The 3-year lease cycle has to do with being able to deduct the full amount of a leased item over a three year period. If ypu purchase you can only deduct 20% per year. If you run your own business you probably know that.
The Forbes article is hardly any longer than this summary. It also does not substantiate the claim of patent troll for either MS or Apple (as mentioned ad nauseum by other posters).
Pretty sad attempt to generate some discussion. At least provide some substance.
In a large organization, I see other folks behaving the same or worse as IT managers: - Human Resources, ever try to reason with one of them that their policy needs to reviewed or does not help in attracting talent? - Finance; yes, once I have the PR, the sole source agreement, the market analysis, I'll get a PO and the invoice will be paid in six months after the vendors berates and tells me that they'll never do business with us again - Legal or Privacy department; seriously, never ever try to disagree with them or propose a different point of view - Researchers; full of primadonnas; the leadership is even worse...
The article is BS; most of the items could apply to any other area or field
No man, I don't vote Liberal or Conservative, and you're confused.
The Liberals FEDERAL governement committed to Kyoto without provincial backing. I suggest you add a "Fuck you, Mr Chretien" as well.
At this point, I rather see the Armed Forces getting something. I take it, you never served? We have crap resources compared to poorer nations. Hard to be a peacekeeper when you spend six hours maintaining your vehicle for a two-hour trip.
Kudos to them for organizing this, but this looks like an affair that could be held in a school's gym or a local legion. Half-dozen vendors and the same number of presentations.
I loved my c64 and even though i have the time to kill, i will most likely not cross the gta to make it to mississauga.
May have been better if this was a larger retro-computing thing...
Technically; Hamburg is a city-state; just like Berlin and Bremen/Bremerhaven. Kiel, Luebeck, Rostock, et al, are also free and Hanseatic cities, just not states in Germany (anymore).
You're 100% correct on the budget. There's no incentive to save money. If you don't spend it all, you would be penalized by having the amount deducted from your operating budget. Everyone around January there would be a mad dash to think of ways to spend/waste money. Couldn't give raises or performance bonuses to my staff though. I certainly could burn money on consultants though...
I hear your dilemna about taking that hefty paycheque and the potential guilt. One of my motivating factors to work in government is to keep people honest, because at the end of the day I'm a taxpayer as well. It's certainly not to be rich. If I was a government agency hiring someone, I'd rather hire someone like you over 99% of the folks I've encountered and you would be much better value for my tax dollar.
It's crazy, I know. I work in government as well, although not defense.
The reason for the prices and the hassle is that the 3rd party in question is contracted to provide the service. They have assurances that the work will be done at a certain level, and more important the contract will have clauses for liability. They in turn will have to have certain items in stock (which costs money), have the qualified staff on call (which costs money), and have the proper insurance in place in case something goes wrong (which costs even more money).
While you were probably more able and more responsive, the truth is that it would have made the brass nervous and set a dangerous precedent. I'm sure they've done their checks on you and that sort, but there was probably no binding contract that governed your activity related to that HW replacement.
Yeah, it was nice of the "journalist" to tell us about his personal millionaire experience and the book he's now selling to talk about it (probably burnt all his cash). Those "paragraphs" are all I personally want to know about this topic.
True, some corps (at least ours) only care about BBM, this is why we got the BB to begin with. If they're not offering it on the Playbook as a standalone soon, then they may as well not bother.
And you're right, it didn't say anything about e-mail. That's not a good omen either.
To be honest when I think of BB, BES = BBM = e-mail. Regular unsafe e-mail doesn't even enter in the picture. That's 95% of its use in our org.
You're being a bit harsh to the guy; he's got a valid point. RIM should have the resources to this. Yeah, they got this new OS, new hardware and a ultra-secret secure messaging system. Isn't it all documented; at least internally? Then they should be able to build it. They promised that the device was capable and that it was coming.
Maybe not two months for an independent firm to build, but certainly RIM should have been able to do this themselves in a year.
