That could be done legally RIGHT now for presidential elections. The current system is a travisty, while your proposed system is much more how the Framers wanted it done...then the chosen elctors vote the BEST president...not the most popular... Also, the state governments have A LOT more control over the feds than our current system that allows the feds to be elected "over the heads of" our state/ local officals.
That's the real problem with their software monopoly...it's hard to seperate the "service" portion from the "manufacturing" portion of the costs. In simpler terms, my "upgrade" from Win98 to WinME [flame me later] was only $50 retail. The upgrade from there to XP is nearly $200! see the difference. Sure MS is adding more "features" but that's the point...they sell a monopoly OS for monopoly price [other retail, desktop OS sell for $50(BeOS) to $80(latest SuSe pro)]
They DUMP other products by rolling them into windows and killing their markets... The classic example is IE...because they actually wrote a contract to SELL it seperately...then decided to bundle it when netscape started touting "web application" type features.
The problem IS difficult to deal with...including a browser is that it's an added "service" to the users...but also a "product" of other companies. My opinion is that MS is OK to add browsers and other stuff...but NOT OK to use the contractual measures they do... My solution would make the OS be the same price for all PC makers... that's how other "monopolies" are regulated. Then it wouldn't matter what MS added or took out. But if you'll notice, MS has always neatly avoided their contractual obligations ever appearing in court...BeOS almost had them, but they settled...
how about GHW Bush...he was never an elected offical till he was VP...same with Chaney... Republicans love to "appoint" presidents. Not picking on them specifically, but they've got the best examples in years... Again, Why'd people not vote for GORE/liberman or Kerry/Edwards both tickets were longterm [4+terms] senators with tons of lawmaking experience... Why do guys like Bush/Chaney continue to get elected?...but they do.
These are all people that are offically on the ballots nation-wide this november! It takes a lot of signatures to get on 45+ ballots each election...they aren't "crackpots". If you meet the individual state's criteria to be on their ballots and are on enough states to get votes then you should be at the debate... that's how it's SUPPOSED to work...
of course the networks hate that idea because then the election isn't "made for TV" with "good guys and bad guys" it becomes something "more"... That's too hard to handle.
That what "we" want to happen. The ISP is exercising it's right to CYA under the law. What's needed is for a few commercial sites to go down...so the corperate lawyers with money will sue the sender of a WRONG DMCA takedown! It's all "collateral damage" when our personal pages get taken down...but if it was a major local company...things would be much different and the other side of the law would get involved.
moral of the story...name some empty files on your bosses server to "dangerous" names [popular movies, MP3s, etc] and get their site taken down....see how fast they call the cops. [note: you'd probably get fired for being a nusiance though!]
But the penalty should be to the person/company sending the takedown letter, not the ISP.
Supposedly, they have to attest, under oath, that the letter they send is factual...I think if it becomes too big a problem that ISP's will get the courts involved FOR their customers when the time is right.
Right now, they all know too many people are trying to get away with posting stuff they shouldn't...they consider themselves "lucky" to "only" get noticed for takedown and not told to "police" their servers for "illegal" content. When things settle down that will change...
But the ISPs roll over so easy because the laws limit their liability if they act quickly. It's a CYA manuver. most of the TOS allows them to do this so they can't be sued by the poster...the rapid takedown insulates them from civil suits. Much the same applies to kiddy porn. If they promptly take off the alleged content [without looking] they get themselves some reduced liability...that's the only way they're even able to host newsgroups anymore.
The next step is for improperly taken down sites to sue the "alligators" directly...for liable or purgury...and have it stick. It's time to crack down on criminally abusive DMCA "takedown" letters, not duke it out with the ISPs.
the original AOL suits that were technology buffs are all gone. Now the media moguls are in charge of the company. They'd rather take MS 500 Million dollars and roll over, than go toe-to-toe to keep MS in check...BillG always had a good raport with the "suits".
AOL could have built their technology into Mozilla base and completely pushed MS out of the browser market...but the "big media" suits aren't into that type of competition... until, of course, MS DRM taxes them all!!
