The way I see it, everything a state government buys they buy with my tax money. Every copy of Office, Netware, 2000 Server, the whole kit and kaboodle. If you figure the cost of 50,000 to 100,000 copies of an MS Office license for a state government, it adds up REAL quick.
This is a push for fiscal responsibility. If there is an open source product available that is comparable to (or better than!) the product currently used, I want my elected officials to take a long, hard look at it.
"Proof Of Social Security Number Tennessee law requires the Social Security number for all applications if a Social Security Number has ever been issued. If you have never been issued a Social Security Number, you must sign an Affidavit under penalty of perjury. The department is also required to maintain this information on each applicant's record. If the license is not a commercial driver license, you can choose whether or not to have your Social Security number printed on your license.
IF a social security number has ever been issued. Otherwise, you sign an affadavit saying you never got one.
The proof of residence includes any two items, including a current utility bill and a rental agreement (lease).
The law was designed to aid illegal immigrants working with the Tn farming community to get some form of ID (nominally, in my mind, they say it is to make the roads safer. The logic here is that these people are going to drive anyways, so if we test them, it gets safer for everyone).
Moral: you already lost. If you have a social security number or driver license number or anything that allows the government to identify or control you, you are already living in a Big Brother society.
In Tennessee, the state requires NO other form of identification to get a drivers license. Since this was enacted by the governor, lines at drivers license stations AVERAGE 4 hours. English is not the most widely used language in these lines, either.
(Hmm, Citizen #95235345 just bought a DVD-R unit and downloaded a copy of DeCSS. Set his Awareness Level to 15%, and send a copy of his Dossier to Media Control for further study. Excellent, we might yet meet our Enforcement quota this week!)
Oh my GOD! The fed's are going to start awarding karma!
"You agree to allow Microsoft to become your default corporate network administrator. We will decide, without regard to the stable PC images you built and deployed, and regardless of any specialized applications you may be running, what patches will be applied to the OS on your production machines. If your non-Microsoft, mission critical software stops working after that, you need to get with your software maker."
This is new EULA is Microsofts way, in my mind, of saying "Hey, you people that don't patch your systems, even in the face of known flaws, are making us look bad. Screw this, if you won't do it, we will!"
hubris (hyoobris) also hybris (hibris) n.
Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance: "There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris" (McGeorge Bundy).
Ok, I am not a programmer. I am in the IT field, but that really doesn't even matter. I mean this kindly, but your question is the fodder for a Dilbert cartoon.
Look at it as a question of something you might do at work. If you make a good suggestion at work for a way to improve a specific area, then that idea gets kicked around, talked up (or down) and gains it's own momentum.
The reason for this is that, once the idea is posited, it becomes sort of a "group objective". You may be asked to run with the idea alone, or to collect input and present a possible solution based on that, but in the end, your idea is an idea to improve your companies business. In other words, you may get a bonus, a good performance review, or at least an "Atta-boy". But you never really question the recognition in the end. That was never the point.
Why? Because you are a part of the team the solution was meant to WORK for. Someone in your company could steal your idea and claim it for themselves, but at least you have people around you that KNOW it was your idea to begin with, and that helps a bit, because in business you expect these things to happen.
In a truly broad-based, decentralized organization (such as the open source community), the possibility of someone running off with your idea outright, or re-doing it to make it more appealing without your input, is much greater. And you don't even have that supportive group of people around who will be able to say, and rightfully so, "Dude, you got SCREWED!"
In the "at work" scenario, you got recognition, either monetarily or otherwise, because you were known in that group. Now, you are wading into the great unkown. How does that work?
The same way. You are still part of a group working for the best solutions. Money probably won't enter into it, but recognition might. And if you get asked to kick it around for input to come up with the best solution, even though in the end it wasn't exactly what you started out looking for, the process is the same. The rewards are the samr to. Your contribution, your efforts, work to make the whole greater.
