscription, and you can see the profit can mount up for them.
To point out (for those that think they know everything and that everything always goes the way they want), someone else said that, and my responsed (one post down from my first one, several posts up from yours, certainly in this thread and not read -- I guess some people are in such a hurry to make a point, they ignore the chance it's already been stated...)
He did. And in a perfect world, all he'd need is to have a few other tenants put routers in their apartments. But theory and practice are never the same.
Wireless may still involve running power cables to odd places where routers won't be disturbed.
I don't know if you can relay from one wireless router to another, but I've found that when you're installing ANYTHING, especially doing anything with plumbing or power in a building, you will ALWAYS run into unpredictable problems. He may end up doing much more wiring than expected.
I used to work as a property manager for a number of different properties spread out through the city, with a number of different owners.
From that point of view, DON'T DO IT!
Consider:
1) You have to get permission to do any wiring and you'll be running wires of some type (power or CAT5) through the building, which will require the owner's permission. 2) You can spend all that and have a great time, but the landlord can decide to sell the building at any time, and you may suddenly find out you have to leave either at the end of your lease term or with as little as 30 or 60 days notice. 3) How do you know, after doing all that work, that you'll get to take the equipment with you when you leave? 4) Why are you investing in a building you are only renting? (You have no way of knowing that, right or wrong, you'll be able to take the equipment with you when you leave!)
Basically, you don't know how much longer you'll be living there and a number of things could result in an early termination of the lease, or other problem. While the equipment is yours, there are a number of ways the owner can keep you from taking it. Hell, the owner could even sue you for putting it in.
As a property manager, my job was 1) Protect the property owner from any harm or damage (not just physical) (that includes the property itself), and AFTER THAT, 2) Protect the tenant from harm (also not only physical), but this comes under #1 because anything that hurts the tenant could result in a suit or other harm to the owner, including inappropriate or illegal actions of the owner that hurt the tenant.
In such a role, I can tell you that I, and almost every property owner I have either known through networking, or worked with, would not want a tenant, no matter what they know about computers, crawling through a building and installing equipment the OWNER doesn't fully understand. And if an owner allowed it, you have no way to be sure they'll let you keep it later, or even allow it to continue to operate.
The owner also has to consider what could happen if a building inspector came through and you had violated a law you weren't aware of.
Maybe your landlord allows this. That doesn't mean you'll stay there long enough to make it worth while, or that you can keep the equipment later. It's like digging for gold in someone else's mine when, at any minute, they can walk in and say, "I've changed my mind. You can't keep the gold. It's all mine." Would you do that? Most likely not. Doing this is the same thing.
Be wise. Invest in something you'll have for a long time or that is yours, like a car, or a house downpayment, or even a cruise to an exotic location.
Oh, and I live in the US, so I don't know laws in other countries, but you've still got to face the fact that what you do may benefit you for only a short term and could benefit the owner for years.
(Oh, your lease is solid, you say? Check. I saw buildings bought and sold all the time -- sometimes tenants had till the end of the lease to move out, sometimes only 60 days. There are too many variables to be sure you will stay for years in an apartment.)
I'm picky. I count a continent as a landmass that is connected. If you check a map, Newfoundland is not connected (by land) to the rest of Canada.
If you want to say a continent includes the island around it, then Newfoundland is part of the same continent. If you're going to use that reasoning, then how far away and how big does an island have to be before it isn't part of a continent? Is Iceland part of any continent? How about New Zealand and Tasmania? Or Malaysia or Indonesia? Are these all part of the continents they are near? Or are they islands? Where do you make the distinction?
For me, Newfoundland has no land connections, so I don't count it as part of a continent. Maybe I'm picky, but when I used to teach school, that's what the text books I used stated. (Although I have to admit they were published by the same company who published science texts saying there are only 3 states of matter.)
The local provider has changed hands too many times to count. Time/Warner was okay. MediaOne was Okay. AT&T was terrible -- so bad it renewed my vow to never go with their services in ANYTHING again. It was so bad, I was planning on moving to satellite as soon as I had time to deal with it (and change my Internet, but even though I'm in Richmond, the capital of VA, I can't get DSL in my neighborhood from the local phone companies -- only Covad).
