....we know our privacy is non-existent.
That Verizon could continue to talk of a deal after the last Yahoo! breach was amazing. If Verizon continues with an additional *billion* it shows that neither the market nor the establishment can penalise egregious data loss. It's pathetic that they claim bank account information is likely safe, but the combination of personal data _plus security questions and answers_ opens a whole new field.
Wow.
I've been with Three for some time and they began cutting my tethering. How - out of interest - do you tether while convincing them it's the phone eating the data?
Five years ago my local area ("Parish" in the UK) asked for my help. I realise the question is about a 'platform' but really do have to side with the process people here. I developed a site on Textpattern, and editable at the back-end. Three main things happened:
1. The design was critiqued by committee...move this picture here; have links this colour; can we have this scrolling etc. Indeed I was asked by separate members of the committee to do contradictory things!
2. The content became my responsibility: I was handed paper photos; old documents and asked to get them online. The few things I was emailed were in Word documents and when I tidied them up I was challenged about why my fonts had been lost
3. Whenever someone saw something on another website, they wanted it on ours: picture scrollers, Flash animations, user accounts, personalisation, weather forecasts you name it!
Since, in a gig like this, you can never enforce your own conditions (like saying you won't amend the design on every whim) you have to let the tools enforce this for you.
If I was ever to try this again I would opt for an easily user-editable, hosted solution. Wordpress will be ideal: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/wordpress-for-cities/ You can cast your role as advising them on how to run it: information architecture; doing the limited number of graphics and showing people how to use the editor. Your role is not to continually re-design (just customise the template), nor to populate the whole thing. You'll also not have to put up with a 2am phone call from the Mayor to say your site is flagged as having malware and is littered with anti-city comments. Wordpress will deal with that for you.
I have used Drupal (and CiviCRM) for other sites and they are phenomenal tools...I just think for a 6,000 grouping they are overkill. And remember if the city wants personalisation, user accounts, billing, consultations etc. online then they really should be paying for someone to develop it for them (perhaps using those tools).
Hosted Wordpress will also help you see whether they are ready to run their own online affairs.
The BBCs in a bit of a sticky spot with this. The BBCs focus is the UK, and agrees with programme makers to show programme in the UK. Where the content is made available on the web, there are no geographical restrictions, so I understand that programme makers -- and not the BBC -- are the people who mandate that a programme should not be made available outside the UK. I think it's for this reason that IMP includes DRM software.
When the BBC does own the complete rights, it seems to give it away pretty freely for non-commercial use. Examples include the MP3 of Beethoven that BBC Radio 3 gave away; and the BBCs Creative Archive
It is unfortunate that DRM is a part of the BBCs world, but the option would be to not provide content at all. Additionally some of the UK media would whip up a frenzy -- "UK licence payers foot the bill for worldwide quality internet TV". This comes about because of the disconnect between the UK licencing system and the World Wide Web.
Google have this nice Desktop (looks a lot like a sidebar to me); Early Longhorn screendumps had this type of thing; and you can find all manner of sidebars to add to your Win98 setup if you wish.
Now, I like the idea that my computer encourages me to do one thing at once (pretty much). Does anyone else feel that all this info on a sidebar would just be a disraction?
Imagine how the productivity of womenfolk would drop if the images section included some fluffy kittens or a little dog.
Hmm, yes. I've worked closely with a UK bank that moved from OS/2 based machines to something by NCR based on XP.
This new platform was going to be brilliant because it would allow Flash animations, and was XP-based.
Once roll out was under way, all 1000 ATMs in the network has to be re-booted *TWICE* per week because of a memory leak in the NCR software. Nothing crazy happended (like £20s being dispensed in place of £10s), but the availability of the ATM fleet went through the floor.
On the VISA issue, some time ago, VISA insisted that some Philips ATMs were removed from the network because of their security. They were OS/2 based. I'm sure people with huge losses to make (like VISA) are driving security here. Banks seem to like to go for the 'softer' side of buying ATM software (Flash animation, familiar UI for cashiers etc.)
Some time ago (perhaps 2 years) I saw a Nationwide Building Society ATM that was crashed displaying it's own IP address for all to see. I don't think moving to Windows for ATMs is a really new thing.
I've spent many a happy hour browsing Ceefax, and this website about how it all fits together. As a youth it takes a lot of effort to work out how Ceefax sends the page you ask for, but there's no two-way communication -- Page Frame Relay comes to the rescue.
Bit of trivia -- Ceefax is ocasionally known as in the UK as the Skinternet because of the relative cheapness of getting on to Ceefax as opposed to the internet.
[ Skint + Internet ]
The pdf includes this:
On [SCO's] request, but not more frequently than annually, Licensee shall furnish to SCO a statement,... stating that the use by Licensee of Software Products subject to this Agreement has been reviewed and that each such Software Product is being used solely on such Designated CPUs (or temporarily on back-up CPUs) for such Software Products in full compliance with the provisions of this Agreement.
