"If it bricks a few unlocked phones, well, what do Apple care?"
You apparently aren't thinking of all the steps: 1) Apple locks the
iPhone to a carrier with a very bad reputation (formerly SBC, now AT&T). 2)
Apple sells the iPhone at a very high price, and after two months lowers the
price $200, making enthusiasts unhappy. 3) Apple destroys iPhones that have
been modified. 4) Apple repeatedly gets its name on Slashdot, in very negative
stories. 5) Slashdot readers are Apple's best customers for iPhones, and for
spreading information about iPhones to readers with no technical knowledge.
Now Slashdot readers spread negative information, not only about the iPhone,
but about Apple itself. 6) Apple is involved in a lawsuit that brings
widespread very negative publicity.
7) Profit? Less than otherwise could be expected. What was Jobs
thinking? The damage to Apple's reputation may be greater than the extra
profit on the iPhone caused by the locking.
"If you change your password, you only change the header."
Thanks for the information. The TrueCrypt web pages are poorly written. Now I realize that TrueCrypt is very much ready for large companies. I've found TrueCrypt to be perfectly reliable, and it is open source and free, so there are no other barriers.
The title is foolish: The title, "Wal-Mart's Faltering RFID Initiative" was apparently written
by an editor who wanted to get attention. Also, the writer of the article obviously has little technical knowledge.
As usual, Slashdot editors did not read
the article before they posted the story. The title of the article, written by
someone with no technical knowledge, I suppose, is not supported by the
somewhat confused information in the text of the article.
Quotes from the article: "Tags, in particular, remain at 10
cents to 15 cents-a price retailers find too steep for investments in
item-level tagging."
Misleading: "The biggest lesson Wal-Mart and its suppliers
have learned to date is that benefits gained from just RFID-enabling the
company's giant distribution centers are not that great.... As it turns out,
Wal-Mart's distribution centers are extremely well run, says Simon Ellis, head
of the RFID program for Unilever USA, which supplies Wal-Mart with such
products as Dove soap and All detergent."
This is the writing of someone who doesn't thoroughly understand the
technical challenges. Integrating RFID tags is a far bigger challenge than
management thought, I'm guessing. That's the problem, not any problem with
RFID tags, which can be re-used. However, the technology for re-use has not
been developed, apparently partly because top managers are somewhat ignorant.
Better results when finished: "This exemplifies both the
power and the problem with Wal-Mart's RFID initiative. Suppliers are keen to
get that window onto the sales floor through RFID, but until late 2006,
Wal-Mart had only installed RFID systems in about 600 of its 4,000 Wal-Marts,
Supercenters and Sam's Clubs in the U.S."
Excellent improvements: "Out-of-stock incidents decreased
26% in the stores using RFID autopicklists. On items with high turnover, the
improvement was closer to 60%."
Not nearly finished, not expensive: "Dallas-based consulting
firm Incucomm surveyed 137 initial Wal-Mart suppliers and found that average
spending is closer to $500,000, and median spending is about $200,000.... The
positive interpretation of those findings, Hardgrave says, is that RFID isn't
as expensive to implement as initially thought. The negative interpretation is
that companies are not yet investing in systems such as business intelligence
and analytics software that would allow them to capitalize on the data being
returned by RFID tags and readers. "
"Mass adoption is not right around the corner, but perhaps another
five to 10 years away."
Biggest problem -- Top executive ignorance: 'Wal-Mart CIO
Ford also insists the company is commited to the technology. "The train has
left the station," he says. "Imagine in the future being in a checkout line at
Wal-Mart and you're out in 30 seconds. Now that's utopia-- and we'll get
there." '
First, that was a foolish thing to say because it increases the
problems with technically ignorant writers saying that it is taking too long
to move to RFID tags because the writers are anticipating the development.
Second, it is too soon to know what will happen. No one can predict the
development of technology. Third, the improvement that can confidently be
expected is fewer out-of-stock items in retail stores. That's Wal-Mart's biggest problem,
in my opinion.
Yes, WalMart is better. WalMart has a problem with top managers
who can't handle all the challenges. However, in general the company is doing
a good job. Other retailers play more games with customers.
It's great to see IBM doing things that help the company get a good reputation. So many companies seem to be self-defeating. For example, Apple decided to tie the iPhone to AT&T, the new name for SBC.
There appears to be a group of people who attack negative mention of the Bush administration. The parent comment was moderated to +4 for several days, and now it is down to 0. I'm guessing someone in the Bush administration has thousands of accounts, so that some will always have moderation points.
