"... if you had clicked the second link in the article."
That's confusing. I quoted from the second link in the summary.
The second link in the article, NSW starts school netbook rollout includes nothing about
hackability.
Your excellent argument: However, that second link in the article does support your excellent argument about Slashdot supporting Microsoft advertising: 'According to Gillard, the
netbooks came with "$5,500 of the latest Microsoft and Adobe software".'
Someone should send a letter to the Sourceforge, Inc.
CEO, Scott
Kauffman" and ask if Slashdot editors or anyone else at Sourceforge is
allowed to accept money to run articles that are in fact advertisements.
Note that Mr. Kauffman is an advertising executive. That's helpful to
my understanding, because, of all the technically-oriented companies with
which I have had awareness over a period of decades, Sourceforge seems to me to be the most technically clueless. Everything Sourceforge does seems to me to be slightly below mediocre
technically.
Sourceforge CEO Kauffman is said to have been involved with numerous
companies, for example, PopTok This article is interesting: It's Alive!: PopTok Combines Emoticons With Movie Quotes. PopTok is an "Israeli company". Perhaps Mr. Kauffman's connections with Israel explain the fact that Slashdot has run several stories about Israeli startups that seem to be more schemes to get investor money than startups with real technical futures.
The Wikipedia article says, "Kauffman then spent time in turn with eCoverage, a direct-to-consumer online insurance company, Coremetrics, and (as President and CEO) MusicNow, an online music service partnered with FullAudio. In 2005, he ran the San Francisco-based digital-magazine service provider Zinio."
What is wonderful is that a government is realizing that making sure that students have laptops is an investment in the future of the country, and that everyone having the same system makes teaching easier.
It seems to to me that, given the Slashdot summary, GradiusCVK is correct when
he said this in his original comment, although he could have shown more
elegant manners:
'Instead, some[one] announces to the world "Bow to our
unhackable laptops! We are awesome! HAHAHA!", and now thousands of hackers and
security researchers out there have made it their personal crusade to find a
way to totally decimate all the security on the box.'
However, the problem is with kdawson, the Slashdot editor, not
the Australian government or the article to which the Slashdot summary links.
The article says, "[government] seeks to build 'unhackable'
netbook network". The meaning is that the Australian government is doing
the best it can in building a network.
kdawson, the Slashdot editor says, "... Government To Build
"Unhackable" Netbooks".
kdawson made the title sensationalist and misleading. This amazes me:
In all these years, Slashdot editors seem to have learned nothing about being
editors. kdawson turned a wonderful story into a misleading experience.
MOD PARENT UP. It is apparently correct to be skeptical.
The Serenity Project in the European Union is using the same
approach. They call it "Ambient Intelligence(AmI)." The level of
intelligence in the Serenity project may be indicated by the fact that, at
present, 2009-09-26, 02:47 PDT, there is no space before "(AmI)". The Ambient
Intelligence in the Serenity Project is very low, apparently.
Someone who worked for SAP Labs France told me the SAP Labs France part of the
Serenity Project is so poorly managed that smart people leave as soon as they
can find other jobs.
Apparently the only way of providing security that actually works is
the Open BSD
method: Audit the code. No number of "ants" can provide the security of
audited code.
Want more biological humor? Read about SAP's
customer-focused ecosystem. It supposedly fosters "... an ideal
environment for ongoing innovation and value creation..." Biological
references are apparently the hot new thing in corporate-speak. Biological
references concerning computers are very useful to people who have no
technical knowledge and don't want any, because they are so vague
the speaker can never be found wrong.
From the comment above, titled RISK OF DEATH: "Segways are mighty unstable. It's not as easy as it looks. Run over anything bigger than a tennis ball with one of the wheels, and you will get tossed forward or sideways headfirst."
There is a serious risk. If you aren't wearing a helmet, you could die from hitting your head on the pavement. The reason helmets are required by law is that a small blow to the head can kill. The labels warn about that, but apparently not enough to get people to actually understand, considering some of the comments below.
Except, with the Honda vehicle, if there is a failure in the computer
system, you die. But we Slashdot readers know that computer failures hardly
ever happen, right?
Segways made me appreciate bicycles. If you hit something large, like
a rock, it's possible you will be carried over it. Bicycles have no computer
system to fail, and they are inexpensive.