Re:Why always the ipod?
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How to Podcast
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· Score: 3, Insightful
because the iPod is very hacker friendly!
Apple went to all the work of building a cool palm-like OS into the thing. There's several books written about it. [kinda like TiVo] As long as the modders keep their fingers off the DRM [cause apple would get in trouble with the riaa] then all the apps and gadgets are cool with them.
Most of the other music devices are just barely music devices... they play only exactly what the manufacturer decides to support in the drivers...and most of the manufactures seem to sabotage "modding" attempts.
The iPod is like the palm pilot in the early 90's. Sure other people tried PDAs but palm was the first to nail it... same with iPod. The "next" thing would be video, but that'll be at least 3-5 years away. iPod is sitting pretty for a while.
Re:What planet are you from?-Apple Juice.
on
Inside Wal-Mart IT
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· Score: 1
NO, there used to be a day when all the CEOs were "company men" who'd been with a company for 20+ years...often many of them were file clerks and accountants that worked their way thru the ranks.
I used to work for a company like that, and while the CEO was very slow to react to some things, their diligence in maintaining assets long-term over short-term profit is why the doors are still open after nearly 50 year of that CEOs reign...
Look at it another way, old school CEOs used to be like your grandma, lean and frugal..with money stashed here and there for a "rainy day". The NEW CEO has maxed out the companies "credit cards" and living paycheck-to-paycheck just to keep up the minimum payments... if such behaviour is stupid for individuals, why would it be wise for vast corporations...if you think about it only those that have stashed cash are the ones still open...think about all those dot bombs!
It's not at all the environment it used to be...we have "store bought" CEOs that are only looking to line their own pockets. The CEO of that company use to only make 6 figures [mid $300k i think], even when the company had 5 divisions and thousands of workers. CEOs nowdays demand millions up front, millions in bounuses and stock options with no gaurantee of performance. If they can hack-n-slash thru a company every 5 years and get 10 million + stock each time they're already in the next job before the damage to the "guts" of the company is really evident.
actually at walmart's scale that would seem to be a lot. I'm sure they don't count actual cash registers and wiring costs in the "IT" budget so that's actually quite a bit because of how centralized walmart is. I can't think my company spends much more than that with 6 worker supporting nearly 500 employees...but like walmart, IT's not our business, making product is...we'd probably have to work to spend 1% of REVENUE.
it was in the yahoo news several months ago... the CIA "knew" all the reported stuff, but in typical beurocratic fashion choose to ignore it. The trusted the word of some two-bit rat informant [questionable credibility] over what the evidence they had on hand actually said... That's what they reported to Bush.
I'm sure bush didn't "lie" about it. as far as he knew that's what the intell said. BUT... it speaks much of his character that he's been a "texas gunslinger" right from the start. That's what I've always been mad about. The French and German allies wanted to do more inspections...work thru the channels. Sure, they had their own tracks to cover [maybe?] but let's face it, any ONE of the countries arguing for a peacful solution could have knocked over Iraq on their own. Bush has been very much a "let them eat cake" type president...he's got no touch at all with real americans... it's apparent he's just a PHB [straight out of dilbert] who hides behind his radical cabinet's decisions instead of being responsible for them and putting cabinet members in their place. Look at his choice of VP...it's still Cheney! even though that guy is nearly impeachable for his part in the energy "crisis". He doesn't belong there...he's got no chance in hell of being president. If he looks like a puppet and acts like a puppet...
To sum it up... Bush has the words of great men like Reagan...but not a lick of the wisdom that made them great. [What truely made Regan great wasn't the military buildup, but his willingness to invite the soviet leaders over here to talk...and treat our biggest rivals with respect, eliminating their fears, even as we were "defeating" them economically. That is something Bush can never, ever do.] His choice of cabinet, VP, and words in public all smack of the typical egotistical american executives we all hate...who are rude, sloppy & ineffectual.