Honestly, I put up a semi-brave fight in controlling the inflow of iDevices into our org because the security functions and management were weak. In hindsight, I was stalling for the Playbook to come and save the day.
The Playbook is a piece of shit, and mostly due to the lack of e-mail support. The fact that a subsquent release still won't have this, shows me that RIM has no fucking clue.
Thanks to them, I've had to re-evaluate our approach in regards to iDevices and put the controls in places. Stuff that I could have dodged had RIM not been as arrogant and actually listened to their clients and looked at what made the iDevices so appealing.
Anyways, the things we put in place for the iDevices will serve us well, but it's things that wouldn't have been necessary if I could use the same operational model with the BB. And to be honest, I no longer care. Heck, I even have an iPhone as my main phone now. Working on a pilot to give staff the option to use personal smartphones in a controlled manner. So the BB days are numbered in our org.
You're right, names in themselves are not a secret, you can get them in the phone books, or other public records. E-mails can be. Your membership with The Register can also be a secret. Secret, in the sense, something that you don't want the public to know.
What this list presents: a) a nice collection of individuals with interest in matter IT-related b) a nice list of e-mails c) a list of members of a specific web site
Replace "The Register" with "Republican Party", "Pro-choice Support Group", "STD-infected Patient List", "Shia LeBeouf Fight Fan Site" or "Penthouse Subscriber".
You're absolutely right about your points a) and b). Unfortunately that sometimes cannot be enforced and can be limiting when you want to live in modern society.
I have a suggestion; do the right thing delete the e-mail. I don't know which country you are in, but you may not authorized to use the data and there may be laws around that. No one consented to you using their personal information for "analysis".
What if your computer is compromised and someone gains access to this file? Just get rid of it. At this point in time, you're (inadvertently) part of the problem.
Just because you accidently received the data does not mean you're entitled to use it as you wish. I know, I feel the same way about sat signals and me being able to decrypt them.
I appreciate the cynicism and skepticism. Really I do. It's a crappy incident, but they did handle it very well. I deal with breaches all too often and they did everything appropriately. Would you prefer that they consulted their legal and public affair departments and then aknowledged this a few weeks later? It's rare to see a quick response like that.
Before the Europeans showed up, many places that had the Incas and Mayans had large cities and vast expanses of cultivated lands, that were sparsely forested. A good read is 1491. Once the people were decimated a lot of it was re-forested. Same thing with central Europe and the black plague a century or so earlier.
So a decline of people means an increase in forests basically; I agree it's the plants that had the largest effect then before industrialization kicked in, but it was primarily humans impacting it, so there is a direct link.
What I was getting at, regardless what was gained in the Americas, there loses in forests in Europe and Asia, so whatever was gained there was lost elsewhere. Afterwards there has been a steady decline of forest lands and increase in desertification globally.
Let's just say that a few millions folks died in the span of 100 years during the conquest of the Americas; either through disease, war, displacement, or famine. Say, a few thousand Europeans moved around (remember, it was pretty pricey to have this expeditions funded).
You're forgetting: - the movement of many slaves from Africa to the Americas - a MASSIVE population in south-east asia which at the time was growing substantially; exponentially larger than the devasted European populations by plague and coming out of the Hundred Years War - a considerable population in Africa, which was growing somewhat, especially in Northern Africa
Slashdot Mirror
The 3-year lease cycle has to do with being able to deduct the full amount of a leased item over a three year period. If ypu purchase you can only deduct 20% per year. If you run your own business you probably know that.
I've never been into RPG much; but I remember playing this one. The 3D maze was somewhat cutting edge at the time and it was quite fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons:_Treasure_of_Tarmin
The Forbes article is hardly any longer than this summary. It also does not substantiate the claim of patent troll for either MS or Apple (as mentioned ad nauseum by other posters).
Pretty sad attempt to generate some discussion. At least provide some substance.
FYI: MS no longer holds any of that initial 150 million investment; http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/05/apples-stock-rise-could-have-meant-5-billion-for-microsoft.ars
In addition, Sony put in some new DRM trojan that will delete all your Bobby Brown mp3s.