I rode a Segway. It had a RISK OF DEATH (all caps) label.
My experience of that article about Honda is that it says to me, "Buy
a Toyota. That company concentrates on doing one thing well." I recently
bought a Toyota because Consumer Reports said Hondas had automatic
transmission problems.
You said, "who uses MS products pre-SP1 for production?"
Then you said, "... it's very possible that unless VMWare does some
major price adjustments... we may end up on Hyper-v in 3 years when our
support contract is up."
First you implied that Microsoft is a company that can't be trusted to
release a usable first-generation product. Then you say your company may buy
from Microsoft. Why would you buy from someone you think you can't trust?
Actually, Windows XP SP2 fixed more than 300 problems, if I recall
correctly. Maybe it was 600. Windows XP was a lot of trouble for us until SP2.
Windows ME and Vista were never fixed adequately for most users, numerous
articles have said.
Given that history, why do you think you can depend on some future
Microsoft product?
"With the current system, we do most of our planned maintenance
off-shift."
In my opinion, the sentence should have read, "With the current
system, we [are forced to] do most of our planned maintenance
off-shift."
To me, that seemed to be the intended meaning, given the surrounding
sentences. If that is true, it is VERY significant. A huge plant has many,
many interlocking processes. It is difficult or impossible to stop the
processes without causing expensive errors.
I also understand the subtext of that sentence, I think. He doesn't
want to disagree with the foolish decision of top management because he is
afraid of being fired. But the fact is that there is no "off-shift", usually.
In fact, it is a huge disadvantage to use the Microsoft product. The VMWare
product would be much better because it does not require the servers to be
taken off-line. That was the whole point of the article.
Typical Slashdot. A joke only a technically educated person would understand.
I know this is on-topic, sorry for that, but here is a quote from the article: "According to Burton Group, VMware and Citrix XenServer are the only two enterprise-ready hypervisor platforms on the market."
What will we do until the old codger managers with no technical knowledge, and no interest in learning, retire or die? The problem gets worse every day. When I say "old", I am not talking about chronological age, I'm talking about mental disability.
Actually, in comparison, "SuperUltraMoreFaster Maker" isn't so bad. "Turbo Booster" gets 1,850,000 hits in Google. "SuperUltraMoreFaster Maker" gets exactly none. You're a creative genius!! Sorry, that means you'll never be hired by Intel Marketing.
My partly joking theory is that the staff of Intel Marketing long ago realized that Intel doesn't need marketing, since there is no one else besides AMD from whom to buy fast processors. So, it doesn't matter what they do. Mostly, they seem to do nothing. Sometimes, apparently due to boredom, they experiment with marketing. For example, buyers were offered Intel Bunny People dolls. How many buyers said, "Wow!!! A doll! I think I'll buy from Intel, rather than AMD"? The Intel web site is better now, but a few years ago, it was difficult or impossible to discover the Intel SKU of an Intel processor from the Intel web site, even after you spent 2 hours joining Intel's hardware buyer's organization. You could research processors on Intel's web site, but the Intel SKU wasn't listed. Wholesalers listed the processors by Intel SKU.
Intel's consumer division was so bad it ceased business. It would take many, many paragraphs to tell you how bad it was.
Now, Intel is trying to correct problems it has created by encouraging the sales of mobile computers with the Intel Atom processor, without communicating openly and honestly to customers that the Atom processor is very slow. For example, Intel: Some Netbook resellers saw 30% return rate.
Am I saying that, if I ran Intel Marketing, I could do better? Yes, I'm saying that. Maybe you could, also.
I had not read that. In that PDF file, Robert W. Kern, U.S. Attorney, (216) 622-3836, seems to be going to a lot of trouble to downplay the case. It reads VERY differently than the story to which Slashdot linked. Maybe he wants to convict without having people understanding and protesting the conviction.
Quote: "Graham, who is set to formally enter a guilty plea on Sept. 30 to one count of illegally intercepting electronic communications, will pay $33,000 to the hospital for damages caused by the incident. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
"
The hospital didn't use even the most minimum methods to prevent infection, so he must pay $33,000 for problems he certainly did not intend to cause?