So thicken up your skin, set a few guidelines for what is and isn't acceptable for your version, and if somebody builds a better mouse-trap based on work you started, in the end, well, you know how it all happened. It started with you.
I asked this once before... Who is responsible? I asked it in response to a question about putting bad programming on a corporate network, but I have to ask it again. Who is responsible?
In an environment where job opportunites are evaporating rapidly, the market of "talent" supposedly narrows down. In other words, only the best should get into a given position.
Let's try a remake of a classic old saying: "If somebody roots your server, but nobody is around to hear it, is the SE responsible?".
It ain't no different than any of the corporate balls up that we have seen lately. When a mistake is made, a fall-person will be found (very pc, eh?). A lack of training? Probably. But whose responsibility is it to know all of this?
I think the company that gets hosed is responsible for providing up to date training to the SE, but all of this finger pointing that I see in the news lately sure makes me nervous!
I think that we are seeing the beginning of a time that will hold anyone, including Engineers (and Admins) responsible as a way out of anything reeking of a financial liability. Not so much because we are the linch-pins to corporate solvability, but because blame deflected doesn't stick to a CEO or CFO or CIO.
Given that we know, for certain, that the moon is made of cheese (this is as obvious as the fact that the universe revolves around the earth), the results are simply deduced:
Umm, even the faq on their website said that IML could stand for Illiterate Markup Language. Teaching a man to fish with a pocket PC ain't happening.
I have been to a number of 3rd world countries throughout my life. In my experience, of 1,000 of these handed out in a given area, 100 will be broken in the 1st month, 800 will be resold for cash, and the last hundred will end up with people that actually use them (and keep them away from everyone else).
Wow, what are the odds that this will get mod'ed down?
LinuxSoft? MicroLinux? Either way, at least someone is taking the first step. To really be competitive means making money, and making money means charging for the product.
Redhat charges for Advanced Server (targeting the Enterprise), but allows server and desktop for free. If I understand correctly, United will charge for "Server" and up, but the desktop will be free. Sort of like "If you build it, they will come" for the desktop piece.
What is troubling (to me) is that, in the end, the precedents here are well documented. We all remember the "free" for life" services when the internet was in first bloom. Free E-mail, web hosting, etc. Those are gone. They won't be back, either. Because they didn't make money.
The "give" here (by United) is on the GPL and releasing source code to developers. That keeps the platform "open", while still managing to charge for the product.
Is Linux on the desktop "ready for Prime Time"? No, probably not. It isn't mindless enough. Certifications? Let's hammer away at that like MS and get 500,000 + folks certified (how many MCSE's are there?). Looks good to IS departments, anyway.
My point? The Linux community will have to answer United's push, and the answer will be an MS-like Linux based counterpoint to Windows. Things are fixing to change.
Re:The future of productivity..
on
GUIs for Robots
·
· Score: 1
Trust me, this is a day at the office where I am working! Sort of makes me feel sorry for a whole string of characters in my life, leading all the way back to Pac Man. All that chomping, all that misery!;-)
I agree that the battles are picked and chosen. Just seems to me that the folks with the most fire-power win (i.e., the bosses). Just posing one of those "Does the good guy get it in the rear end IN the end?" questions.
Slashdot Mirror
Kind of funny that they would mention RPG's. Let's just declare the pentagon the DM, give all of our tanks +10 armor, and sweep through this world!
That they found the vulnerabilities, hacked the boxes for proof, took all the data to the folks involved, and said "Hire us to fix it".
Would you hire somebody that hacked your home pc and left a note that said "I found it, I exploited it, now pay me to fix it"?
My guess is that when no juicy little contract was awarded, they went to plan B, which was the press.
What, did the guy INVENT irc? Like all of a sudden it is the next, sure fire dot.com technology money maker?
Unless you are Bill Gates, alienating your user base is a bad thing.
The way I see it, everything a state government buys they buy with my tax money. Every copy of Office, Netware, 2000 Server, the whole kit and kaboodle. If you figure the cost of 50,000 to 100,000 copies of an MS Office license for a state government, it adds up REAL quick.