In a large organization, I see other folks behaving the same or worse as IT managers: ...
- Human Resources, ever try to reason with one of them that their policy needs to reviewed or does not help in attracting talent?
- Finance; yes, once I have the PR, the sole source agreement, the market analysis, I'll get a PO and the invoice will be paid in six months after the vendors berates and tells me that they'll never do business with us again
- Legal or Privacy department; seriously, never ever try to disagree with them or propose a different point of view
- Researchers; full of primadonnas; the leadership is even worse
The article is BS; most of the items could apply to any other area or field
No man, I don't vote Liberal or Conservative, and you're confused.
The Liberals FEDERAL governement committed to Kyoto without provincial backing. I suggest you add a "Fuck you, Mr Chretien" as well.
At this point, I rather see the Armed Forces getting something. I take it, you never served? We have crap resources compared to poorer nations. Hard to be a peacekeeper when you spend six hours maintaining your vehicle for a two-hour trip.
Kudos to them for organizing this, but this looks like an affair that could be held in a school's gym or a local legion. Half-dozen vendors and the same number of presentations.
I loved my c64 and even though i have the time to kill, i will most likely not cross the gta to make it to mississauga.
May have been better if this was a larger retro-computing thing ...
Technically; Hamburg is a city-state; just like Berlin and Bremen/Bremerhaven. Kiel, Luebeck, Rostock, et al, are also free and Hanseatic cities, just not states in Germany (anymore).
Very good observations.
You're 100% correct on the budget. There's no incentive to save money. If you don't spend it all, you would be penalized by having the amount deducted from your operating budget. Everyone around January there would be a mad dash to think of ways to spend/waste money. Couldn't give raises or performance bonuses to my staff though. I certainly could burn money on consultants though ...
I hear your dilemna about taking that hefty paycheque and the potential guilt. One of my motivating factors to work in government is to keep people honest, because at the end of the day I'm a taxpayer as well. It's certainly not to be rich. If I was a government agency hiring someone, I'd rather hire someone like you over 99% of the folks I've encountered and you would be much better value for my tax dollar.
It's crazy, I know. I work in government as well, although not defense.
The reason for the prices and the hassle is that the 3rd party in question is contracted to provide the service. They have assurances that the work will be done at a certain level, and more important the contract will have clauses for liability. They in turn will have to have certain items in stock (which costs money), have the qualified staff on call (which costs money), and have the proper insurance in place in case something goes wrong (which costs even more money).
While you were probably more able and more responsive, the truth is that it would have made the brass nervous and set a dangerous precedent. I'm sure they've done their checks on you and that sort, but there was probably no binding contract that governed your activity related to that HW replacement.
80% of the activity at the government is CYA.
- (State Homeland Investigation Taskforce) - aka DIP(SHIT)
As a non-USAer; I have to say that the DHS has been doing an excellent PR job for your country.
I too think something in German or Russian would be appropriate. Amerikanischer Staat Schutz?
I find those stories more fascinating than I can find here on /. .
The memes could use some updating. Maybe they make this open source?
Odd; from Wikipedia:
"Baron-Cohen is the son of Judith and Vivian Baron-Cohen"
Aren't "Judith" and "Vivian" two female first names? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Yeah, it was nice of the "journalist" to tell us about his personal millionaire experience and the book he's now selling to talk about it (probably burnt all his cash). Those "paragraphs" are all I personally want to know about this topic.
The ET "analogy" also bothered me.
Wouldn't the Apple stuff be subject to something similar? Safari comes bundled too ...
Thanks for the heads-up. I must be new here, should've picked up on that.
True, some corps (at least ours) only care about BBM, this is why we got the BB to begin with. If they're not offering it on the Playbook as a standalone soon, then they may as well not bother.
And you're right, it didn't say anything about e-mail. That's not a good omen either.
To be honest when I think of BB, BES = BBM = e-mail. Regular unsafe e-mail doesn't even enter in the picture. That's 95% of its use in our org.
