When two companies begin negotiations for one to buy the other, each has its own investment banker. The bankers only make money if the deal goes through. Even if the bankers know that the deal is stupid (like Time-Warner and AOL), they'll push it no matter how much value they know they'll destroy because otherwise, they get nothing. Even companies themselves will sometimes go through with a transaction that everyone begins to realize is bad the deeper they get into it, if only because they already put so much time and sunk costs into it. They ignore the rule: "if you're in a hole, stop digging" because they protest, "but we've already dug so much, let's dig ourselves a little deeper!"
Who was Apple's investment banker who effectively killed the deal? That's who I'd want to hire as my own banker if I ever had to sell my company or buy another one.
I am a reasonable, in-house system architect for a major federal agency. Yes, we use virtual servers for most of our applications. This doesn't reduce the number of operating systems that we have, but it certain reduces the number of physical servers and disk arrays that we have to maintain. It's a scalable environment and allows for redundancy between data centers. Most of our users who access our systems are scattered nationwide, so network outages either affect only them, or must be so severe that they take down mutiple data centers each with multiple ISP connections, power sources and HVAC. I supposed that you could call this operating our own "cloud." I don't really care what you call it. I believe it's the among the most efficient and effective solutions for our needs, but doesn't hold us hostage to any one service provider. During out last phase of the migration to our current architecture, our P2V process was straightforward and comfortable. The tools are robust and mature.
If you are thinking of replacing physical servers with virtual or a "cloud," please either build the cloud yourself, or encrypt at the LUN or virtual disk level. For God's sake don't allow any data at rest or in transit to reside or cross over networks owned by third-parties, contractors, etc.
BTW, yes, an MBA or MPP or even PMP probably would go father to get to up to the higher grades in federal public service than a computer science degree. Then again, a CCIE wouldn't hurt either.
Kevin got his plum FCC assignment when he was airlifted to Florida to help Bush steal the election in 2000. He's a whore. He's just not the cable companies' whore. BusinessWeek explains that he "earned his spurs by being on the first flight to Florida from Austin the day after the contested 2000 election. As deputy general counsel to the Bush campaign, he oversaw the legal team working behind the scenes with the Dade and Broward County canvassing boards."
My greatest concern, and I believe it would be the greatest concern of many people out there, is having Time Warner archive your personal AIM conversations, Verizon and AT&T archive your SMS conversations, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo archive your instant message and chat room conversations. The number of people who have access to the content (let alone metadata) could be staggeringly large, giving rise not only to corporate malfeasance, but also individual employee malfeasance such as blackmailing, extortion, personal attacks, retribution, trade secret theft, insider trading, and a host of other horribles beyond my limited imagination.
I'd love to be the little company that runs gay.com or manhunt.net because it would effectively allow me to map the national social network of alternative sexual behavior. Sort of like IRC... 10 years ago.
Dave Hamilton, co-publisher of an Apple news Web site called the Mac Observer, said most of the functions Jobs displayed are available on other products.
"I'd say about 80 percent of the features that were talked about today are available on a Treo," he said, "but Jobs is so good at standing on a stage and making you think he invented it."
About the only thing I use a CD for is Oblivion, Halo, and FEAR. ID Software has been kind enough to no longer require a CD be inserted just to play a game that is already on my hard disk. Half Life 2, of couse, has Steam.
The premise of the article raises two questions:
1. What the hell do people need CDs for? 2. How in hell do these CDs get scratched? It's not a long distance from the CD tray to the jewel case.
I agree with the parent post, and yes, I agree with the criticism of this incendent. I don't think it's representative of police nationwide. After all, the media made it public knowledge based on the word of the victim; the ACLU may be getting involved (the family should sue -- they have a case); and there is already an investigation.
So the good news here is that it's a big deal. When is it time to start worrying, and not just making a fuss about it, but taking real action against a police state? That time will come when incidents do not provoke the kind of outrage we have seen here.
I understand how police -- especially unseasoned patrolmen -- can become jaded quickly without having the experience or training to know how to deal with a situtation they don't like. Police so often get a very warped view of the world since they most often are responding to terrible situations and people who would have very bad karma on Slashdot.
Yes, I agree with the criticism of this incendent. I don't think it's representative of police nationwide. After all, the media made it public knowledge based on the word of the victim; the ACLU may be getting involved (the family should sue -- they have a case); and there is already an investigation.