This is a push for fiscal responsibility. If there is an open source product available that is comparable to (or better than!) the product currently used, I want my elected officials to take a long, hard look at it.
Fax in a signed affidavid in the name of Harry J. Satan, and I'm in!
Make it $75.00 and space under the front porch and you got a deal.
For what it is worth, the Governor is OUTTA here after this year.
"Proof Of Social Security Number Tennessee law requires the Social Security number for all applications if a Social Security Number has ever been issued. If you have never been issued a Social Security Number, you must sign an Affidavit under penalty of perjury. The department is also required to maintain this information on each applicant's record. If the license is not a commercial driver license, you can choose whether or not to have your Social Security number printed on your license.
IF a social security number has ever been issued. Otherwise, you sign an affadavit saying you never got one.
The proof of residence includes any two items, including a current utility bill and a rental agreement (lease).
The law was designed to aid illegal immigrants working with the Tn farming community to get some form of ID (nominally, in my mind, they say it is to make the roads safer. The logic here is that these people are going to drive anyways, so if we test them, it gets safer for everyone).
Moral: you already lost. If you have a social security number or driver license number or anything that allows the government to identify or control you, you are already living in a Big Brother society.
In Tennessee, the state requires NO other form of identification to get a drivers license. Since this was enacted by the governor, lines at drivers license stations AVERAGE 4 hours. English is not the most widely used language in these lines, either.
(Hmm, Citizen #95235345 just bought a DVD-R unit and downloaded a copy of DeCSS. Set his Awareness Level to 15%, and send a copy of his Dossier to Media Control for further study. Excellent, we might yet meet our Enforcement quota this week!)
Oh my GOD! The fed's are going to start awarding karma!
Could this be .NIP?
"You agree to allow Microsoft to become your default corporate network administrator. We will decide, without regard to the stable PC images you built and deployed, and regardless of any specialized applications you may be running, what patches will be applied to the OS on your production machines. If your non-Microsoft, mission critical software stops working after that, you need to get with your software maker."
This is new EULA is Microsofts way, in my mind, of saying "Hey, you people that don't patch your systems, even in the face of known flaws, are making us look bad. Screw this, if you won't do it, we will!"
hubris (hyoobris) also hybris (hibris) n.
Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance: "There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris" (McGeorge Bundy).
Can you imagine how much Preparation H it'll take to cool THAT asteroid down?
Running NT7? It will take until 2019 to hit because they will need to keep rebooting along the way!
The rocks in their heads, instead.
Ok, I am not a programmer. I am in the IT field, but that really doesn't even matter. I mean this kindly, but your question is the fodder for a Dilbert cartoon.
Look at it as a question of something you might do at work. If you make a good suggestion at work for a way to improve a specific area, then that idea gets kicked around, talked up (or down) and gains it's own momentum.
The reason for this is that, once the idea is posited, it becomes sort of a "group objective". You may be asked to run with the idea alone, or to collect input and present a possible solution based on that, but in the end, your idea is an idea to improve your companies business. In other words, you may get a bonus, a good performance review, or at least an "Atta-boy". But you never really question the recognition in the end. That was never the point.
Why? Because you are a part of the team the solution was meant to WORK for. Someone in your company could steal your idea and claim it for themselves, but at least you have people around you that KNOW it was your idea to begin with, and that helps a bit, because in business you expect these things to happen.
In a truly broad-based, decentralized organization (such as the open source community), the possibility of someone running off with your idea outright, or re-doing it to make it more appealing without your input, is much greater. And you don't even have that supportive group of people around who will be able to say, and rightfully so, "Dude, you got SCREWED!"
In the "at work" scenario, you got recognition, either monetarily or otherwise, because you were known in that group. Now, you are wading into the great unkown. How does that work?