Excerpt from the section, SEC. 1173A. STANDARDIZE ELECTRONIC
ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS [My punctuation standard]: "(6) IMPLEMENTATION
AND ENFORCEMENT: Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of
this section, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees of
Congress a plan for the implementation and enforcement, by not later than 5
years after such date of enactment, of the standards under this section."
Translation: "Please support a very expensive bill that fundamentally
changes something very important. It is certain that you will pay. It is
uncertain what we will do."
I strongly support improvements in health care in the United States. I
believe that those who propose the bill have our best interests in mind. But
they haven't finished their thinking.
The bill [PDF] is 1,017 pages long, and affects everyone in the U.S.
enormously. Every part of it requires public discussion.
The bill makes changes to other laws that are themselves EXTREMELY
complicated.
Another quote [My punctuation standard]: (3) DEVELOPMENT OF DATA
REPORTING STANDARDS: (A) IN GENERAL: The Secretary shall develop and implement
standardized data elements and definitions for reporting under this
subsection, for contract years beginning with 2012, of data necessary for the
calculation of the medical loss ratio for MA plans.
Translation: "We will tell you later how it will work."
Very few who comment on this bill have read and fully understood the
implications. I haven't. Have you?
Is it unreasonable for some people to oppose important changes when
they don't understand those changes?
"Are there any proxies who can filter _all_ sort of packing/zipping/password protected executable files with a 100% hit rate? I doubt it."
What????
Don't you know about limited user rights? That prevents ANY installation of ANY program.
If someone accidentally kills someone else while driving a car, he or she will get less time for manslaughter than this man is supposedly getting for sending an email to a PRIVATE address.
Is this story a hoax? There is only one other report, and that report is identical: Misdirected Spyware Infects Ohio Hospital. Both apparently came from the IDG News Service. This is the last sentence of both stories: "A spokeswoman with the Akron Children's Hospital was unaware of the case and unable to comment." She was unaware of a case that is 18 months old?
You said, "Why would you think that what the president is trying to
accomplish is socially impossible? He's trying to bring health care up to the
standards enjoyed by the majority of the developed world."
I very much agree with the President's goal. I share that goal. But he
is trying to do too much at one time, and he and his advisers have little
understanding of the problems, in my opinion.
We do
consulting that combines our knowledge of technology with an understanding
of the underlying sociology, so we are particularly aware of the problems.
I spoke with a doctor who makes $4,000,000 each year doing specialized
operations. He found a way to avoid the intended effect of laws designed to
protect sick people with no insurance from overcharges. He told someone on
whom he operated that he would charge one amount, but actually charged almost
double.
A doctor like that, and there are many like him, will not cooperate
with any change in the system. And he has the money to fund crazy attacks.
"However, practically speaking very few people want to legally dispute small bills (like their phone bill)..."
Suppose you want to dispute an illegal charge that you noticed only after a year? That could be a lot of money.
I have OFTEN discovered and disputed sneaky charges on my telephone bill. Our local telephone company is 100% dishonest in the sense that it will try anything sneaky that makes more profit, in my opinion.
No one is saying that no contract exists. We are just saying that you can't prove anything to a court unless you get a paper bill. What you saved to your computer could have been made by anyone.
Exactly. It takes a LOT of time to download those bills. Banks like Chase have VERY slow web sites; they apparently don't want to buy enough computer equipment.
It's common that the Chase web site times out before a page loads. Complaining to the company has exactly no effect. In the U.S., a big bank or telephone company can do anything it likes.
A paper bill is a legal document. An online bill carries no legal power whatsoever, leaving the account holder with no rights other than what the company wants the account holder to have.
Slashdot Mirror
"... if you had clicked the second link in the article."
That's confusing. I quoted from the second link in the summary. The second link in the article, NSW starts school netbook rollout includes nothing about hackability.
Your excellent argument: However, that second link in the article does support your excellent argument about Slashdot supporting Microsoft advertising: 'According to Gillard, the netbooks came with "$5,500 of the latest Microsoft and Adobe software".'
Someone should send a letter to the Sourceforge, Inc. CEO, Scott Kauffman" and ask if Slashdot editors or anyone else at Sourceforge is allowed to accept money to run articles that are in fact advertisements.