Comcast and AT&T Cable merged and, basically, Comcast took over. I noticed a difference soon. Whereas AT&T seemed to push giving us as little as possible, Comcast seems to do more (that's why the stories about limits on "unlimited use" surprised me). Comcast offers video on demand --- not just for Pay-Per-View. I've watched most of "Jeremiah" through on demand. I like picking a movie and watching it when I want, instead of when HBO or Showtime schedules it. (I also like being able to sit down whenever I want and having a choice of something like 8 Monty Python eps to watch!)
While Comcast may not offer DVR yet (they're promising them in our area soon), my experience is that when Comcast starts adertising, the service isn't far behind. Their techs seem to know what they're doing and phone support is pretty good (and I know Comcast treats the employees much better than AT&T did). (AT&T is so bad, some cities passed resolutions and were about to yank their franshise rights unless AT&T fixed things!)
One last note about Comcast: Richmond got cable in 1985 (or so) and had a local call center for billing and tech support from the beginning. AT&T came in and suddenly my calls went to Newfoundland -- not even on the same continent! Comcast came in and one of the first things they did was bring back the local call center for billing. I still get Toronto or Newfoundland for tech support, but I can get local help on billing and other questions.
I'm sorry that I have no experience with any kind of dish, so I can't speak to that, but my brother in law said when he used a dish (forgot if it was DishTV or DirecTV), he hardly ever lost the picture.
Does the phrase "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" ring a bell?
I guess that, or a left wing one, would ring a bell if I were paranoid, or couldn't accept what I learned as a child (that there are always at least 2 sides), or wasn't mature enough to understand that just because people disagree with me, that doesn't mean they're wrong or out to get me.
Extremists and unthinking people on both sides just want someone to point a finger at, so they create one. It's a classic straw man argument -- you can't prove something wrong, so invent an antagonist whom you can prove is wrong.
And the "right wing conspiracy" has never noticed that many of the media outlets (except maybe Turner Broadcasting and PBS) are owned by mega-conglomerates who have shown a conservative agenda overall.
Oh, and while I'm at it, two other examples I've noticed: I have had the chance to watch "The News Hour" on PBS with both liberal and conservative groups. This show does a good job of having guests involved in their discussions who can represent different points of view. There are always at least two contrasting viewpoints. I've seen both conservative and liberal viewers be rude and accusatory when a guest is presenting a view opposing theirs. Neither side seems to be able to reationally listen to an opposing point of view. However, at the end of the show I noticed the conservative groups are more likely to call a show biast for airing an opposing point of view even if it was balanced with their own viewpoint. I've seen this, not just once, but many times.
The other point, which is only one small example: Bush's former Treasury Secretary O'Neil was recently on 60 minutes and had quite a few negative things to say about Bush. A few days later I heard him on an NPR show (Fresh Air), and it was the NPR show (which is often accused of being libaral) where he had more of a chance to present a balanced point of view and present positive points about Bush. The 60 minutes piece was basically a hatchet job. The interview on NPR presented good and bad. (Length of time on air is no excuse, either. 60 minutes may have only had him on for 20 minutes, but there's no reason the whole interview had to focus only on the negative.)
People just like to see conspiracies because they want to blame someone for the things they disagree with. They can't accept that the world is complex and that other reasoning people (and groups) can arrive at viewpoints that differ from their own.
Fox News is fair and balanced, it just that your use to watching left slanted news like CNN.
Why is it conservatives call everything they don't like liberal or leftist? It seems to me that any news source that presents any info conservatives don't like is "leftist", even if all they are doing is presenting the truth that conservatives don't want to hear.
A game that can evoke complex emotions - longing, despair, empathy - is the holy grail for some in the industry
I thought Myst did a good job of bringing out more complex emotions. Then again, I'm not a gamer because it seems to me most games are about blasting away, collecting objects, or fighting, and I've always wanted something more intellectually stimulating in my entertainment.
I know most gamers hate the Myst series, but I've always liked it because it seemed to be about something more than fighting or a different form of materialism (like finding or getting objects).