The same way. You are still part of a group working for the best solutions. Money probably won't enter into it, but recognition might. And if you get asked to kick it around for input to come up with the best solution, even though in the end it wasn't exactly what you started out looking for, the process is the same. The rewards are the samr to. Your contribution, your efforts, work to make the whole greater.
So thicken up your skin, set a few guidelines for what is and isn't acceptable for your version, and if somebody builds a better mouse-trap based on work you started, in the end, well, you know how it all happened. It started with you.
Christ, should we sing Kumbaya here?
Best of Luck!
As long as you don't open the box, it is alive. I love to see solid sciences adapted for use by the general public.
I asked this once before... Who is responsible? I asked it in response to a question about putting bad programming on a corporate network, but I have to ask it again. Who is responsible?
In an environment where job opportunites are evaporating rapidly, the market of "talent" supposedly narrows down. In other words, only the best should get into a given position.
Let's try a remake of a classic old saying: "If somebody roots your server, but nobody is around to hear it, is the SE responsible?".
It ain't no different than any of the corporate balls up that we have seen lately. When a mistake is made, a fall-person will be found (very pc, eh?). A lack of training? Probably. But whose responsibility is it to know all of this?
I think the company that gets hosed is responsible for providing up to date training to the SE, but all of this finger pointing that I see in the news lately sure makes me nervous!
I think that we are seeing the beginning of a time that will hold anyone, including Engineers (and Admins) responsible as a way out of anything reeking of a financial liability. Not so much because we are the linch-pins to corporate solvability, but because blame deflected doesn't stick to a CEO or CFO or CIO.
Given that we know, for certain, that the moon is made of cheese (this is as obvious as the fact that the universe revolves around the earth), the results are simply deduced:
We would all be cheesed off.
Thank you. Thank you Very Much.
Umm, even the faq on their website said that IML could stand for Illiterate Markup Language. Teaching a man to fish with a pocket PC ain't happening.
I have been to a number of 3rd world countries throughout my life. In my experience, of 1,000 of these handed out in a given area, 100 will be broken in the 1st month, 800 will be resold for cash, and the last hundred will end up with people that actually use them (and keep them away from everyone else).
Wow, what are the odds that this will get mod'ed down?
I think it is the proof I have been looking for as to where my high school english teacher came from.
Shouldnt it be "From the RTFM Department? Sheesh, if we are going to have to start being all nice to end users, I am gonna start worrying!
If you had twins, you could name them Saxifrage and Violins. After all, you can never get enough Sax & Violins.
I really wonder why I just did that now...
LinuxSoft? MicroLinux? Either way, at least someone is taking the first step. To really be competitive means making money, and making money means charging for the product.
Redhat charges for Advanced Server (targeting the Enterprise), but allows server and desktop for free. If I understand correctly, United will charge for "Server" and up, but the desktop will be free. Sort of like "If you build it, they will come" for the desktop piece.
What is troubling (to me) is that, in the end, the precedents here are well documented. We all remember the "free" for life" services when the internet was in first bloom. Free E-mail, web hosting, etc. Those are gone. They won't be back, either. Because they didn't make money.
The "give" here (by United) is on the GPL and releasing source code to developers. That keeps the platform "open", while still managing to charge for the product.
Is Linux on the desktop "ready for Prime Time"? No, probably not. It isn't mindless enough. Certifications? Let's hammer away at that like MS and get 500,000 + folks certified (how many MCSE's are there?). Looks good to IS departments, anyway.
My point? The Linux community will have to answer United's push, and the answer will be an MS-like Linux based counterpoint to Windows. Things are fixing to change.
Trust me, this is a day at the office where I am working! Sort of makes me feel sorry for a whole string of characters in my life, leading all the way back to Pac Man. All that chomping, all that misery! ;-)
You have an incredibly twisted sense of humor. I like that!
I agree that the battles are picked and chosen. Just seems to me that the folks with the most fire-power win (i.e., the bosses). Just posing one of those "Does the good guy get it in the rear end IN the end?" questions.