"Because IT shouldn't know what the user password is."
"when they aren't fully automated,..."
The best way to assign a new password is automatically, I think, in a way that hides the password from IT. Certainly it should not be done by hand, not when there are hundreds or thousands of users.
"... our kids will grow up in a Brave New World and the old world is never coming back."
A better world will be available to us if we get rid of the corrupters, weapons investors, and oil squeeze investors, and begin again insisting on the rule of law.
I don't understand that argument. Why is it necessary to have two passwords? An organization must have a database of user passwords, correct? A user may call and say he lost his password.
The only reasons I can imagine for having two passwords are convenience for IT, when they aren't fully automated, and secret government surveillance.
An organization with 1,000 users must manage 1,000 passwords, anyway.
What happens in an organization when a member of the IT staff leaves? The IT access special password, if there is one, needs to be changed on 1,000 computers.
It seems to me that there may be far better ways to manage that situation rather than having a global password.
As others have said, some parts of the U.S. government has become completely lawless. The government is requiring access and requiring that access be kept secret. The Bush administration has become a dictatorship. I think U.S. citizens should demand impeachment and that Cheney and the Decider be tried for treason. Why should the really big criminals be allowed to break the law?
My experience of whoever it is who sells PGP is that there are other issues about they way they do business, too.
That's why open source encryption is so important. TrueCrypt supports
Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.
"I guess when wire-tapping and CCTV just isn't enough"
The issue, of course, is that systems are being put into place that
can be used against citizens who protest. By using "terrorism" to create fear,
those who want corruption and control are building systems that can be used
to give them more control. Laws that required centuries to build are now being
thrown away with as little awareness by citizens as can be designed.
The movie Zeitgeist explains it: The movie Zeitgeist (2007) claims
to explain it all, from an example of how people are controlled by myths, to
how people who control government use fear to get more control, to why the
U.S. government is pursuing a policy of hyper-inflation of the dollar now.
The movie is free and can be downloaded using a BitTorrent client,
burned to a CD (a DVD is not necessary), and most modern DVD TV players will
play it.
The Zeitgeist movie is very poor in some places, such as the opening
sequences, and excellent in most places.
Don't expect emerging consciousness of very difficult subjects like
those in the movie Zeitgeist to be free of error. The movie correctly says
that "resurrection after 3 days" is part of many ancient myths, with an
astrological background. However, the movie also speculates that Jesus Christ
may never have existed. That is beside the point. In fact, whether Jesus
Christ existed or not, many people in the world thought that his ideas and the
ideas of his follower Paul of Tarsus were an improvement over what they had
before. Even many people who do not claim to be part of a religion think that.
For those who don't know, and want to know what is happening and why, those movies are an excellent
and entertaining way to start.
For people and their friends who invest in weapons and the
manipulatable parts of the oil business, such as Cheney and the Bush family,
controlling the government is how they make money and get more power. People
from rich families often grow up believing that it is acceptable for them to
kill people to get what they want. It is difficult, however, for the average
person to believe that someone who already has a lot of money would kill
others simply because he wants more money.
I am surprised at how much conflict of interest is allowed in the U.S.
and U.K. governments. Why are weapons and oil investors like Cheney and Bush allowed to decide
about starting wars in countries that have oil? (Afghanistan may not have oil,
but oil investors want to build a pipeline through Afghanistan.)
Now the U.S. and U.K. governments are planning to start a war with
Iran, another oil-rich country.
TrueCrypt has "plausible deniability. I wondered why TrueCrypt encryption software
has "plausible deniability". I guess that is why. We will soon all be needing it.
Quote from the linked article: "This is a very high price for an 11 inch TV, but it is the first OLED TV to buy. Early adoption always had its price."
I guess that sentence is trying to sell people on the idea that early adoption is acceptable, even if the price is 20 times higher than earlier equipment with the same functionality.
I will wait to buy it until it has DTT. (Digital Turnip Twaddling)
I suspect that there is more to the story than we know. I suspect that he is more worried about release of information than loss of information. The AP article says he had a backup copy of a screenplay on which he is working.
The moral of the story is: Have proprietary data? Use TrueCrypt. Supports Windows and Linux. As all encryption software must be, it is open source, very mature, and supports both Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.