When I was a teenager, I rode my bike everywhere (I still do, quite often, I prefer it to a car). My Mother kept telling me (since I was so cocky) that I could be "dead right." In other words, it didn't matter if I had a right of way, if a car didn't stop, I could still be dead.
The employer may, as you say, have the right to access the info. And, if it is illegal, it may very well be their fault. But that doesn't mean the person who's e-mail is being examaned can't try to sue the hosting service. It may be a suit without merit, or it may be dismissed.
Or it may cost thousands just to defend the company long enough to get the case dismissed. I agree that the burden would or should fall on the employer, but that doesn't mean the hosting service won't be, as I referenced earlier, "dead right."
In these days when a company can be sued by a customer who is too stupid to know their coffee is hot, I know I wouldn't dare take the risk to my company without consulting one of my lawyers.
As you say in your sig, even if the street is one-way, it is wise to look in both directions. Even if it seems clear where the responsibility lies, look in both directions and CYA.
In my experience, I've found that whenever you don't CYA, the incident doesn't go away, it just gets worse and worse. I'd rather start with caution and not need it than do what I think is right, without verification, and find some pissed off twerp suing me just to be a pain.
1) Whatever you do will set a precedent, so keep that in mind. Saying "No" seems to your benefit, since saying "Yes" could set a pattern and they could expect more in the future.
2) Have you actually told them you still have the data? If so, this may not have been wise. As long as they don't know if the data still exists, they can push for it. If they don't know, they're reaching in the dark. This may be a good reason to start a policy of deleting accounts whenever you've received notice an employee is fired or whenever a client stops taking your services.
3) Get a lawyer. Why? This WILL be a precedent, if not for others, for this company. If they get what they want now, they may start asking to check everyone's email account and, eventually, they might go so far as to expect you to provide them with access to all accounts. You need to find out if you have a right to refuse the request. The best news that you could get would be a lawyer telling you that you either a) don't have to provide the data, or b) are not allowed to provide the data.
4) As said above (2 times), this will set a precedent, no matter what. In my experience, whenever someone asks for a special service, that isn't the end. It's not long before they ask for a repeat, and, once they've broken down that boundary, they ask for more and more. If you do decide to provide them access, or you find out you have to give them access, if possible you SHOULD charge for the service. Otherwise, they won't see this as as an item with value. By charging, you are setting a limit and taking steps to make sure they don't just keep asking for and expecting you to do more and more for them.
When I opened up the page for the article, the banner ad on top was for the MSN Smart Watch.
I wonder, with random ad placements in banners, if there will eventually be a requirement that ads don't show up on pages with content saying something less than favorable about the advertiser...
What? They're going to cancel a Star Trek series after only 3 seasons?
Who would'a thunk a ST series could actually get cancelled after only 3 years.
Maybe it's a warp drive thing, after all the last Trek series that couldn't make it past 3 years had slower warp engines, too (compared to Next Gen and later).
It might be too lightweight for what you want, but I've found I can do what you've asked (you need to add a mod for attachments, though). I think the upload directory had to be chmod 777, but I think you can put it outside of the html tree.
It's also free, open source, has good community support, is easily modified (with many mods available), works with a selection of databases, and you don't have to rely on your host provider for anything other than the space and a db program like MySQL (unless you can install it separately).
I don't remember exactly. I know it was something from the fight between Kirk and Spock in "Amok Time." I do remember the coach stopped us and put us in some kind of organized showdown that kept going through all of PE until finally he had us doing pushups and situps until he finally quit. That was in front of 1/3 of the whole grade. That was 8th grade and his tough image was trashed from then on through most of high school.
I wish I could remember what the move was, though. I remember I jhad just seen the episode and realizing I was in almost the same position or situation and remembering that whatever Kirk did, it was not something you'd expect. I guess, in that case, being a geek/Trekkie saved my ass.
It's even more ironic than that. I never lost a fight (except for one in college). I did everything I could to NOT fight, but when I did, I didn't fight like everyone else. (By not fighting, I guess I never learned to fight like people expected.) I remember one time winning a fight by pulling a move I had seen Kirk do on Star Trek.
But the really ironic thing about that -- considering that I never lost a fight -- is that I am now a Quaker.