Note that Mr. Kauffman is an advertising executive. That's helpful to my understanding, because, of all the technically-oriented companies with which I have had awareness over a period of decades, Sourceforge seems to me to be the most technically clueless. Everything Sourceforge does seems to me to be slightly below mediocre technically.
Sourceforge CEO Kauffman is said to have been involved with numerous companies, for example, PopTok This article is interesting: It's Alive!: PopTok Combines Emoticons With Movie Quotes. PopTok is an "Israeli company". Perhaps Mr. Kauffman's connections with Israel explain the fact that Slashdot has run several stories about Israeli startups that seem to be more schemes to get investor money than startups with real technical futures.
The Wikipedia article says, "Kauffman then spent time in turn with eCoverage, a direct-to-consumer online insurance company, Coremetrics, and (as President and CEO) MusicNow, an online music service partnered with FullAudio. In 2005, he ran the San Francisco-based digital-magazine service provider Zinio."
What is wonderful is that a government is realizing that making sure that students have laptops is an investment in the future of the country, and that everyone having the same system makes teaching easier.
Sure, but the whole discussion is not important, because no one should want to drink "Glycerol ester of wood rosin", in my opinion. Except maybe wood beetles.
It seems to to me that, given the Slashdot summary, GradiusCVK is correct when he said this in his original comment, although he could have shown more elegant manners:
'Instead, some[one] announces to the world "Bow to our unhackable laptops! We are awesome! HAHAHA!", and now thousands of hackers and security researchers out there have made it their personal crusade to find a way to totally decimate all the security on the box.'
However, the problem is with kdawson, the Slashdot editor, not the Australian government or the article to which the Slashdot summary links.
The article says, "[government] seeks to build 'unhackable' netbook network". The meaning is that the Australian government is doing the best it can in building a network.
kdawson, the Slashdot editor says, "... Government To Build "Unhackable" Netbooks".
kdawson made the title sensationalist and misleading. This amazes me: In all these years, Slashdot editors seem to have learned nothing about being editors. kdawson turned a wonderful story into a misleading experience.
MOD PARENT UP. It is apparently correct to be skeptical.
The Serenity Project in the European Union is using the same approach. They call it "Ambient Intelligence(AmI)." The level of intelligence in the Serenity project may be indicated by the fact that, at present, 2009-09-26, 02:47 PDT, there is no space before "(AmI)". The Ambient Intelligence in the Serenity Project is very low, apparently.
Someone who worked for SAP Labs France told me the SAP Labs France part of the Serenity Project is so poorly managed that smart people leave as soon as they can find other jobs.
Apparently the only way of providing security that actually works is the Open BSD method: Audit the code. No number of "ants" can provide the security of audited code.
Want more biological humor? Read about SAP's customer-focused ecosystem. It supposedly fosters "... an ideal environment for ongoing innovation and value creation..." Biological references are apparently the hot new thing in corporate-speak. Biological references concerning computers are very useful to people who have no technical knowledge and don't want any, because they are so vague the speaker can never be found wrong.
From the comment above, titled RISK OF DEATH: "Segways are mighty unstable. It's not as easy as it looks. Run over anything bigger than a tennis ball with one of the wheels, and you will get tossed forward or sideways headfirst."
There is a serious risk. If you aren't wearing a helmet, you could die from hitting your head on the pavement. The reason helmets are required by law is that a small blow to the head can kill. The labels warn about that, but apparently not enough to get people to actually understand, considering some of the comments below.
"... an awesome office chair."
Except, with the Honda vehicle, if there is a failure in the computer system, you die. But we Slashdot readers know that computer failures hardly ever happen, right?
Segways made me appreciate bicycles. If you hit something large, like a rock, it's possible you will be carried over it. Bicycles have no computer system to fail, and they are inexpensive.
I rode a Segway. It had a RISK OF DEATH (all caps) label.
My experience of that article about Honda is that it says to me, "Buy a Toyota. That company concentrates on doing one thing well." I recently bought a Toyota because Consumer Reports said Hondas had automatic transmission problems.
You said, "who uses MS products pre-SP1 for production?"
... we may end up on Hyper-v in 3 years when our
support contract is up."