To make the point a little clearer, you only made $8000 in a year...but somethings cost the same for everybody...[i'll exclude basic food] things like toothpaste and deoderant, clothes and automobiles...stuff you gotta have to live. Sure you can spend less than a rich guy...but can you REALLY? After all, if you're a minimum wage guy you can't shop at Sam's for huge discounts...you have to buy the small [high markup] sizes! But for the short list of things you MUST have there's not much you can do about it. Sure, you and the rich guy both buy the same $20 shirt and pay 6% sales tax...the rich guy still comes out ahead because after a certian point "living expenses" are a neglegable part of their income...so that's money they get "free and clear"...often they can use the "buildup" [and federally insured to boot!]of money to get that $20 shirt for $15...where you couldn't possibly.
You pointed out that you're a hard worker...well good for you, we need more like you!!! BUT...that thinking also makes you a shmuck! If you want real equality of taxes, realize that "income tax" taxes the over all money you make, while sales tax taxes what you MUST buy to a certian extent. The percentage of your income you MUST spend being poor is drastically higher than the rich guy... to put it another way how many hours did you have to work to pay the sales tax on the same $20 shirt...a minimum wage guy would have to work 4 hours just to pay for the shirt plus another hour for the sales tax...the rich guy might work 1 hour for the whole $100 trip to the mall... see the difference? oh, and the rich guy doesn't pay "medical bills" because somebody else [insurance] pays them...so while you work to pay debt, they get compound interest...basically from you!!
When you start talking about the "top 20%" there's a large spread there as well...after all, 10 families at $100k pay far more real taxes than 1 family with $1m! After all, that's 10 pairs of soccer shoes, 10 Xboxes, 10 pairs of braces...versus only 1 for the guy making a $1m. While the income tax would be close to the same, the "extras" like sales, telcom, etc could be 10x higher part of income for the 'poorer' folk.
consider also that the 20% line probably hits about $75k - $100k in reality. What I mean by that is if YOU have a household income near $100k you probably qualify as "top 20%". The very rich are such a small number that they really only make up 2% of the taxpayers tops... the 20% figure just helps to include "low ranking" accountants and engineers to keep them on the "company line"
The article was about what MS will do to seattle when profits actually start to dip. They pay less than a 10th of what their balance sheet indicates they should be paying to the state. What happens when they start demanding handouts for jobs? I.e. look what happened to manufacturing states like michigan when the auto industry went south chasing tax credits....and figure MS is 10x bigger than all those jobs put together...
the article is saying seattle has been screwed over already...what happens when MS actually has to COMPETE to make a profit?
unfortunately, don't they have a shiny new cross license agreement with MS? so this is entirely useless against the ONE company that's trying to ram per cpu/per user/per conection/per application/per "window" program fees up our collective arses!!!
In other words they're patenting it FOR MS to use, not to prevent MS from using it!!!!
imagine the Blackout from '03...but during January instead of summer! That was a classic case where simply sloppy engineering and greedy compananies nearly took us to our knees! if a 4 day black out occured in dead of winter the death toll would be thousands...
My point is that the Blackout was stupitity...imagine if somebody actually tried at it!!!
Till I moved up the food chain and BECAME the admin for a while!!!
I agree with what you got to say, but a good admin absolutely MUST lock down PCs simply to stay ahead of the game. AS a slashdot reader you should respect that decision and give your admin heads up when you need special programs. Most admins keep such programs on their own machines and could easily help you out... note it's not just security, but licensing, sexual harrassment, company security, etc that admins have to worry about.
We lock down wallpapers not because we're worried about viruses, but because the guys on the line put up dirty pics and the bosses teen daughter helping out in the office saw them!!! We lock down outside email because somebody bypassed our mail filters and passed around dirty jokes said bosses daughter reported to daddy...not to mention the disgruntled sales guy that exported his contacts/ pricing sheet to his "new" employer!
As far as AV...do YOU bring any media to work at all from home? You surely scan it at home and at work before you access ANY files...right... The purpose of scanning every file in memory is because people get sloppy and even 1 time forgetting screws EVERYONE!
At my shop we try to be accomadating, but it's OUR jobs on the line if YOU screw up... After all, it's not going to be YOU at work for 70 hours [salary no less] cleaning up the mess...is it?