(For those that don't know, Quakers, or The Religious Society of Friends, is one of the few religious groups recognized as a peace church.)
SCO is just like the schoolyard bully that keeps pushing other kids around until someone hits him in the stomach and leaves him in pain. I was the kid who would never fight, but when one of these guys got to be too much and pushed me around, I fought them. I didn't even have to win. Once word got around that I (the kid who hated fighting) could even hold my own with them, their reputation as a bully was gone.
That's what SCO is doing. They're pushing everyone. When they don't get enough attention, they make more threats. They keep threating more and more people and companies. As long as they can rant and rave, their stock stays high, but once someone (like IBM, hopefully) and kicks them down a notch, it'll all be over.
They know they have nothing. They know the only thing keeping their stock high is the bluster and fuss they keep making. They're reaching out as wide as possible to bully the schoolyard, the neighborhood, and, soon, the whole world. When they reach the end of people they can threaten, they'll have to act. If they had the strength to act and actually do something, they would. Since they don't, they're Shakespeare's idiot, telling a tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Sorry -- I had indended on leaving that at the end of my post, like a tag, but got distracted when my my call to tech support was suddenly answered after 45 minutes and I hit the submit by mistake.
I can't help but to think that the ultimate "design" of the Universe is something close to fractal based. When we understand the patterns at the most rudimentary level of the Universe, I think we'll see how those patterns are repeated, over and over, on bigger levels with slight alterations. It's kind of like the way an atom almost resembles a solar system. It's outdated, but there's a great story from the 40's or 50's called "He Who Shrank" about a lab assistant who gets fitted with a telemetry helmet by his boss, who uses a "shrink forumla" on him. As he shrinks, he falls into a block of dense material and the atoms are, to him, like solar systems, and he lands on the planets and keeps shrinking and repeating this over and over.
Whenever I see a Powers of 10 film, I can't help but to think of that story.
For those who think they've seen this, the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian has had a similar film since (at least) the 1970's, but the Earth scene was a man sleeping on a bench after a picnic and the film (it was a film, not slides or static pictures) zoomed in on molecules in his hand.
I know other museums have shown this film, since I saw it in a display at the Science Museum of Virginia and found out I could buy a video of it in their giftshop.
Hey, that's what worked for me. I got headaches if I didn't have 5-6 diet Cokes (as in regular cans) a day, and I also couldn't sleep at night (I know, you expect the opposite effect -- but a biologist explained it to me once and I forgot). Other side effects included congestion -- and I mean congestion that would begin after a few hours of no diet Cokes and would clear up within 15 minutes after drinking one.
I saw what was happening and stopped, cold turkey, when I had 4 days off work in a row. I felt like crap for 2-3 days, then not too bad, and after a month, I felt better. I also felt better in the mornings, since I didn't need anything to get me going.
(Oh, and I was lucky -- Cokes don't have nearly the strength of coffee, which I never could stand.)
I'm glad to see this. I remember when Lindows was announced, the general reaction here was, "Why create something to emulate Windows?" and there was a level of contempt here because it was so easy to use (as there always is here -- almost like a reaction of people insecure with their own status).
They're also sponsoring a project involving KDE (forgot exactly what) and NVu (a full WYSIWYG HTML/Site editor based on Mozilla for Linux). Lindows is an excellent example of good citizenship in the FLOSS world. It's true they are a pay-for-only distro, but they are definitely giving back to the community -- in ways the community needs and other people/companies are not supporting.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh my gosh! Microsoft has like 45+ billion dollars in cash, and they feel the need to resort to stealing $50 from recent college grads to pad
How do you think they got all that money?
It's not fraud.
Find a license agreement (even if you have to go to a store that will let you read one). It's like a lot of services and automatically renews. On any service like this, once you sign up and pay, it is up to you to cancel. The fact that you didn't cancel it, give them an updated e-mail addy, or check your bill when it came in is your fault.
I wish I could say this is another cause of Microsoft giving customers the shaft, but I can't when you ignored your responsibilities.