Then you said, "... it's very possible that unless VMWare does some major price adjustments
First you implied that Microsoft is a company that can't be trusted to release a usable first-generation product. Then you say your company may buy from Microsoft. Why would you buy from someone you think you can't trust?
Actually, Windows XP SP2 fixed more than 300 problems, if I recall correctly. Maybe it was 600. Windows XP was a lot of trouble for us until SP2. Windows ME and Vista were never fixed adequately for most users, numerous articles have said.
Given that history, why do you think you can depend on some future Microsoft product?
"With the current system, we do most of our planned maintenance off-shift."
In my opinion, the sentence should have read, "With the current system, we [are forced to] do most of our planned maintenance off-shift."
To me, that seemed to be the intended meaning, given the surrounding sentences. If that is true, it is VERY significant. A huge plant has many, many interlocking processes. It is difficult or impossible to stop the processes without causing expensive errors.
I also understand the subtext of that sentence, I think. He doesn't want to disagree with the foolish decision of top management because he is afraid of being fired. But the fact is that there is no "off-shift", usually. In fact, it is a huge disadvantage to use the Microsoft product. The VMWare product would be much better because it does not require the servers to be taken off-line. That was the whole point of the article.
You missed the point. They gave good reasons for their decision, very good reasons. It doesn't matter who said it.
You may want to read the article. With Microsoft's product, the entire assembly line must be down for 15 minutes. That's a huge issue.
Typical Slashdot. A joke only a technically educated person would understand.
I know this is on-topic, sorry for that, but here is a quote from the article: "According to Burton Group, VMware and Citrix XenServer are the only two enterprise-ready hypervisor platforms on the market."
What will we do until the old codger managers with no technical knowledge, and no interest in learning, retire or die? The problem gets worse every day. When I say "old", I am not talking about chronological age, I'm talking about mental disability.
It "scored better"? You are vastly overestimating how much thought Intel Marketing put into the choice of the name. *grin* Actually, Intel Marketing is just copying Maybelline Turbo Boost mascara. Or maybe Vidal Sassoon Turbo Boost hair dryers?
Actually, in comparison, "SuperUltraMoreFaster Maker" isn't so bad. "Turbo Booster" gets 1,850,000 hits in Google. "SuperUltraMoreFaster Maker" gets exactly none. You're a creative genius!! Sorry, that means you'll never be hired by Intel Marketing.
My partly joking theory is that the staff of Intel Marketing long ago realized that Intel doesn't need marketing, since there is no one else besides AMD from whom to buy fast processors. So, it doesn't matter what they do. Mostly, they seem to do nothing. Sometimes, apparently due to boredom, they experiment with marketing. For example, buyers were offered Intel Bunny People dolls. How many buyers said, "Wow!!! A doll! I think I'll buy from Intel, rather than AMD"? The Intel web site is better now, but a few years ago, it was difficult or impossible to discover the Intel SKU of an Intel processor from the Intel web site, even after you spent 2 hours joining Intel's hardware buyer's organization. You could research processors on Intel's web site, but the Intel SKU wasn't listed. Wholesalers listed the processors by Intel SKU.
Intel's consumer division was so bad it ceased business. It would take many, many paragraphs to tell you how bad it was.
About 2 years ago, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett got bad press by announcing that Intel would go into competition with OLPC, One Laptop per Child: OLPC on 60 Minutes: Intel is evil. Typical story: Negroponte: "Intel should be ashamed of itself" for dumping its low cost PC. Look at the photo of Barrett! The photo looks like the personification of evil. *grin*
Now, Intel is trying to correct problems it has created by encouraging the sales of mobile computers with the Intel Atom processor, without communicating openly and honestly to customers that the Atom processor is very slow. For example, Intel: Some Netbook resellers saw 30% return rate.
Am I saying that, if I ran Intel Marketing, I could do better? Yes, I'm saying that. Maybe you could, also.
Okay. The hospital CEO was lying in a roadway, taking a nap. Someone in a car ran over him. Should the driver go to jail?
I had not read that. In that PDF file, Robert W. Kern, U.S. Attorney, (216) 622-3836, seems to be going to a lot of trouble to downplay the case. It reads VERY differently than the story to which Slashdot linked. Maybe he wants to convict without having people understanding and protesting the conviction.