Seriously, computers are toolboxes just like anything else. IT's job is to give you the tools management says you need...not everything you want. That you need more tools to do your job is MANAGEMENT's fault for not properly documenting the tools of your work... get your manager to document your tools and IT will cheerfully comply in most cases!!!
Engineers expect to buy shiny new manufacturing equipment and just plug-n-play with the company network. EVERYTHING runs windows now...and adding security software often is unsupported and voids the warranty of million dollar machinery!!! Heck it's hard enough just keeping vendors of systems compliant with the particulars of YOUR MS licensing agreement.
the real problem is that MS has sold business managers the promise of "commodity" PCs...they should just run to the store and buy a few and that's good enough to have a stable reliable business... Of course MS turns around and tells US in IT that we need MCSEs [for the psulrty sum of $60K in education!] just to set up a windows machine...or you're not doing it right...that's why it doesn't work...yeah...whatever.
SO that leaves IT in the middle of marketing versus reality. The trouble is that most IT managers spend so much time troublshooting windows problems [some real, most imagined by users] they honestly don't touch computers when they're at home! So there's no time to learn Linux or any of the other alternatives... they aren't perfect so it looks like more of the same as MS....so nobody feels like changing over to ANOTHER new system. After all, in a company setting it seems like there's at least 2 projects a year that FORCE a multi-month upgrade process...hell, even the MS upgrades take weeks of trial and error with the company's software library before you can let real users on the new machines...There's no way anybody would move a new entire OS network in... MS says it's just too hard.
That won't work because most of the "really good" worms bring their own services nowdays... Look at how Klex [or was that blaster?] that spread with it's own SMTP server. You can block the ports, but that doesn't work in a corperate environment where people expect to use "file shareing" between user machines on the lan, or all the custom software that freaks out with non-standard windows installs.
Eventually, you get the user that knowingly breaks ALL the rules. While SP2 looks to address some of the issues with runaway user clients, once something is inside a corperate network it's really hard to stop. After all, not all machines can run XP with SP2... you may have hardware tied to older versions of Win98, NT, or 2K... that doesn't have all the update features that XP does.
Speaking of update features, the most secure thing to do is NOT let user machines hit the internet directly. My shop has all the machines locked down with no users as administrator. Internet is HEAVILY filtered...even slashdot.ico files don't come thru!!! and all incomming ports other than 80 and it's dependants are rigidly blocked. Unauthenticated machines can't get on the internet [i.e. no Knoppix CD for you!] and all SMTP traffic is blocked or routed to 1 corperate exchange server... Sounds extreme right...
Wrong it's still only a stop gap. A SMS server costs $50k and then you might get close... using other third-party stuff [say $100k total] MIGHT get you to being totally safe from all internal threats...considering we only have 250 nodes [not all computers are for users] that's like $400 per machine for security...on top of hardware, OS and software... no manager in their right mind would sign off on that bill!!! Not to mention the increase in staff from 3 to X just to keep up with all the patching...and all the old software that's broken...or hardware that has to be replaced simply to RUN the security software... The problem is a crappy OS and now the "network effects" are being seen...we spend more and more money on IT to "keep up" and get nothing in return...and the bean-counters hate that when sales are down!!!
Well, there's Matrox! Then there's that other company...AT...something... They also seems to be Canadian... and sell a couple cards..now and then...ATI!!!
I think you canadians are safe from DRM...for now...
Of course Arnold will work to change all that... he doesn't like that cool shows [90%Sci-fi channel, stargate, farscape, anything Tribune...Xena, Hercules, andromeda, etc] are all made in BC far away from the powerful "guilds" of hollywood! Note that because of those "guilds" our "favorite" Star Wars is still being made entirely off shore as well!! Only the non-actor/directed special effects are made here...and only in George's own company. Of course we should START by stopping the use of FORIGEN actors in Hollywood movies...and toss those free-loading SOBs out of the country! [hint Arnold..pot calling kettle black here!] that takes away dreams from american teen TV watchers!!!