Something needs to be done to stop the growing trend of laundry-list TOS
agreements that amount to "we can kick you off our network any time we damn
well feel like it"
Agreed. These contracts sound like the megalomaniac dreams of a 3-year-old: We can do what we like. You have no power.
Steve Jobs decided to tie the iPhone to AT&T
(actually SBC with a new name), and now the company is awash in bad
publicity. (See the title of the AT&T web page.)
Not only is the Slashdot story wrong in that way, it is misleading in another way: "I am saddened that an institution that provided me with so much great service..." NetBank did not, however, have the best interest rates.
BankRate.com is the site I used to find those two. BankRate.com is a poor quality resource for finding banks, in my opinion, but it is better than nothing. Does anyone know of a better site for shopping banks?
I didn't make sufficiently clear in my grandparent comment that I am NOT against Microsoft in any way. I would view that as foolish.
My underlying point is that I am more pro-Microsoft than Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer, by far. If I were the top coordinator of Microsoft, I would not let the company self-destruct.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are, in some ways, still emotionally confused teenagers, I'm guessing. They never had a chance to become fully adults because they were doing Microsoft every day. And money can be a very insidious destructive force in people's lives.
They never developed a feeling of idealism and of principle that guides the lives of happy people.
Slashdot Mirror
MOD PARENT UP! He is disagreeing with a comment I made, and even I want him modded up.
I agree with what you said. However, it does not change the basic arithmetic of Apple with iPhone:
Apple iPhone profit =
+ profit from hardware
+ commissions from AT&T
- damage to Apple's reputation.
("Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.")
"If it bricks a few unlocked phones, well, what do Apple care?"
You apparently aren't thinking of all the steps: 1) Apple locks the iPhone to a carrier with a very bad reputation (formerly SBC, now AT&T). 2) Apple sells the iPhone at a very high price, and after two months lowers the price $200, making enthusiasts unhappy. 3) Apple destroys iPhones that have been modified. 4) Apple repeatedly gets its name on Slashdot, in very negative stories. 5) Slashdot readers are Apple's best customers for iPhones, and for spreading information about iPhones to readers with no technical knowledge. Now Slashdot readers spread negative information, not only about the iPhone, but about Apple itself. 6) Apple is involved in a lawsuit that brings widespread very negative publicity.
7) Profit? Less than otherwise could be expected. What was Jobs thinking? The damage to Apple's reputation may be greater than the extra profit on the iPhone caused by the locking.
"If you change your password, you only change the header."
Thanks for the information. The TrueCrypt web pages are poorly written. Now I realize that TrueCrypt is very much ready for large companies. I've found TrueCrypt to be perfectly reliable, and it is open source and free, so there are no other barriers.
MOD PARENT UP! Excellent information.
... As it turns out,
Wal-Mart's distribution centers are extremely well run, says Simon Ellis, head
of the RFID program for Unilever USA, which supplies Wal-Mart with such
products as Dove soap and All detergent."
... The
positive interpretation of those findings, Hardgrave says, is that RFID isn't
as expensive to implement as initially thought. The negative interpretation is
that companies are not yet investing in systems such as business intelligence
and analytics software that would allow them to capitalize on the data being
returned by RFID tags and readers. "
The title is foolish: The title, "Wal-Mart's Faltering RFID Initiative" was apparently written by an editor who wanted to get attention. Also, the writer of the article obviously has little technical knowledge.
As usual, Slashdot editors did not read the article before they posted the story. The title of the article, written by someone with no technical knowledge, I suppose, is not supported by the somewhat confused information in the text of the article.
Quotes from the article: "Tags, in particular, remain at 10 cents to 15 cents-a price retailers find too steep for investments in item-level tagging."
Misleading: "The biggest lesson Wal-Mart and its suppliers have learned to date is that benefits gained from just RFID-enabling the company's giant distribution centers are not that great.
This is the writing of someone who doesn't thoroughly understand the technical challenges. Integrating RFID tags is a far bigger challenge than management thought, I'm guessing. That's the problem, not any problem with RFID tags, which can be re-used. However, the technology for re-use has not been developed, apparently partly because top managers are somewhat ignorant.
Better results when finished: "This exemplifies both the power and the problem with Wal-Mart's RFID initiative. Suppliers are keen to get that window onto the sales floor through RFID, but until late 2006, Wal-Mart had only installed RFID systems in about 600 of its 4,000 Wal-Marts, Supercenters and Sam's Clubs in the U.S."