Quote: "Graham, who is set to formally enter a guilty plea on Sept. 30 to one count of illegally intercepting electronic communications, will pay $33,000 to the hospital for damages caused by the incident. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. "
The hospital didn't use even the most minimum methods to prevent infection, so he must pay $33,000 for problems he certainly did not intend to cause?
As many have said, the health care bill is very poorly written.
Excerpt from the section, SEC. 1173A. STANDARDIZE ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS [My punctuation standard]: "(6) IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT: Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a plan for the implementation and enforcement, by not later than 5 years after such date of enactment, of the standards under this section."
Translation: "Please support a very expensive bill that fundamentally changes something very important. It is certain that you will pay. It is uncertain what we will do."
I strongly support improvements in health care in the United States. I believe that those who propose the bill have our best interests in mind. But they haven't finished their thinking.
The bill [PDF] is 1,017 pages long, and affects everyone in the U.S. enormously. Every part of it requires public discussion.
The bill makes changes to other laws that are themselves EXTREMELY complicated.
Another quote [My punctuation standard]: (3) DEVELOPMENT OF DATA REPORTING STANDARDS: (A) IN GENERAL: The Secretary shall develop and implement standardized data elements and definitions for reporting under this subsection, for contract years beginning with 2012, of data necessary for the calculation of the medical loss ratio for MA plans.
Translation: "We will tell you later how it will work."
Very few who comment on this bill have read and fully understood the implications. I haven't. Have you?
Is it unreasonable for some people to oppose important changes when they don't understand those changes?
"Are there any proxies who can filter _all_ sort of packing/zipping/password protected executable files with a 100% hit rate? I doubt it."
What????
Don't you know about limited user rights? That prevents ANY installation of ANY program.
If someone accidentally kills someone else while driving a car, he or she will get less time for manslaughter than this man is supposedly getting for sending an email to a PRIVATE address.
Is this story a hoax? There is only one other report, and that report is identical: Misdirected Spyware Infects Ohio Hospital. Both apparently came from the IDG News Service. This is the last sentence of both stories: "A spokeswoman with the Akron Children's Hospital was unaware of the case and unable to comment." She was unaware of a case that is 18 months old?
You said, "Why would you think that what the president is trying to accomplish is socially impossible? He's trying to bring health care up to the standards enjoyed by the majority of the developed world."
I very much agree with the President's goal. I share that goal. But he is trying to do too much at one time, and he and his advisers have little understanding of the problems, in my opinion.
We do consulting that combines our knowledge of technology with an understanding of the underlying sociology, so we are particularly aware of the problems.
I spoke with a doctor who makes $4,000,000 each year doing specialized operations. He found a way to avoid the intended effect of laws designed to protect sick people with no insurance from overcharges. He told someone on whom he operated that he would charge one amount, but actually charged almost double.
A doctor like that, and there are many like him, will not cooperate with any change in the system. And he has the money to fund crazy attacks.
What is in the law and what actually happens may be two different things.
"However, practically speaking very few people want to legally dispute small bills (like their phone bill)..."
Suppose you want to dispute an illegal charge that you noticed only after a year? That could be a lot of money.
I have OFTEN discovered and disputed sneaky charges on my telephone bill. Our local telephone company is 100% dishonest in the sense that it will try anything sneaky that makes more profit, in my opinion.
No one is saying that no contract exists. We are just saying that you can't prove anything to a court unless you get a paper bill. What you saved to your computer could have been made by anyone.
Exactly. It takes a LOT of time to download those bills. Banks like Chase have VERY slow web sites; they apparently don't want to buy enough computer equipment.
It's common that the Chase web site times out before a page loads. Complaining to the company has exactly no effect. In the U.S., a big bank or telephone company can do anything it likes.
We're not talking about the rights of the company. We are talking about the rights of the account holder.
If you don't have a paper bill, it may be in some cases difficult to assert any rights you have concerning mistakes in the bill.
A paper bill is a legal document. An online bill carries no legal power whatsoever, leaving the account holder with no rights other than what the company wants the account holder to have.
A suggestion: Get your thoughts in order and give him a call.
Daily bathroom showers may deliver face full of pathogens, says study
Daily bathroom showers may deliver face full of pathogens, says study