They're doing it to try to get the public to wake up to how foolishly our current prez is squandering the lives of our men and women in needless and petty war... The goal is to get the "average guy" that thinks it's OK for Uncle Sam to bomb those damn ^&(*) to wake up and consider that REAL men and women are dying so a few rich americans can stay rich... it might bring it home if YOUR kids lives were on the line. Also, they're trying to limit exemptions for Students, national guard, and women...because that seems to be where "powerful" people hide their kids while "claiming" to be patriotic [note: the Bushes have mostly DAUGHTERS of military age!!!]. It's also being noted that the largest groups of National Guardsmen being called up are from rural communities...so the city folk with their gas-guzzling SUVs & frat-boy drug-dealing children can be safe!!!
The problem is that we're already supposed to have HDTV...since at least 1997!!! First the broadcasters dragged their feet for nearly 10 years which obviously slowed the adoption of sets... It wasn't until the last 2-3 years that media consolidation got wind of HDTV and lobbied the FCC well after the deadlines to start changing the specs...or they'd "withhold" their content. It's honestly too bad that the FCC didn't stick to it's guns of the 1997 specs because that's what broadcasters built for!!!
We were SUPPOSED to be able to buy HDTV tuners in 1997!! And they were supposed to be $50 by now. I'm sure it's entirely possible to make one at that price point...it's not much different processing wise than a DVD player. Everyone in the Biz is dragging their feet to make "monopoly money" from the change over. You'll note that while the FCC mandated the "V-chip" they HAVEN'T mandated HDTV tuners in all new TVs with the change over deadlines already past several times over!!!
Personally though, I saw some nice smaller [30"] HDTVs [16:9, i1080 & all] lately that are just about reasonable under $1ooo...even nearing the $500 price point which will offically push them into the mainstream. Of course they're all new models...being as all the manufactures are in the pockets of the *IAA i'm sure they're "safe" now.
They'se getting their feet back that's all! After all, who do you think DESIGNED the entire US and Russian rocket programs....hold on...that'd be the GERMANS we kidnaped after WW2!!! Germans have always been at the forfront of technology, again most of the nuclear scientist on both sides of the cold war were from Germany also...we just got more first because of the stupid Nazis!!!
No, I think Umbrella corporation will get there first... or maybe the "Company". [alien ref.]
You'd think MS would venture into space travel...if only to get the executives away from the DOJ... remember guys, Engineers are CHEAPER than lawyers!!!
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That could be done legally RIGHT now for presidential elections. The current system is a travisty, while your proposed system is much more how the Framers wanted it done...then the chosen elctors vote the BEST president...not the most popular... Also, the state governments have A LOT more control over the feds than our current system that allows the feds to be elected "over the heads of" our state/ local officals.
They DUMP other products by rolling them into windows and killing their markets... The classic example is IE...because they actually wrote a contract to SELL it seperately...then decided to bundle it when netscape started touting "web application" type features.
The problem IS difficult to deal with...including a browser is that it's an added "service" to the users...but also a "product" of other companies. My opinion is that MS is OK to add browsers and other stuff...but NOT OK to use the contractual measures they do... My solution would make the OS be the same price for all PC makers... that's how other "monopolies" are regulated. Then it wouldn't matter what MS added or took out. But if you'll notice, MS has always neatly avoided their contractual obligations ever appearing in court...BeOS almost had them, but they settled...
how about GHW Bush...he was never an elected offical till he was VP...same with Chaney... Republicans love to "appoint" presidents. Not picking on them specifically, but they've got the best examples in years... Again, Why'd people not vote for GORE/liberman or Kerry/Edwards both tickets were longterm [4+terms] senators with tons of lawmaking experience... Why do guys like Bush/Chaney continue to get elected? ...but they do.
of course the networks hate that idea because then the election isn't "made for TV" with "good guys and bad guys" it becomes something "more"... That's too hard to handle.
moral of the story...name some empty files on your bosses server to "dangerous" names [popular movies, MP3s, etc] and get their site taken down....see how fast they call the cops. [note: you'd probably get fired for being a nusiance though!]