I will say, as someone who tried MSN, that Microsoft does make it tough to cancel, often requiring passwords you may have forgotten, or specifically notifying them at least 60 days before renewal, but, again, most services automatically renew. It's their way of increasing income. A lot of services count on people forgetting to cancel accounts, which is what you did. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of accounts with only a small fraction forgetting to cancel their subscription, and you can see the profit can mount up for them.
to point out he said WIRELESS
To point out (for those that think they know everything and that everything always goes the way they want), someone else said that, and my responsed (one post down from my first one, several posts up from yours, certainly in this thread and not read -- I guess some people are in such a hurry to make a point, they ignore the chance it's already been stated...)
Sometimes things don't always go as planned (a fact those who think they know everything, but don't have the experience tend to forget).
He did. And in a perfect world, all he'd need is to have a few other tenants put routers in their apartments. But theory and practice are never the same.
Wireless may still involve running power cables to odd places where routers won't be disturbed.
I don't know if you can relay from one wireless router to another, but I've found that when you're installing ANYTHING, especially doing anything with plumbing or power in a building, you will ALWAYS run into unpredictable problems. He may end up doing much more wiring than expected.
I used to work as a property manager for a number of different properties spread out through the city, with a number of different owners.
From that point of view, DON'T DO IT!
Consider:
1) You have to get permission to do any wiring and you'll be running wires of some type (power or CAT5) through the building, which will require the owner's permission.
2) You can spend all that and have a great time, but the landlord can decide to sell the building at any time, and you may suddenly find out you have to leave either at the end of your lease term or with as little as 30 or 60 days notice.
3) How do you know, after doing all that work, that you'll get to take the equipment with you when you leave?
4) Why are you investing in a building you are only renting? (You have no way of knowing that, right or wrong, you'll be able to take the equipment with you when you leave!)
Basically, you don't know how much longer you'll be living there and a number of things could result in an early termination of the lease, or other problem. While the equipment is yours, there are a number of ways the owner can keep you from taking it. Hell, the owner could even sue you for putting it in.
As a property manager, my job was 1) Protect the property owner from any harm or damage (not just physical) (that includes the property itself), and AFTER THAT, 2) Protect the tenant from harm (also not only physical), but this comes under #1 because anything that hurts the tenant could result in a suit or other harm to the owner, including inappropriate or illegal actions of the owner that hurt the tenant.
In such a role, I can tell you that I, and almost every property owner I have either known through networking, or worked with, would not want a tenant, no matter what they know about computers, crawling through a building and installing equipment the OWNER doesn't fully understand. And if an owner allowed it, you have no way to be sure they'll let you keep it later, or even allow it to continue to operate.
The owner also has to consider what could happen if a building inspector came through and you had violated a law you weren't aware of.
Maybe your landlord allows this. That doesn't mean you'll stay there long enough to make it worth while, or that you can keep the equipment later. It's like digging for gold in someone else's mine when, at any minute, they can walk in and say, "I've changed my mind. You can't keep the gold. It's all mine." Would you do that? Most likely not. Doing this is the same thing.
Be wise. Invest in something you'll have for a long time or that is yours, like a car, or a house downpayment, or even a cruise to an exotic location.
Oh, and I live in the US, so I don't know laws in other countries, but you've still got to face the fact that what you do may benefit you for only a short term and could benefit the owner for years.
(Oh, your lease is solid, you say? Check. I saw buildings bought and sold all the time -- sometimes tenants had till the end of the lease to move out, sometimes only 60 days. There are too many variables to be sure you will stay for years in an apartment.)
Actually, it's an island.
I'm picky. I count a continent as a landmass that is connected. If you check a map, Newfoundland is not connected (by land) to the rest of Canada.
If you want to say a continent includes the island around it, then Newfoundland is part of the same continent. If you're going to use that reasoning, then how far away and how big does an island have to be before it isn't part of a continent? Is Iceland part of any continent? How about New Zealand and Tasmania? Or Malaysia or Indonesia? Are these all part of the continents they are near? Or are they islands? Where do you make the distinction?
For me, Newfoundland has no land connections, so I don't count it as part of a continent. Maybe I'm picky, but when I used to teach school, that's what the text books I used stated. (Although I have to admit they were published by the same company who published science texts saying there are only 3 states of matter.)
Richmond, VA.
Did you have problems with AT&T before they merged, too? Or are you referring to another part of the post?