I understand how police -- especially unseasoned patrolmen -- can become jaded quickly without having the experience or training to know how to deal with a situtation they don't like. Police so often get a very warped view of the world since they most often are responding to terrible situations and people who would have very bad karma on Slashdot.
The big crime, the excise tax on local phone service that applies to every land line, is still there. I haven't used a land line to make long distance calls in years. But I still have a land line. Wake me up when I can save money by not paying the tax on it.
"The company sells advertising on its software and Web site, both to video game makers and to mass market marketers, including Dodge, Pepsi and Unilever.
I can't wait to be playing Quake 4 or FEAR and get fragged. Suddenly, rather than hear my opponent or teammate, I hear a disembodied voice say, "You got wasted! How about you clean yourself up with Lever 2000, the soap that gets bloodstains our of anything! For all your 2000 parts, no matter where the frags end up!"
OnStar and other services that mount GPS and a cell phone into a car (albeit disguised as an emergency service) are cool. Not only can the FBI track where you are anytime they want -- they can also listen into your conversations without having to even bug your car. You've already paid the manufacturer to do it for them.
How long will it be until for "our own protection" we are required to have GPS and cell service in our car that the FBI can use to listen to all our conversations and track our location?
For those of who you believe this is a fairy tale, there is already plenty of evidence that the FBI has attempted (and succeeded?) in doing just this. See In re the Application of the U.S. for an Order Authorizing the Roving Interception of Oral Communications, 349 F.3d 1132 (9th Cir. 2003).
Good professors provide outlines to their lectures. Good students find a way to get the notes to the lectures, even if the professor doesn't provide them. Since lectures don't change much from year to year, you can find an older student who's taken the course before and copy his notes.
My best professors were the ones who eliminated the middle man and provide their outline before class. That way, we were all literally on the same page -- and therefore we could discuss the material without worrying about copying it verbetim.
Google's compliance with a court order divulging even deleted e-mail explains why I have NEVER retained my e-mail on a public server. I keep all my e-mail at home, thank you very much. I still have ubiquitous access to it via a SquirrelMail web front-end and dovecot IMAP, but I have the confidence of knowing if I choose to delete something, it is truly gone. There are a few other features, too. I encrypt everything I can. For remote access, I only use encrypted https; I don't even have http open. Or, I use impas, never imap. I use TTL for smtp -- as long as the other smtp server supports it. And I even encrypt my hard disks.
It's funny, I don't have anything to hide from my government... yet. They havne't made any of my activities illegal... yet. But I also have peace of mind that no sysops between here and there can see my communications.
Also, to clear up a misconception, courts of law can pretty much order anything disclosed, no matter how much of a privacy interest you have. First, the only remedy is to not submit it to a jury. Second, a reasonable suspicion (or sometimes probable cause to believe that the e-mails or other evidence would yield evidence of a crime) usually suffices to supersede your privacy rights.
Every time I buy (or sell) something on E-bay I feel like I'm gambling on the true condition of the item, whether I'll even get it, and it the other party is going to conduct some sort of fraud against me. I hope this (ill-advised) bill doesn't kill online retail from small vendors and auctions.
Heck, even when I buy something online from anything but a Tier I retailer (e.g., Amazon, NewEgg), I feel like I'm gambling with my money.
Of course I love Quake 1/2/3/4, Doom 1/2/3, Half-Life 1/2, Halo, FarCry, Unreal 1/2/UT/UT2004 and the other FPS games. Tron 2.0 is pretty neat. Elite Force made a good use of the cast voices. Grand Theft Auto satisfies an itch to be nasty.
But would you believe that from time to time, I still go back and play sstrek, I believe the version I played was written in Fortran. I remember as a 10 year old hiking to my local college to play sstrek on a green on black 9600 bps mainframe terminal. I still remember how cool I felt when I finally won an emeritus game. I got to print out my award certificate and hung it on my wall.
The stub on theis article is WRONG. The "Business Judgment Rule" protects any decision that a corporation's board makes, no matter how silly it seems. In this case, Google's hypothetical decision to stay out of China would be protected. Nothing in U.S. law is forcing Google into China.