Supposedly, they have to attest, under oath, that the letter they send is factual...I think if it becomes too big a problem that ISP's will get the courts involved FOR their customers when the time is right.
Right now, they all know too many people are trying to get away with posting stuff they shouldn't ...they consider themselves "lucky" to "only" get noticed for takedown and not told to "police" their servers for "illegal" content. When things settle down that will change...
The next step is for improperly taken down sites to sue the "alligators" directly...for liable or purgury...and have it stick. It's time to crack down on criminally abusive DMCA "takedown" letters, not duke it out with the ISPs.
AOL could have built their technology into Mozilla base and completely pushed MS out of the browser market...but the "big media" suits aren't into that type of competition... until, of course, MS DRM taxes them all!!
Apple went to all the work of building a cool palm-like OS into the thing. There's several books written about it. [kinda like TiVo] As long as the modders keep their fingers off the DRM [cause apple would get in trouble with the riaa] then all the apps and gadgets are cool with them.
Most of the other music devices are just barely music devices... they play only exactly what the manufacturer decides to support in the drivers...and most of the manufactures seem to sabotage "modding" attempts.
The iPod is like the palm pilot in the early 90's. Sure other people tried PDAs but palm was the first to nail it... same with iPod. The "next" thing would be video, but that'll be at least 3-5 years away. iPod is sitting pretty for a while.
I used to work for a company like that, and while the CEO was very slow to react to some things, their diligence in maintaining assets long-term over short-term profit is why the doors are still open after nearly 50 year of that CEOs reign...
Look at it another way, old school CEOs used to be like your grandma, lean and frugal..with money stashed here and there for a "rainy day". The NEW CEO has maxed out the companies "credit cards" and living paycheck-to-paycheck just to keep up the minimum payments... if such behaviour is stupid for individuals, why would it be wise for vast corporations...if you think about it only those that have stashed cash are the ones still open...think about all those dot bombs!
It's not at all the environment it used to be...we have "store bought" CEOs that are only looking to line their own pockets. The CEO of that company use to only make 6 figures [mid $300k i think], even when the company had 5 divisions and thousands of workers. CEOs nowdays demand millions up front, millions in bounuses and stock options with no gaurantee of performance. If they can hack-n-slash thru a company every 5 years and get 10 million + stock each time they're already in the next job before the damage to the "guts" of the company is really evident.
actually at walmart's scale that would seem to be a lot. I'm sure they don't count actual cash registers and wiring costs in the "IT" budget so that's actually quite a bit because of how centralized walmart is. I can't think my company spends much more than that with 6 worker supporting nearly 500 employees...but like walmart, IT's not our business, making product is...we'd probably have to work to spend 1% of REVENUE.
I'm sure bush didn't "lie" about it. as far as he knew that's what the intell said. BUT... it speaks much of his character that he's been a "texas gunslinger" right from the start. That's what I've always been mad about. The French and German allies wanted to do more inspections...work thru the channels. Sure, they had their own tracks to cover [maybe?] but let's face it, any ONE of the countries arguing for a peacful solution could have knocked over Iraq on their own. Bush has been very much a "let them eat cake" type president...he's got no touch at all with real americans... it's apparent he's just a PHB [straight out of dilbert] who hides behind his radical cabinet's decisions instead of being responsible for them and putting cabinet members in their place. Look at his choice of VP...it's still Cheney! even though that guy is nearly impeachable for his part in the energy "crisis". He doesn't belong there...he's got no chance in hell of being president. If he looks like a puppet and acts like a puppet...
To sum it up... Bush has the words of great men like Reagan...but not a lick of the wisdom that made them great. [What truely made Regan great wasn't the military buildup, but his willingness to invite the soviet leaders over here to talk...and treat our biggest rivals with respect, eliminating their fears, even as we were "defeating" them economically. That is something Bush can never, ever do.] His choice of cabinet, VP, and words in public all smack of the typical egotistical american executives we all hate...who are rude, sloppy & ineffectual.