Excellent improvements: "Out-of-stock incidents decreased 26% in the stores using RFID autopicklists. On items with high turnover, the improvement was closer to 60%."
Not nearly finished, not expensive: "Dallas-based consulting firm Incucomm surveyed 137 initial Wal-Mart suppliers and found that average spending is closer to $500,000, and median spending is about $200,000.
"Mass adoption is not right around the corner, but perhaps another five to 10 years away."
Biggest problem -- Top executive ignorance: 'Wal-Mart CIO Ford also insists the company is commited to the technology. "The train has left the station," he says. "Imagine in the future being in a checkout line at Wal-Mart and you're out in 30 seconds. Now that's utopia-- and we'll get there." '
First, that was a foolish thing to say because it increases the problems with technically ignorant writers saying that it is taking too long to move to RFID tags because the writers are anticipating the development. Second, it is too soon to know what will happen. No one can predict the development of technology. Third, the improvement that can confidently be expected is fewer out-of-stock items in retail stores. That's Wal-Mart's biggest problem, in my opinion.
Yes, WalMart is better. WalMart has a problem with top managers who can't handle all the challenges. However, in general the company is doing a good job. Other retailers play more games with customers.
It's great to see IBM doing things that help the company get a good reputation. So many companies seem to be self-defeating. For example, Apple decided to tie the iPhone to AT&T, the new name for SBC.
Photo: House dust mites feed on human skin scales...
There appears to be a group of people who attack negative mention of the Bush administration. The parent comment was moderated to +4 for several days, and now it is down to 0. I'm guessing someone in the Bush administration has thousands of accounts, so that some will always have moderation points.
"Because IT shouldn't know what the user password is."
"when they aren't fully automated,..."
The best way to assign a new password is automatically, I think, in a way that hides the password from IT. Certainly it should not be done by hand, not when there are hundreds or thousands of users.
I don't completely understand what you said, and the documentation of TrueCrypt is less than perfect (but still quite good).
I will experiment with the method you suggest. Sounds interesting.
Of course, TrueCrypt does not allow full hard disk encryption. The boot partition needs to be unencrypted, I think.
"Your proposed issues are only do [due] to lazy IT departments and would fail any real security audit."
Does that mean you agree? The only real reason to do things the PGP way is because of surveillance by the secret police?
"... our kids will grow up in a Brave New World and the old world is never coming back."
A better world will be available to us if we get rid of the corrupters, weapons investors, and oil squeeze investors, and begin again insisting on the rule of law.
I don't understand that argument. Why is it necessary to have two passwords? An organization must have a database of user passwords, correct? A user may call and say he lost his password.
The only reasons I can imagine for having two passwords are convenience for IT, when they aren't fully automated, and secret government surveillance.
An organization with 1,000 users must manage 1,000 passwords, anyway.
What happens in an organization when a member of the IT staff leaves? The IT access special password, if there is one, needs to be changed on 1,000 computers.
It seems to me that there may be far better ways to manage that situation rather than having a global password.
As others have said, some parts of the U.S. government has become completely lawless. The government is requiring access and requiring that access be kept secret. The Bush administration has become a dictatorship. I think U.S. citizens should demand impeachment and that Cheney and the Decider be tried for treason. Why should the really big criminals be allowed to break the law?
My experience of whoever it is who sells PGP is that there are other issues about they way they do business, too.
That's why open source encryption is so important. TrueCrypt supports Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.
To encrypt a file, use the free open source Gnu Privacy Guard.
They can't do whole hard disk encryption, but they are at least honest.
BroadVoice offers 35 countries for $28 per month.
"I refuse to use Skype or any eBay property so long as they are owned by eBay."
That's how I feel, also. There are some companies that want customers to accept abuse, in my opinion eBay is one of them, and I don't accept that.
I'm not rigid about it. I de-emphasize abusive companies, but continue to deal with them if not dealing with them would be a bigger problem.
Those who have a virtual monopoly seem to believe they can do anything they want to their customers.
"I guess when wire-tapping and CCTV just isn't enough"
The issue, of course, is that systems are being put into place that can be used against citizens who protest. By using "terrorism" to create fear, those who want corruption and control are building systems that can be used to give them more control. Laws that required centuries to build are now being thrown away with as little awareness by citizens as can be designed.
The movie Zeitgeist explains it: The movie Zeitgeist (2007) claims to explain it all, from an example of how people are controlled by myths, to how people who control government use fear to get more control, to why the U.S. government is pursuing a policy of hyper-inflation of the dollar now.
