Otter -
Thanks for the insight. Really, there isn't much to the article. Someone in the office pointed out to me the ad from the print copy of the NY Times, and I thought it was great that something that I felt fairly strongly about was getting some press. I was actually disappointed in the other link on the ACLU site (the Safe and Free PDF) as it was more of an ACLU promotional piece than a statement about what needs to be done or even informational about the Patriot Act.
And yes, I was kind of excited to see something I had submitted (after 12 previous tries) actually get accepted.
Sorry - no more humor, no more submissions of puff pieces. But rather than advocacy, this was about publicity - which the issue is in dire need of.
The "EU Rules" in general, state that data on European citizens cannot be transferred to another country unless certain conditions are met. Those conditions include (a) the country where data is being transferred to having adequate privacy laws; (b) if a contract is in place between the country data is being transferred from and the company doing the transfer; (c) if the individual has given their EXPLICIT CONSENT to transfer the data; or (d) for the United States, subscribing to the Safe Harbor exception.
The US, while it DOES have some privacy laws, does not have anything close to meeting EU standards. Neither ebay nor Paypal subscribe to Safe Harbor. However, collecting explicit consent from users in their member agreement gives them the right to store the information in any country they like. The data protection directive (and subsequent laws) do not prohibit citizens from having a say in how their data is used - it merely limits how companies can treat the data without authorization from a country or individual.
That would be pretty draconic, if the UK government said that Joe's Chicken Shack *couldn't* transfer my info to, say, India, even if I *wanted* it there so I could buy something...
Where you store the data is irrelevant - the key is transmission of data, collection of consent to transmit it out of an EU country, and who you share it with ("Onward Transfer").
This is most likely NOT illegal under the EU directive/UK laws (big difference - the EU has guidelines that each nation has to enact as laws, but they have some leeway with the actual phrasing and enforcement) as the information is shared with law enforcement officials. If they state that in their privacy policy, they're allowed to do it. They still need to provide you with all of the information they have on you if you ask for it, but when you click "I agree" it is giving consent for them to a) transfer your information to a non-EU country and b) use the information as stated in their privacy policy.
Really wishing that Yahoo hadn't crapped out of the auction business now...
...that the article focuses on universities, and how they in particularly are demanding protection for student information (which would be amusing, as most colleges sell student addresses to credit card and other companies). I always thought MS was ahead of the pack by giving free educational licenses to schools to get future generations hooked on Word (when I graduated, the company I started with was using WordPerfect, but the "younger generation" was hooked on Word's interface, and eventually talked the existing management into switching).
Wizard and other magazines that report on the comics industry have been talking about these movies since the late 80s. Some actually made it to production (The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren, Captain America, The Fantastic Four) but flopped big time. Spider-man, if I recall correctly, was originally supposed to be a James Cameron film, but there were all kinds of issues with Marvel selling the rights to the name but not the story, and wouldn't approve the scripts that were coming back, and the project sat in limbo for YEARS, until Sony got it moving again.
I think the new rash of super hero movies is more a product of fixing the problems with getting Spider-man to the big screen and assuming other projects would have similar success, rather than inferring that "people need heroes" - how many movies really have evil triumph over good? (You can argue that many movies have anti-heroes as the protagonists, but outside of slasher flicks, usually the "good guy" wins in the end).
The key is the second one... I've discovered recently (after spending 18 months dating online) that after women get out of their high school years, they've usually been burned a few times by guys, and often start to look for the guys who aren't in demand (or aren't able to attract serious competition). These are generally women who are good looking but not stunning, who've been able to attract guys in the past but not keep them, and wind up with low self-esteem.
So they go for someone "safe", who will eventually find out he's being used as a security blanket, and if he's got any cojones he'll boot her to the curb the way she deserves.
Grin. If you're desperate, keep an eye out for the ones with the footprint on their cute little a$$.