Wasn't Jacksonville one of the cities that was close to terminating their franchise rights?
The local provider has changed hands too many times to count. Time/Warner was okay. MediaOne was Okay. AT&T was terrible -- so bad it renewed my vow to never go with their services in ANYTHING again. It was so bad, I was planning on moving to satellite as soon as I had time to deal with it (and change my Internet, but even though I'm in Richmond, the capital of VA, I can't get DSL in my neighborhood from the local phone companies -- only Covad).
Comcast and AT&T Cable merged and, basically, Comcast took over. I noticed a difference soon. Whereas AT&T seemed to push giving us as little as possible, Comcast seems to do more (that's why the stories about limits on "unlimited use" surprised me). Comcast offers video on demand --- not just for Pay-Per-View. I've watched most of "Jeremiah" through on demand. I like picking a movie and watching it when I want, instead of when HBO or Showtime schedules it. (I also like being able to sit down whenever I want and having a choice of something like 8 Monty Python eps to watch!)
While Comcast may not offer DVR yet (they're promising them in our area soon), my experience is that when Comcast starts adertising, the service isn't far behind. Their techs seem to know what they're doing and phone support is pretty good (and I know Comcast treats the employees much better than AT&T did). (AT&T is so bad, some cities passed resolutions and were about to yank their franshise rights unless AT&T fixed things!)
One last note about Comcast: Richmond got cable in 1985 (or so) and had a local call center for billing and tech support from the beginning. AT&T came in and suddenly my calls went to Newfoundland -- not even on the same continent! Comcast came in and one of the first things they did was bring back the local call center for billing. I still get Toronto or Newfoundland for tech support, but I can get local help on billing and other questions.
I'm sorry that I have no experience with any kind of dish, so I can't speak to that, but my brother in law said when he used a dish (forgot if it was DishTV or DirecTV), he hardly ever lost the picture.
Does the phrase "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" ring a bell?
I guess that, or a left wing one, would ring a bell if I were paranoid, or couldn't accept what I learned as a child (that there are always at least 2 sides), or wasn't mature enough to understand that just because people disagree with me, that doesn't mean they're wrong or out to get me.
Extremists and unthinking people on both sides just want someone to point a finger at, so they create one. It's a classic straw man argument -- you can't prove something wrong, so invent an antagonist whom you can prove is wrong.
And the "right wing conspiracy" has never noticed that many of the media outlets (except maybe Turner Broadcasting and PBS) are owned by mega-conglomerates who have shown a conservative agenda overall.
Oh, and while I'm at it, two other examples I've noticed: I have had the chance to watch "The News Hour" on PBS with both liberal and conservative groups. This show does a good job of having guests involved in their discussions who can represent different points of view. There are always at least two contrasting viewpoints. I've seen both conservative and liberal viewers be rude and accusatory when a guest is presenting a view opposing theirs. Neither side seems to be able to reationally listen to an opposing point of view. However, at the end of the show I noticed the conservative groups are more likely to call a show biast for airing an opposing point of view even if it was balanced with their own viewpoint. I've seen this, not just once, but many times.
The other point, which is only one small example: Bush's former Treasury Secretary O'Neil was recently on 60 minutes and had quite a few negative things to say about Bush. A few days later I heard him on an NPR show (Fresh Air), and it was the NPR show (which is often accused of being libaral) where he had more of a chance to present a balanced point of view and present positive points about Bush. The 60 minutes piece was basically a hatchet job. The interview on NPR presented good and bad. (Length of time on air is no excuse, either. 60 minutes may have only had him on for 20 minutes, but there's no reason the whole interview had to focus only on the negative.)
People just like to see conspiracies because they want to blame someone for the things they disagree with. They can't accept that the world is complex and that other reasoning people (and groups) can arrive at viewpoints that differ from their own.
Fox News is fair and balanced, it just that your use to watching left slanted news like CNN.
Why is it conservatives call everything they don't like liberal or leftist? It seems to me that any news source that presents any info conservatives don't like is "leftist", even if all they are doing is presenting the truth that conservatives don't want to hear.