The movie is free and can be downloaded using a BitTorrent client, burned to a CD (a DVD is not necessary), and most modern DVD TV players will play it.
The Zeitgeist movie is very poor in some places, such as the opening sequences, and excellent in most places.
Don't expect emerging consciousness of very difficult subjects like those in the movie Zeitgeist to be free of error. The movie correctly says that "resurrection after 3 days" is part of many ancient myths, with an astrological background. However, the movie also speculates that Jesus Christ may never have existed. That is beside the point. In fact, whether Jesus Christ existed or not, many people in the world thought that his ideas and the ideas of his follower Paul of Tarsus were an improvement over what they had before. Even many people who do not claim to be part of a religion think that.
Those who want more information about how corrupters use fear can watch the free 3-Part BBC movie: The Power Of Nightmares: The Rise Of The Politics Of Fear (2004).
For those who don't know, and want to know what is happening and why, those movies are an excellent and entertaining way to start.
For people and their friends who invest in weapons and the manipulatable parts of the oil business, such as Cheney and the Bush family, controlling the government is how they make money and get more power. People from rich families often grow up believing that it is acceptable for them to kill people to get what they want. It is difficult, however, for the average person to believe that someone who already has a lot of money would kill others simply because he wants more money.
I am surprised at how much conflict of interest is allowed in the U.S. and U.K. governments. Why are weapons and oil investors like Cheney and Bush allowed to decide about starting wars in countries that have oil? (Afghanistan may not have oil, but oil investors want to build a pipeline through Afghanistan.)
Now the U.S. and U.K. governments are planning to start a war with Iran, another oil-rich country.
TrueCrypt has "plausible deniability. I wondered why TrueCrypt encryption software has "plausible deniability". I guess that is why. We will soon all be needing it.
"Slashdot Turns 10 But You Get The Presents"
The only present most of us want from Slashdot is more care in posting stories.
Quote from the linked article: "This is a very high price for an 11 inch TV, but it is the first OLED TV to buy. Early adoption always had its price."
I guess that sentence is trying to sell people on the idea that early adoption is acceptable, even if the price is 20 times higher than earlier equipment with the same functionality.
I will wait to buy it until it has DTT. (Digital Turnip Twaddling)
Isn't an encrypted file system a burden if you want to encrypt just one device?
Slashdot story quality is often low; apparently Slasdot editors don't even Google the stories. This is the real story; it was an armed robbery: Coppola Says Robbery Cost Years of Data (AP). This poorly edited story has even more detail: Thieves Steal Francis Ford Coppola's Everything.
I suspect that there is more to the story than we know. I suspect that he is more worried about release of information than loss of information. The AP article says he had a backup copy of a screenplay on which he is working.
The moral of the story is: Have proprietary data? Use TrueCrypt. Supports Windows and Linux. As all encryption software must be, it is open source, very mature, and supports both Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.
To encrypt a file, use the free open source Gnu Privacy Guard.
"Sorry about the adhoc tutorial on credit."
Don't be sorry. It's excellent.
MOD PARENT UP!
You may as well read the Paris-Site blog yourself.
Something needs to be done to stop the growing trend of laundry-list TOS agreements that amount to "we can kick you off our network any time we damn well feel like it"
Agreed. These contracts sound like the megalomaniac dreams of a 3-year-old: We can do what we like. You have no power.
Steve Jobs decided to tie the iPhone to AT&T (actually SBC with a new name), and now the company is awash in bad publicity. (See the title of the AT&T web page.)
Not only is the Slashdot story wrong in that way, it is misleading in another way: "I am saddened that an institution that provided me with so much great service..." NetBank did not, however, have the best interest rates.
GMAC Bank and HSBC Direct had higher rates than NetBank.
BankRate.com is the site I used to find those two. BankRate.com is a poor quality resource for finding banks, in my opinion, but it is better than nothing. Does anyone know of a better site for shopping banks?
I didn't make sufficiently clear in my grandparent comment that I am NOT against Microsoft in any way. I would view that as foolish.
My underlying point is that I am more pro-Microsoft than Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer, by far. If I were the top coordinator of Microsoft, I would not let the company self-destruct.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are, in some ways, still emotionally confused teenagers, I'm guessing. They never had a chance to become fully adults because they were doing Microsoft every day. And money can be a very insidious destructive force in people's lives.
They never developed a feeling of idealism and of principle that guides the lives of happy people.