Not 100% true - while we do have many factories in other countries, there is still a great deal of auto manufacturing/assembly in the midwest and actually growing in the south. But we are an 80-85% service economy. I've often thought about who really produces anything of real "value" beyond farmers and miners, and why we don't pay more for basic foodstuffs.
As for moving offshore, this doesn't change the IT industry a great deal except reducing the need for H1-Bs.
And how does that affect our service industry if there is less immigration and use of our services? The dollars are leaving but not coming back...
Best Buy has POS DVD players for $39 - any thoughts on what would be necessary to strap that and a tiny tv into the back of the minivan for a less than $1800 (retail) auto-theater?
ALSO - with (Governor) Jennifer Granholm's public stance on Privacy, there should be sufficient interest in making the story public. Anyone have news connections?
I've had a TiVo for a little over a year now, and it has changed my life. Not in an earthshattering way, I don't watch TV in all of my spare time... but...
There are a few shows that I watch each week, and get frustrated when I miss them. Having a TiVo takes away 98% of that frustration (there have been 2 times when the channel changer for the cable box didn't work and I missed anyway). I no longer look forward to Sunday nights because there is a new Simpsons or Malcolm in the Middle, because I know it will be there for me later in the week and I can fast forward through the commercials (although I do stop when they've got new movie previews or half nekkid women, of course).
Basically, my TV watching now fits around my free time, rather than my free time fitting around my TV watching. I get to the gym, read magazines, and out to the bar much more often than before.
And no, for most people, that is not worth the $250 + subscription fee. But being young, single, and on the go (out of town many weekends), I'm a huge fan.
And as for not knowing other people who have one, I know of two close friends who use them, and have been baffled as to why more people don't pick them up (poor targeting for their marketing).
Now I work for a large corp. in our Privacy group (attempting to make sure the various groups abide by our policies) and attended the IAPO conference last week (see here for details).
There were reps from the DMA, as well as CPOs from many corps around the country. The DMA is not inherently evil (although when I signed up for their site to access a whitepaper, I was added to 6+ mailing lists that I had to unsubscribe from individually).
But imagine for a minute what would happen if advertising ceased to exist - your telephone screened out all telemarketers, your TiVo auto fast-forwards through commercials, and your mailboxes (snail and e-mail) automatically purged "crap". How would you find out about that shiny new nitrogen-cooled Pentium 8? Or the new movie at the multiplex? Or that Micky D's has 99c tofu burgers on special this week?
You may say that you don't want to find out about most of these things, but there ARE things that you are interested in - many new and different products. So imagine if you could weed ALL of the porn and inkjet and free diploma emails out of your inbox, and receive only emails from legitimate companies (Dell, Microcenter, Southwest Airlines, whoever works for you) as well as the occassional new product. All the "opt-out" type legislation would do is make sure that email comes from a source that you can trust will honor your request when you ask not to be marketed to anymore.
This is a nice idea in theory, but has a serious flaw in execution. It is very difficult to get 20,000 people to agree to anything.
It is impossible to get 20,000 people to agree to everything.
Yes, you could get some major reforms passed at first, but very soon I see dissent among the ranks. Thousands of readers stop by/. every day, but look at the forums - people are opinionated!
Even trying to get the majority to agree to a few minor things could become a problem when factions develop.
How to avoid telemarketers: Get a cell phone with large amounts of night and weekend minutes. Plug your land line into the TiVo, and don't give out the number.
What I find more interesting is how these technologies have an affect demographically. The population who can afford to pay $10 a month for caller ID and privacy manager are generally the ones who don't go for the products in question. Those who are in very low income brackets are more likely to receive the calls, and be more likely to sign up for a product they really can't afford. I worked for a summer (three days, actually) selling Kirby vacuum cleaners, and a good deal of the talk was about getting low income families who looked at the product as a status symbol to take a demo, cause you were almost guaranteed a sale. Great product, but awful marketing tactics (hence the 3 day career).