A game that can evoke complex emotions - longing, despair, empathy - is the holy grail for some in the industry
I thought Myst did a good job of bringing out more complex emotions. Then again, I'm not a gamer because it seems to me most games are about blasting away, collecting objects, or fighting, and I've always wanted something more intellectually stimulating in my entertainment.
I know most gamers hate the Myst series, but I've always liked it because it seemed to be about something more than fighting or a different form of materialism (like finding or getting objects).
If it is illegal, then it's the employers fault.
When I was a teenager, I rode my bike everywhere (I still do, quite often, I prefer it to a car). My Mother kept telling me (since I was so cocky) that I could be "dead right." In other words, it didn't matter if I had a right of way, if a car didn't stop, I could still be dead.
The employer may, as you say, have the right to access the info. And, if it is illegal, it may very well be their fault. But that doesn't mean the person who's e-mail is being examaned can't try to sue the hosting service. It may be a suit without merit, or it may be dismissed.
Or it may cost thousands just to defend the company long enough to get the case dismissed. I agree that the burden would or should fall on the employer, but that doesn't mean the hosting service won't be, as I referenced earlier, "dead right."
In these days when a company can be sued by a customer who is too stupid to know their coffee is hot, I know I wouldn't dare take the risk to my company without consulting one of my lawyers.
As you say in your sig, even if the street is one-way, it is wise to look in both directions. Even if it seems clear where the responsibility lies, look in both directions and CYA.
In my experience, I've found that whenever you don't CYA, the incident doesn't go away, it just gets worse and worse. I'd rather start with caution and not need it than do what I think is right, without verification, and find some pissed off twerp suing me just to be a pain.
1) Whatever you do will set a precedent, so keep that in mind. Saying "No" seems to your benefit, since saying "Yes" could set a pattern and they could expect more in the future.
2) Have you actually told them you still have the data? If so, this may not have been wise. As long as they don't know if the data still exists, they can push for it. If they don't know, they're reaching in the dark. This may be a good reason to start a policy of deleting accounts whenever you've received notice an employee is fired or whenever a client stops taking your services.
3) Get a lawyer. Why? This WILL be a precedent, if not for others, for this company. If they get what they want now, they may start asking to check everyone's email account and, eventually, they might go so far as to expect you to provide them with access to all accounts. You need to find out if you have a right to refuse the request. The best news that you could get would be a lawyer telling you that you either a) don't have to provide the data, or b) are not allowed to provide the data.
4) As said above (2 times), this will set a precedent, no matter what. In my experience, whenever someone asks for a special service, that isn't the end. It's not long before they ask for a repeat, and, once they've broken down that boundary, they ask for more and more. If you do decide to provide them access, or you find out you have to give them access, if possible you SHOULD charge for the service. Otherwise, they won't see this as as an item with value. By charging, you are setting a limit and taking steps to make sure they don't just keep asking for and expecting you to do more and more for them.
When I opened up the page for the article, the banner ad on top was for the MSN Smart Watch.
I wonder, with random ad placements in banners, if there will eventually be a requirement that ads don't show up on pages with content saying something less than favorable about the advertiser...
What? They're going to cancel a Star Trek series after only 3 seasons?
Who would'a thunk a ST series could actually get cancelled after only 3 years.
Maybe it's a warp drive thing, after all the last Trek series that couldn't make it past 3 years had slower warp engines, too (compared to Next Gen and later).
It might be too lightweight for what you want, but I've found I can do what you've asked (you need to add a mod for attachments, though). I think the upload directory had to be chmod 777, but I think you can put it outside of the html tree.
It's also free, open source, has good community support, is easily modified (with many mods available), works with a selection of databases, and you don't have to rely on your host provider for anything other than the space and a db program like MySQL (unless you can install it separately).
I don't remember exactly. I know it was something from the fight between Kirk and Spock in "Amok Time." I do remember the coach stopped us and put us in some kind of organized showdown that kept going through all of PE until finally he had us doing pushups and situps until he finally quit. That was in front of 1/3 of the whole grade. That was 8th grade and his tough image was trashed from then on through most of high school.
I wish I could remember what the move was, though. I remember I jhad just seen the episode and realizing I was in almost the same position or situation and remembering that whatever Kirk did, it was not something you'd expect. I guess, in that case, being a geek/Trekkie saved my ass.