The "Business Judgment Rule" protects any decision that a corporation's board makes as long as they [1] deliberate with knowledge about the decision (i.e., they must be informed); and [2] don't have any conflicts of interest (i.e., sign a contract with the Board's president's son-in-law).
[Furthermore, the Board didn't necessary approve or disapprove of this decision. It might have just been management. They can pretty much do anything they want. When "concerned shareholders" such their own corporation, they usually sue the Board rather than only management.]
I just bought a great laptop off E-bay for $187 including shipping. It has evreything a modern laptop has except its CPU speed is about 1/4 present standards (500MHz).
In all seriousness, I applaud programs that work to take donated equipment from corporate and other high-end environments, and donate them to schools and similar recipients. The greatest cost, thus making the idea of a $100 new laptop better, is the labor involved in repairing and standardizing donated machines.
I hate to use my laptop at my parents' house. They have Cox (Cocks?) Cable for broadband service. I can't send e-amil from their house without reconfiguring my mail client because unless you use the Cox SMTP server, they block all outgoing traffic on port 25. I understand the policy: stop spam. I a way, I even agree with it. In the meantime, every time my parents leave the house with their laptops, they don't understand why they can't send e-mails.
Moral of the story: ISPs have been screwing around with traffic for years. This is not new. Should pass we legislation forcing them to stay neutral? Maybe. I'd hate to see the spam if they didn't do this, as much of a headache as it is.
I might be willing to concede that 1024 bit may be inadequate if you're a target of the NSA. If you're a run-of-the-mill criminal, though, I can't imagine that your local police department or even the FBI will have acccess to the hardware and knowledge to break the encryption.
I think you're confusing patent law and copyright law. Patent protects ideas for only 20 years. There has never been serious discussion of extending its terms much longer than that because today's patent holder (one one side of the issue) is tomorrow's patent user (on the other side of the issue).
Copyright does not protect ideas. A court will reject a copyright if it tries to claim an idea. Copyright protects only expression. During the vastly significant history of copyright, a holder had to do something affirmative to receive his copyright. Even today you must register your copyright before you sue someone for infrigement. If it's not worth the time to take an overt action, then it shouldn't be copyrighted.
"All file sharing programs are subject to this decision, as are all technologies that can be used to infringe copyrights. Whether any of them would be found to be liable under the 'inducement' standard set out by the Supreme Court is another matter entirely. In fact, we don't even know whether Grokster will be held legally liable under that standard. That is for the lower court to decide in the next phase of this case."
And . . .
"Well, anyone can be sued, but you wouldn't win a case against a software manufacturer just because it can be used for infringement. What the Supreme Court said is that a technology manufacturer who 'distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement' can be held legally responsible for the copyright infringment of others. So there has to be some affirmative activity to promote infringement."
Now all we have to do is get Congress to reign in the REAL problem, the ridiculous copyright laws that constitute primary infringement. Crank it down to 10 or 20 years, not life plus 70! And make it so that everything written on a napkin is not automatically copyrighted. Make someone at least go to a copyright office website to get their copyright protection initially, and for a reneweal after a year.
We already HAVE a federal ID card called a passport. It's expensive because it is designed to be an identity document. Why don't we just make a passport the required document for traveling between states? This is what - in effect - we are doing, only it's more politically palletable to the ignorant, and an unfunded state mandate, too. I remember when we used to make fun of Russia for requiring papers for in-country travel. Now, we're doing the same thing.
I would think people would resoundly reject having to show a passport every time the cross a state line, but that's exactly what we're doing by bolstering a driver's license to become a mandatory ID check before any form of modern travel is allowed.
What do these services do that the OS doesn't?
on
The Other VoIP
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· Score: 1
If you have Windows, you have NetMeeting (conf.exe). If you have Linux, you probably have gnomemeeting. Even if you downloaded something like Yahoo Instant Messenger, you have a slightly easier to use video and audio conferencing package for Mac or PC. All are based on the same standards. What is it that pay services like Skype or Vonage provide that these services don't?
The only added value of Vonage seems to be a connection to the plain old telephone system (POTS) so that you can contact people in the largest network in the world (POTS). As soon as we find way to make this free in most of the world, these services are dead.
The only value that Skype seems to add is security [both easy-to-use, standard 256-bit AES encryption and lack of centralized server (P2P instead)]. But I think these will become standardized too very shortly.