Other characteristics of IT areas/development -
How great is the need for a local research institution (Silicon Valley - Stanford, Raleigh Durham - Duke/UNC, Boston - MIT et al, Austin - U.T. Austin) - and are there other up and coming areas?
Also, now that the supply of "qualified" (or at least interested) IT professionals is outstrapping demand, what influence does this have on the demand for locations in temperate areas, and the corporate cultures (ping pong tables, free beverages, etc to keep staff happy go lucky)?
Well, I was initially impressed that in the "Sports" section the top story/topic was Cricket, followed by Golf (what? no football on a Monday morning?). But creating regional sections would allow for more directed content.
Although this has been rehashed a couple of times for Librarians, does anyone know of other cases/industries where this has become a problem (or even exercised)? Such as purchasing habits from Visa or cash withdrawls from your bank (yeah, I know, terrorists don't use ATMs, they do cash and carry with all of their money coming from drug related transactions). Wonder when grocery stores will start being forced to disclose heavy purchasers of ethnic foods...
If you read the article, it really doesn't say much except that Vivendi is looking at putting a game together. I would expect that if they do build this, it will be modeled the same way as other MMORPGs, where "main" characters are not available for the masses... maybe you could sign up to be Aunt May or Jarvis where you get to come into contact with the actual heroes, but for the most part you're looking at corner store owners and cops as your core characters. I would like to see how they render the typical/average women in the game, tho - will they be like all of the heroines in the actual mags (ie barbie doll proportions)?
Any new or developing idea has the potential to "suck big time". That doesn't mean it will. The Autonomy concept is scheduled to come to fruition in the 2010 time frame - fuel cells will be more developed, as well as the drive by wire technology. Which is what the concept is about. As others have pointed out, GM and other auto makers already standardize components and platforms (just about all GM trucks are built on one of a few [three?] basic frames, including the new Hummer) and they're able to differentiate through other means.
And GM developing this technology doesn't mean that existing cars/platforms will go away - you may see *a* Cadillac fuel cell vehicle or two, but the majority of the lineup (for the near future) will remain intact, similar to the other brands. Or fuel cells may only be brought in under the Chevy badge (for example).
The interesting point is the use of the "by wire" technology to be used for most of the mechanical systems. The technology has been around, but this is the first real effort to redesign the vehicle - ignoring the roadblocks from cost, tradition, UAW and other areas.
In my limited understanding of "affiliates", legally they are understood to be companies (basically) where one owns the other, or who are owned by the same parent company or grandparent comapany (there is some tie in to joint ownership). So the comment about having a government agency open an "affiliate" to gain access to phone records doesn't make much sense.
Obviously, this is not a good thing, and opens the door for more widespread information sharing, but this does not signal a free for all on customer information.
Slashdot Mirror
And yes, I was kind of excited to see something I had submitted (after 12 previous tries) actually get accepted.
Sorry - no more humor, no more submissions of puff pieces. But rather than advocacy, this was about publicity - which the issue is in dire need of.
(a) the country where data is being transferred to having adequate privacy laws;
(b) if a contract is in place between the country data is being transferred from and the company doing the transfer;
(c) if the individual has given their EXPLICIT CONSENT to transfer the data; or
(d) for the United States, subscribing to the Safe Harbor exception.
The US, while it DOES have some privacy laws, does not have anything close to meeting EU standards. Neither ebay nor Paypal subscribe to Safe Harbor. However, collecting explicit consent from users in their member agreement gives them the right to store the information in any country they like. The data protection directive (and subsequent laws) do not prohibit citizens from having a say in how their data is used - it merely limits how companies can treat the data without authorization from a country or individual.
That would be pretty draconic, if the UK government said that Joe's Chicken Shack *couldn't* transfer my info to, say, India, even if I *wanted* it there so I could buy something...