You're being a bit harsh to the guy; he's got a valid point. RIM should have the resources to this. Yeah, they got this new OS, new hardware and a ultra-secret secure messaging system. Isn't it all documented; at least internally? Then they should be able to build it. They promised that the device was capable and that it was coming.
Maybe not two months for an independent firm to build, but certainly RIM should have been able to do this themselves in a year.
Honestly, I put up a semi-brave fight in controlling the inflow of iDevices into our org because the security functions and management were weak. In hindsight, I was stalling for the Playbook to come and save the day.
The Playbook is a piece of shit, and mostly due to the lack of e-mail support. The fact that a subsquent release still won't have this, shows me that RIM has no fucking clue.
Thanks to them, I've had to re-evaluate our approach in regards to iDevices and put the controls in places. Stuff that I could have dodged had RIM not been as arrogant and actually listened to their clients and looked at what made the iDevices so appealing.
Anyways, the things we put in place for the iDevices will serve us well, but it's things that wouldn't have been necessary if I could use the same operational model with the BB. And to be honest, I no longer care. Heck, I even have an iPhone as my main phone now. Working on a pilot to give staff the option to use personal smartphones in a controlled manner. So the BB days are numbered in our org.
"They're hosed"
You're right, names in themselves are not a secret, you can get them in the phone books, or other public records. E-mails can be. Your membership with The Register can also be a secret. Secret, in the sense, something that you don't want the public to know.
What this list presents:
a) a nice collection of individuals with interest in matter IT-related
b) a nice list of e-mails
c) a list of members of a specific web site
Replace "The Register" with "Republican Party", "Pro-choice Support Group", "STD-infected Patient List", "Shia LeBeouf Fight Fan Site" or "Penthouse Subscriber".
You're absolutely right about your points a) and b). Unfortunately that sometimes cannot be enforced and can be limiting when you want to live in modern society.
I have a suggestion; do the right thing delete the e-mail. I don't know which country you are in, but you may not authorized to use the data and there may be laws around that. No one consented to you using their personal information for "analysis".
What if your computer is compromised and someone gains access to this file? Just get rid of it. At this point in time, you're (inadvertently) part of the problem.
Just because you accidently received the data does not mean you're entitled to use it as you wish. I know, I feel the same way about sat signals and me being able to decrypt them.
I appreciate the cynicism and skepticism. Really I do. It's a crappy incident, but they did handle it very well. I deal with breaches all too often and they did everything appropriately. Would you prefer that they consulted their legal and public affair departments and then aknowledged this a few weeks later? It's rare to see a quick response like that.
Having said that, it was a stupid mistake.
Regards the DNS hack, nope, they did post it:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/05/dns_hijack_service_updated/
All in all, it's still one of the better web sites out there.
Before the Europeans showed up, many places that had the Incas and Mayans had large cities and vast expanses of cultivated lands, that were sparsely forested. A good read is 1491. Once the people were decimated a lot of it was re-forested. Same thing with central Europe and the black plague a century or so earlier.
So a decline of people means an increase in forests basically; I agree it's the plants that had the largest effect then before industrialization kicked in, but it was primarily humans impacting it, so there is a direct link.
What I was getting at, regardless what was gained in the Americas, there loses in forests in Europe and Asia, so whatever was gained there was lost elsewhere. Afterwards there has been a steady decline of forest lands and increase in desertification globally.
Let's just say that a few millions folks died in the span of 100 years during the conquest of the Americas; either through disease, war, displacement, or famine. Say, a few thousand Europeans moved around (remember, it was pretty pricey to have this expeditions funded).
You're forgetting:
- the movement of many slaves from Africa to the Americas
- a MASSIVE population in south-east asia which at the time was growing substantially; exponentially larger than the devasted European populations by plague and coming out of the Hundred Years War
- a considerable population in Africa, which was growing somewhat, especially in Northern Africa
That would offset any losses in the Americas.
What a stupid idea.