You pointed out that you're a hard worker...well good for you, we need more like you!!! BUT...that thinking also makes you a shmuck! If you want real equality of taxes, realize that "income tax" taxes the over all money you make, while sales tax taxes what you MUST buy to a certian extent. The percentage of your income you MUST spend being poor is drastically higher than the rich guy... to put it another way how many hours did you have to work to pay the sales tax on the same $20 shirt...a minimum wage guy would have to work 4 hours just to pay for the shirt plus another hour for the sales tax...the rich guy might work 1 hour for the whole $100 trip to the mall... see the difference? oh, and the rich guy doesn't pay "medical bills" because somebody else [insurance] pays them...so while you work to pay debt, they get compound interest...basically from you!!
When you start talking about the "top 20%" there's a large spread there as well...after all, 10 families at $100k pay far more real taxes than 1 family with $1m! After all, that's 10 pairs of soccer shoes, 10 Xboxes, 10 pairs of braces...versus only 1 for the guy making a $1m. While the income tax would be close to the same, the "extras" like sales, telcom, etc could be 10x higher part of income for the 'poorer' folk.
consider also that the 20% line probably hits about $75k - $100k in reality. What I mean by that is if YOU have a household income near $100k you probably qualify as "top 20%". The very rich are such a small number that they really only make up 2% of the taxpayers tops... the 20% figure just helps to include "low ranking" accountants and engineers to keep them on the "company line"
the article is saying seattle has been screwed over already...what happens when MS actually has to COMPETE to make a profit?
In other words they're patenting it FOR MS to use, not to prevent MS from using it!!!!
My point is that the Blackout was stupitity...imagine if somebody actually tried at it!!!
I agree with what you got to say, but a good admin absolutely MUST lock down PCs simply to stay ahead of the game. AS a slashdot reader you should respect that decision and give your admin heads up when you need special programs. Most admins keep such programs on their own machines and could easily help you out... note it's not just security, but licensing, sexual harrassment, company security, etc that admins have to worry about.
We lock down wallpapers not because we're worried about viruses, but because the guys on the line put up dirty pics and the bosses teen daughter helping out in the office saw them!!! We lock down outside email because somebody bypassed our mail filters and passed around dirty jokes said bosses daughter reported to daddy...not to mention the disgruntled sales guy that exported his contacts/ pricing sheet to his "new" employer!
As far as AV...do YOU bring any media to work at all from home? You surely scan it at home and at work before you access ANY files ...right... The purpose of scanning every file in memory is because people get sloppy and even 1 time forgetting screws EVERYONE!
At my shop we try to be accomadating, but it's OUR jobs on the line if YOU screw up... After all, it's not going to be YOU at work for 70 hours [salary no less] cleaning up the mess...is it?
Seriously, computers are toolboxes just like anything else. IT's job is to give you the tools management says you need...not everything you want. That you need more tools to do your job is MANAGEMENT's fault for not properly documenting the tools of your work... get your manager to document your tools and IT will cheerfully comply in most cases!!!
Engineers expect to buy shiny new manufacturing equipment and just plug-n-play with the company network. EVERYTHING runs windows now...and adding security software often is unsupported and voids the warranty of million dollar machinery!!! Heck it's hard enough just keeping vendors of systems compliant with the particulars of YOUR MS licensing agreement.
the real problem is that MS has sold business managers the promise of "commodity" PCs...they should just run to the store and buy a few and that's good enough to have a stable reliable business... Of course MS turns around and tells US in IT that we need MCSEs [for the psulrty sum of $60K in education!] just to set up a windows machine...or you're not doing it right...that's why it doesn't work...yeah...whatever.
SO that leaves IT in the middle of marketing versus reality. The trouble is that most IT managers spend so much time troublshooting windows problems [some real, most imagined by users] they honestly don't touch computers when they're at home! So there's no time to learn Linux or any of the other alternatives... they aren't perfect so it looks like more of the same as MS....so nobody feels like changing over to ANOTHER new system. After all, in a company setting it seems like there's at least 2 projects a year that FORCE a multi-month upgrade process...hell, even the MS upgrades take weeks of trial and error with the company's software library before you can let real users on the new machines...There's no way anybody would move a new entire OS network in... MS says it's just too hard.