This is most likely NOT illegal under the EU directive/UK laws (big difference - the EU has guidelines that each nation has to enact as laws, but they have some leeway with the actual phrasing and enforcement) as the information is shared with law enforcement officials. If they state that in their privacy policy, they're allowed to do it. They still need to provide you with all of the information they have on you if you ask for it, but when you click "I agree" it is giving consent for them to a) transfer your information to a non-EU country and b) use the information as stated in their privacy policy.
Really wishing that Yahoo hadn't crapped out of the auction business now...
A piece of candy now, a sugar addiction later...
I think the new rash of super hero movies is more a product of fixing the problems with getting Spider-man to the big screen and assuming other projects would have similar success, rather than inferring that "people need heroes" - how many movies really have evil triumph over good? (You can argue that many movies have anti-heroes as the protagonists, but outside of slasher flicks, usually the "good guy" wins in the end).
The article gives five reasons -
They are generally available.
Other women will tend not to steal them.
They can fix things.
Your parents will love them.
They're smart.
The key is the second one... I've discovered recently (after spending 18 months dating online) that after women get out of their high school years, they've usually been burned a few times by guys, and often start to look for the guys who aren't in demand (or aren't able to attract serious competition). These are generally women who are good looking but not stunning, who've been able to attract guys in the past but not keep them, and wind up with low self-esteem.
So they go for someone "safe", who will eventually find out he's being used as a security blanket, and if he's got any cojones he'll boot her to the curb the way she deserves.
Grin. If you're desperate, keep an eye out for the ones with the footprint on their cute little a$$.
Not 100% true - while we do have many factories in other countries, there is still a great deal of auto manufacturing/assembly in the midwest and actually growing in the south. But we are an 80-85% service economy. I've often thought about who really produces anything of real "value" beyond farmers and miners, and why we don't pay more for basic foodstuffs.
As for moving offshore, this doesn't change the IT industry a great deal except reducing the need for H1-Bs.
And how does that affect our service industry if there is less immigration and use of our services? The dollars are leaving but not coming back...
austin humor i understand, and me with no mod points.
...it won't be long before Hollywood comes out with "DVD Jon: the Movie".
Best Buy has POS DVD players for $39 - any thoughts on what would be necessary to strap that and a tiny tv into the back of the minivan for a less than $1800 (retail) auto-theater?
IN SOVIET RUSSIA...
girlfriend needs YOU!
ALSO - with (Governor) Jennifer Granholm's public stance on Privacy, there should be sufficient interest in making the story public. Anyone have news connections?
There are a few shows that I watch each week, and get frustrated when I miss them. Having a TiVo takes away 98% of that frustration (there have been 2 times when the channel changer for the cable box didn't work and I missed anyway). I no longer look forward to Sunday nights because there is a new Simpsons or Malcolm in the Middle, because I know it will be there for me later in the week and I can fast forward through the commercials (although I do stop when they've got new movie previews or half nekkid women, of course).
Basically, my TV watching now fits around my free time, rather than my free time fitting around my TV watching. I get to the gym, read magazines, and out to the bar much more often than before.
And no, for most people, that is not worth the $250 + subscription fee. But being young, single, and on the go (out of town many weekends), I'm a huge fan.
And as for not knowing other people who have one, I know of two close friends who use them, and have been baffled as to why more people don't pick them up (poor targeting for their marketing).
Logitech, Inter-Tel... both at or above where they were in 2000 (doesn't anyone read Business 2.0?).
Don't we have laws in place to protect these types of things from being executed by individuals (ebay as opposed to law enforcement agencies)?
There were reps from the DMA, as well as CPOs from many corps around the country. The DMA is not inherently evil (although when I signed up for their site to access a whitepaper, I was added to 6+ mailing lists that I had to unsubscribe from individually).
But imagine for a minute what would happen if advertising ceased to exist - your telephone screened out all telemarketers, your TiVo auto fast-forwards through commercials, and your mailboxes (snail and e-mail) automatically purged "crap". How would you find out about that shiny new nitrogen-cooled Pentium 8? Or the new movie at the multiplex? Or that Micky D's has 99c tofu burgers on special this week?