Imagine THAT coming from a /.'r :)
It's even more ironic than that. I never lost a fight (except for one in college). I did everything I could to NOT fight, but when I did, I didn't fight like everyone else. (By not fighting, I guess I never learned to fight like people expected.) I remember one time winning a fight by pulling a move I had seen Kirk do on Star Trek.
But the really ironic thing about that -- considering that I never lost a fight -- is that I am now a Quaker.
(For those that don't know, Quakers, or The Religious Society of Friends, is one of the few religious groups recognized as a peace church.)
SCO is just like the schoolyard bully that keeps pushing other kids around until someone hits him in the stomach and leaves him in pain. I was the kid who would never fight, but when one of these guys got to be too much and pushed me around, I fought them. I didn't even have to win. Once word got around that I (the kid who hated fighting) could even hold my own with them, their reputation as a bully was gone.
That's what SCO is doing. They're pushing everyone. When they don't get enough attention, they make more threats. They keep threating more and more people and companies. As long as they can rant and rave, their stock stays high, but once someone (like IBM, hopefully) and kicks them down a notch, it'll all be over.
They know they have nothing. They know the only thing keeping their stock high is the bluster and fuss they keep making. They're reaching out as wide as possible to bully the schoolyard, the neighborhood, and, soon, the whole world. When they reach the end of people they can threaten, they'll have to act. If they had the strength to act and actually do something, they would. Since they don't, they're Shakespeare's idiot, telling a tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Sorry -- I had indended on leaving that at the end of my post, like a tag, but got distracted when my my call to tech support was suddenly answered after 45 minutes and I hit the submit by mistake.
I can't help but to think that the ultimate "design" of the Universe is something close to fractal based. When we understand the patterns at the most rudimentary level of the Universe, I think we'll see how those patterns are repeated, over and over, on bigger levels with slight alterations. It's kind of like the way an atom almost resembles a solar system. It's outdated, but there's a great story from the 40's or 50's called "He Who Shrank" about a lab assistant who gets fitted with a telemetry helmet by his boss, who uses a "shrink forumla" on him. As he shrinks, he falls into a block of dense material and the atoms are, to him, like solar systems, and he lands on the planets and keeps shrinking and repeating this over and over.
Whenever I see a Powers of 10 film, I can't help but to think of that story.
I thought we had an answer to that question, or at least the Ultimate Question.
It's 42, isn't it?
For those who think they've seen this, the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian has had a similar film since (at least) the 1970's, but the Earth scene was a man sleeping on a bench after a picnic and the film (it was a film, not slides or static pictures) zoomed in on molecules in his hand.
I know other museums have shown this film, since I saw it in a display at the Science Museum of Virginia and found out I could buy a video of it in their giftshop.
Hey, that's what worked for me. I got headaches if I didn't have 5-6 diet Cokes (as in regular cans) a day, and I also couldn't sleep at night (I know, you expect the opposite effect -- but a biologist explained it to me once and I forgot). Other side effects included congestion -- and I mean congestion that would begin after a few hours of no diet Cokes and would clear up within 15 minutes after drinking one.
I saw what was happening and stopped, cold turkey, when I had 4 days off work in a row. I felt like crap for 2-3 days, then not too bad, and after a month, I felt better. I also felt better in the mornings, since I didn't need anything to get me going.
(Oh, and I was lucky -- Cokes don't have nearly the strength of coffee, which I never could stand.)
Caffiene free for 3 years, this month!
No stupider than Win 9x... ...er, well, let's just say there are other OS's out there that are even less secure.
I'm glad to see this. I remember when Lindows was announced, the general reaction here was, "Why create something to emulate Windows?" and there was a level of contempt here because it was so easy to use (as there always is here -- almost like a reaction of people insecure with their own status).
They're also sponsoring a project involving KDE (forgot exactly what) and NVu (a full WYSIWYG HTML/Site editor based on Mozilla for Linux). Lindows is an excellent example of good citizenship in the FLOSS world. It's true they are a pay-for-only distro, but they are definitely giving back to the community -- in ways the community needs and other people/companies are not supporting.