Eventually, you get the user that knowingly breaks ALL the rules. While SP2 looks to address some of the issues with runaway user clients, once something is inside a corperate network it's really hard to stop. After all, not all machines can run XP with SP2... you may have hardware tied to older versions of Win98, NT, or 2K... that doesn't have all the update features that XP does.
Speaking of update features, the most secure thing to do is NOT let user machines hit the internet directly. My shop has all the machines locked down with no users as administrator. Internet is HEAVILY filtered...even slashdot .ico files don't come thru!!! and all incomming ports other than 80 and it's dependants are rigidly blocked. Unauthenticated machines can't get on the internet [i.e. no Knoppix CD for you!] and all SMTP traffic is blocked or routed to 1 corperate exchange server... Sounds extreme right...
Wrong it's still only a stop gap. A SMS server costs $50k and then you might get close... using other third-party stuff [say $100k total] MIGHT get you to being totally safe from all internal threats...considering we only have 250 nodes [not all computers are for users] that's like $400 per machine for security...on top of hardware, OS and software... no manager in their right mind would sign off on that bill!!! Not to mention the increase in staff from 3 to X just to keep up with all the patching...and all the old software that's broken...or hardware that has to be replaced simply to RUN the security software... The problem is a crappy OS and now the "network effects" are being seen...we spend more and more money on IT to "keep up" and get nothing in return...and the bean-counters hate that when sales are down!!!
I think you canadians are safe from DRM...for now...
Of course Arnold will work to change all that... he doesn't like that cool shows [90%Sci-fi channel, stargate, farscape, anything Tribune...Xena, Hercules, andromeda, etc] are all made in BC far away from the powerful "guilds" of hollywood! Note that because of those "guilds" our "favorite" Star Wars is still being made entirely off shore as well!! Only the non-actor/directed special effects are made here...and only in George's own company. Of course we should START by stopping the use of FORIGEN actors in Hollywood movies...and toss those free-loading SOBs out of the country! [hint Arnold..pot calling kettle black here!] that takes away dreams from american teen TV watchers!!!
They're doing it to try to get the public to wake up to how foolishly our current prez is squandering the lives of our men and women in needless and petty war... The goal is to get the "average guy" that thinks it's OK for Uncle Sam to bomb those damn ^&(*) to wake up and consider that REAL men and women are dying so a few rich americans can stay rich... it might bring it home if YOUR kids lives were on the line. Also, they're trying to limit exemptions for Students, national guard, and women ...because that seems to be where "powerful" people hide their kids while "claiming" to be patriotic [note: the Bushes have mostly DAUGHTERS of military age!!!]. It's also being noted that the largest groups of National Guardsmen being called up are from rural communities...so the city folk with their gas-guzzling SUVs & frat-boy drug-dealing children can be safe!!!
We were SUPPOSED to be able to buy HDTV tuners in 1997!! And they were supposed to be $50 by now. I'm sure it's entirely possible to make one at that price point...it's not much different processing wise than a DVD player. Everyone in the Biz is dragging their feet to make "monopoly money" from the change over. You'll note that while the FCC mandated the "V-chip" they HAVEN'T mandated HDTV tuners in all new TVs with the change over deadlines already past several times over!!!
Personally though, I saw some nice smaller [30"] HDTVs [16:9, i1080 & all] lately that are just about reasonable under $1ooo...even nearing the $500 price point which will offically push them into the mainstream. Of course they're all new models...being as all the manufactures are in the pockets of the *IAA i'm sure they're "safe" now.
They'se getting their feet back that's all! After all, who do you think DESIGNED the entire US and Russian rocket programs....hold on...that'd be the GERMANS we kidnaped after WW2!!! Germans have always been at the forfront of technology, again most of the nuclear scientist on both sides of the cold war were from Germany also...we just got more first because of the stupid Nazis!!!
You'd think MS would venture into space travel...if only to get the executives away from the DOJ... remember guys, Engineers are CHEAPER than lawyers!!!