So the only quesitons are, how long do we have to wait for free, standard access to POTS, and for standardized security (encryption and lack of central authority)?
Slashdot Mirror
Who was Apple's investment banker who effectively killed the deal? That's who I'd want to hire as my own banker if I ever had to sell my company or buy another one.
If you are thinking of replacing physical servers with virtual or a "cloud," please either build the cloud yourself, or encrypt at the LUN or virtual disk level. For God's sake don't allow any data at rest or in transit to reside or cross over networks owned by third-parties, contractors, etc.
BTW, yes, an MBA or MPP or even PMP probably would go father to get to up to the higher grades in federal public service than a computer science degree. Then again, a CCIE wouldn't hurt either.
Kevin got his plum FCC assignment when he was airlifted to Florida to help Bush steal the election in 2000. He's a whore. He's just not the cable companies' whore. BusinessWeek explains that he "earned his spurs by being on the first flight to Florida from Austin the day after the contested 2000 election. As deputy general counsel to the Bush campaign, he oversaw the legal team working behind the scenes with the Dade and Broward County canvassing boards."
I'd love to be the little company that runs gay.com or manhunt.net because it would effectively allow me to map the national social network of alternative sexual behavior. Sort of like IRC ... 10 years ago.
Dave Hamilton, co-publisher of an Apple news Web site called the Mac Observer, said most of the functions Jobs displayed are available on other products.
"I'd say about 80 percent of the features that were talked about today are available on a Treo," he said, "but Jobs is so good at standing on a stage and making you think he invented it."
About the only thing I use a CD for is Oblivion, Halo, and FEAR. ID Software has been kind enough to no longer require a CD be inserted just to play a game that is already on my hard disk. Half Life 2, of couse, has Steam.
The premise of the article raises two questions:
1. What the hell do people need CDs for?
2. How in hell do these CDs get scratched? It's not a long distance from the CD tray to the jewel case.
I agree with the parent post, and yes, I agree with the criticism of this incendent. I don't think it's representative of police nationwide. After all, the media made it public knowledge based on the word of the victim; the ACLU may be getting involved (the family should sue -- they have a case); and there is already an investigation. So the good news here is that it's a big deal. When is it time to start worrying, and not just making a fuss about it, but taking real action against a police state? That time will come when incidents do not provoke the kind of outrage we have seen here. I understand how police -- especially unseasoned patrolmen -- can become jaded quickly without having the experience or training to know how to deal with a situtation they don't like. Police so often get a very warped view of the world since they most often are responding to terrible situations and people who would have very bad karma on Slashdot.
I understand how police -- especially unseasoned patrolmen -- can become jaded quickly without having the experience or training to know how to deal with a situtation they don't like. Police so often get a very warped view of the world since they most often are responding to terrible situations and people who would have very bad karma on Slashdot.
The big crime, the excise tax on local phone service that applies to every land line, is still there. I haven't used a land line to make long distance calls in years. But I still have a land line. Wake me up when I can save money by not paying the tax on it.
I can't wait to be playing Quake 4 or FEAR and get fragged. Suddenly, rather than hear my opponent or teammate, I hear a disembodied voice say, "You got wasted! How about you clean yourself up with Lever 2000, the soap that gets bloodstains our of anything! For all your 2000 parts, no matter where the frags end up!"
How long will it be until for "our own protection" we are required to have GPS and cell service in our car that the FBI can use to listen to all our conversations and track our location?
For those of who you believe this is a fairy tale, there is already plenty of evidence that the FBI has attempted (and succeeded?) in doing just this. See In re the Application of the U.S. for an Order Authorizing the Roving Interception of Oral Communications, 349 F.3d 1132 (9th Cir. 2003).
My best professors were the ones who eliminated the middle man and provide their outline before class. That way, we were all literally on the same page -- and therefore we could discuss the material without worrying about copying it verbetim.
It's funny, I don't have anything to hide from my government ... yet. They havne't made any of my activities illegal ... yet. But I also have peace of mind that no sysops between here and there can see my communications.
Also, to clear up a misconception, courts of law can pretty much order anything disclosed, no matter how much of a privacy interest you have. First, the only remedy is to not submit it to a jury. Second, a reasonable suspicion (or sometimes probable cause to believe that the e-mails or other evidence would yield evidence of a crime) usually suffices to supersede your privacy rights.