You may say that you don't want to find out about most of these things, but there ARE things that you are interested in - many new and different products. So imagine if you could weed ALL of the porn and inkjet and free diploma emails out of your inbox, and receive only emails from legitimate companies (Dell, Microcenter, Southwest Airlines, whoever works for you) as well as the occassional new product. All the "opt-out" type legislation would do is make sure that email comes from a source that you can trust will honor your request when you ask not to be marketed to anymore.
It is impossible to get 20,000 people to agree to everything.
Yes, you could get some major reforms passed at first, but very soon I see dissent among the ranks. Thousands of readers stop by /. every day, but look at the forums - people are opinionated!
Even trying to get the majority to agree to a few minor things could become a problem when factions develop.
This may depend on the size of your wife.
What I find more interesting is how these technologies have an affect demographically. The population who can afford to pay $10 a month for caller ID and privacy manager are generally the ones who don't go for the products in question. Those who are in very low income brackets are more likely to receive the calls, and be more likely to sign up for a product they really can't afford. I worked for a summer (three days, actually) selling Kirby vacuum cleaners, and a good deal of the talk was about getting low income families who looked at the product as a status symbol to take a demo, cause you were almost guaranteed a sale. Great product, but awful marketing tactics (hence the 3 day career).
Also, now that the supply of "qualified" (or at least interested) IT professionals is outstrapping demand, what influence does this have on the demand for locations in temperate areas, and the corporate cultures (ping pong tables, free beverages, etc to keep staff happy go lucky)?
Well, I was initially impressed that in the "Sports" section the top story/topic was Cricket, followed by Golf (what? no football on a Monday morning?). But creating regional sections would allow for more directed content.
Although this has been rehashed a couple of times for Librarians, does anyone know of other cases/industries where this has become a problem (or even exercised)? Such as purchasing habits from Visa or cash withdrawls from your bank (yeah, I know, terrorists don't use ATMs, they do cash and carry with all of their money coming from drug related transactions). Wonder when grocery stores will start being forced to disclose heavy purchasers of ethnic foods...
If you read the article, it really doesn't say much except that Vivendi is looking at putting a game together. I would expect that if they do build this, it will be modeled the same way as other MMORPGs, where "main" characters are not available for the masses... maybe you could sign up to be Aunt May or Jarvis where you get to come into contact with the actual heroes, but for the most part you're looking at corner store owners and cops as your core characters. I would like to see how they render the typical/average women in the game, tho - will they be like all of the heroines in the actual mags (ie barbie doll proportions)?
Any new or developing idea has the potential to "suck big time".
That doesn't mean it will. The Autonomy concept is scheduled to come to fruition in the 2010 time frame - fuel cells will be more developed, as well as the drive by wire technology. Which is what the concept is about. As others have pointed out, GM and other auto makers already standardize components and platforms (just about all GM trucks are built on one of a few [three?] basic frames, including the new Hummer) and they're able to differentiate through other means.
And GM developing this technology doesn't mean that existing cars/platforms will go away - you may see *a* Cadillac fuel cell vehicle or two, but the majority of the lineup (for the near future) will remain intact, similar to the other brands. Or fuel cells may only be brought in under the Chevy badge (for example).
The interesting point is the use of the "by wire" technology to be used for most of the mechanical systems. The technology has been around, but this is the first real effort to redesign the vehicle - ignoring the roadblocks from cost, tradition, UAW and other areas.
Should be interesting to watch this develop...
In my limited understanding of "affiliates", legally they are understood to be companies (basically) where one owns the other, or who are owned by the same parent company or grandparent comapany (there is some tie in to joint ownership). So the comment about having a government agency open an "affiliate" to gain access to phone records doesn't make much sense. Obviously, this is not a good thing, and opens the door for more widespread information sharing, but this does not signal a free for all on customer information.