Heck, even when I buy something online from anything but a Tier I retailer (e.g., Amazon, NewEgg), I feel like I'm gambling with my money.
But would you believe that from time to time, I still go back and play sstrek, I believe the version I played was written in Fortran. I remember as a 10 year old hiking to my local college to play sstrek on a green on black 9600 bps mainframe terminal. I still remember how cool I felt when I finally won an emeritus game. I got to print out my award certificate and hung it on my wall.
The "Business Judgment Rule" protects any decision that a corporation's board makes as long as they [1] deliberate with knowledge about the decision (i.e., they must be informed); and [2] don't have any conflicts of interest (i.e., sign a contract with the Board's president's son-in-law).
[Furthermore, the Board didn't necessary approve or disapprove of this decision. It might have just been management. They can pretty much do anything they want. When "concerned shareholders" such their own corporation, they usually sue the Board rather than only management.]
In all seriousness, I applaud programs that work to take donated equipment from corporate and other high-end environments, and donate them to schools and similar recipients. The greatest cost, thus making the idea of a $100 new laptop better, is the labor involved in repairing and standardizing donated machines.
They already made a remake of the $6 million man. It was called Jake 2.0 and lasted only a few episodes.
Moral of the story: ISPs have been screwing around with traffic for years. This is not new. Should pass we legislation forcing them to stay neutral? Maybe. I'd hate to see the spam if they didn't do this, as much of a headache as it is.
I might be willing to concede that 1024 bit may be inadequate if you're a target of the NSA. If you're a run-of-the-mill criminal, though, I can't imagine that your local police department or even the FBI will have acccess to the hardware and knowledge to break the encryption.
Copyright does not protect ideas. A court will reject a copyright if it tries to claim an idea. Copyright protects only expression. During the vastly significant history of copyright, a holder had to do something affirmative to receive his copyright. Even today you must register your copyright before you sue someone for infrigement. If it's not worth the time to take an overt action, then it shouldn't be copyrighted.
"All file sharing programs are subject to this decision, as are all technologies that can be used to infringe copyrights. Whether any of them would be found to be liable under the 'inducement' standard set out by the Supreme Court is another matter entirely. In fact, we don't even know whether Grokster will be held legally liable under that standard. That is for the lower court to decide in the next phase of this case."
And . . .
"Well, anyone can be sued, but you wouldn't win a case against a software manufacturer just because it can be used for infringement. What the Supreme Court said is that a technology manufacturer who 'distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement' can be held legally responsible for the copyright infringment of others. So there has to be some affirmative activity to promote infringement."
Now all we have to do is get Congress to reign in the REAL problem, the ridiculous copyright laws that constitute primary infringement. Crank it down to 10 or 20 years, not life plus 70! And make it so that everything written on a napkin is not automatically copyrighted. Make someone at least go to a copyright office website to get their copyright protection initially, and for a reneweal after a year.
We already HAVE a federal ID card called a passport. It's expensive because it is designed to be an identity document. Why don't we just make a passport the required document for traveling between states? This is what - in effect - we are doing, only it's more politically palletable to the ignorant, and an unfunded state mandate, too. I remember when we used to make fun of Russia for requiring papers for in-country travel. Now, we're doing the same thing.
I would think people would resoundly reject having to show a passport every time the cross a state line, but that's exactly what we're doing by bolstering a driver's license to become a mandatory ID check before any form of modern travel is allowed.
If you have Windows, you have NetMeeting (conf.exe). If you have Linux, you probably have gnomemeeting. Even if you downloaded something like Yahoo Instant Messenger, you have a slightly easier to use video and audio conferencing package for Mac or PC. All are based on the same standards. What is it that pay services like Skype or Vonage provide that these services don't?
The only added value of Vonage seems to be a connection to the plain old telephone system (POTS) so that you can contact people in the largest network in the world (POTS). As soon as we find way to make this free in most of the world, these services are dead.
The only value that Skype seems to add is security [both easy-to-use, standard 256-bit AES encryption and lack of centralized server (P2P instead)]. But I think these will become standardized too very shortly.
So the only quesitons are, how long do we have to wait for free, standard access to POTS, and for standardized security (encryption and lack of central authority)?