OK, Lets say we can live with that request. But how does SCO translate this into the Points 1 to 8 (The not using Linux, making sure all contractors are aware...)? IANAL -- surley just a statement to say 'YES -- I am using it within the rights you conferred on me' should satisfy that part of the agreement.
Good point -- I like it that in the UK checks are made on your vehicle after any claim. So, for example, if you insure your car, and it gets crashed, the insurer looks through the car database (MIAFTR(?)) and only then tells you that it was acuatlly a write-off and so your insurance is invalid. Why, oh why, don't they do this checking before the policy starts?
This Might Make Novell More Attractive
on
Novell Buys Ximian
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Novell produce some really nice software -- Netware seems solid, secure and provides a more useful and workable system out of the box than windows.
My biggest problem with Novell is that to get any of the great benefits that Netware provides, I have to buy a slew of stuff -- like ZenWorks and BorderWare. To get a complete network OS, I have to either shell out, or make some kludges to get things to work together, using olde batch files, for example.
In all, this means it's better to start of with something that only claims to be the hub of an NOS and build other software on to it -- like SME Server -- and its at no cost.
In buying Ximian, I hope Novell will be able to offer SMEs a workable, useful, solution that gives everyting a NOS should be capable of for the same price (rather than just the core) so desktop management (over Windows, Linux and Mac), e-mail, and firewalling would all come together at a Microsoft-beating price.
If we do change the weather on a more regular basis, and with more accuracy, the expectation will be set that no-one should experience bad weather. Once we shift hail clouds away from a farm, that farmer can expect never to see hail again. When he does, he'll ask why did his farm got hail when it has been moved away in the past.
The scope for litigation would be enormous -- weather would now be the responsibility of local government.
Schemes to control weather in the UK have generally failed. I feel that the scale of experimatation needed to get it right will stop us from ever fine-tuning the weather and knowing the consequences.
Checking links and so on
Try Mercury's Astra Quick Test which is a free download for a limited subset of protocols, but is useful for checking dead links automatically.
Performance Testing Web Applications
We use Mercury to test massive ebusiness applications -- on the scale of a large UK bank. We have 7 people who work on LoadRunner all the time.
For recording and replaying simple processes, LoadRunner is fine. There are some quirks, though, that can really upset testing -- like if a developer uses non-standard technologies: like ScriptX controls. LoadRunner also gets upset at things like gzipping content.
The biggest issue we have is making sure data from a large number of systems is in line with each other and fed into LoadRunner in the right way.
We have looked at other tools (like Segue Silk Performer) but they seemed to be slightly behind LoadRunner.
The quality of LoadRunner isn't too great, there are numerous crashes (v. frustrating) and 'features' that crop up in the middle of testing. We keep around 0.5 of a version behind the current offering which is pretty stable and has the problems ironed out.
Mercury can be buggers about licencing: once you buy, say, 1000 Virtual users for the Web, you can't swap them for Oracle. Mercury also insist on using dongles which limits the amount of simultaneous testing performed. At the moment we pay around £70k for 100 VUsers and a dongle. We also have to pay 20% per year in Maintainance -- although Tech. Support in the UK isn't too great.
Slashdot Mirror
....we know our privacy is non-existent. That Verizon could continue to talk of a deal after the last Yahoo! breach was amazing. If Verizon continues with an additional *billion* it shows that neither the market nor the establishment can penalise egregious data loss. It's pathetic that they claim bank account information is likely safe, but the combination of personal data _plus security questions and answers_ opens a whole new field. Wow.
I've been with Three for some time and they began cutting my tethering. How - out of interest - do you tether while convincing them it's the phone eating the data?
Since, in a gig like this, you can never enforce your own conditions (like saying you won't amend the design on every whim) you have to let the tools enforce this for you.
If I was ever to try this again I would opt for an easily user-editable, hosted solution. Wordpress will be ideal: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/wordpress-for-cities/ You can cast your role as advising them on how to run it: information architecture; doing the limited number of graphics and showing people how to use the editor. Your role is not to continually re-design (just customise the template), nor to populate the whole thing. You'll also not have to put up with a 2am phone call from the Mayor to say your site is flagged as having malware and is littered with anti-city comments. Wordpress will deal with that for you.
I have used Drupal (and CiviCRM) for other sites and they are phenomenal tools...I just think for a 6,000 grouping they are overkill. And remember if the city wants personalisation, user accounts, billing, consultations etc. online then they really should be paying for someone to develop it for them (perhaps using those tools).
Hosted Wordpress will also help you see whether they are ready to run their own online affairs.
When the BBC does own the complete rights, it seems to give it away pretty freely for non-commercial use. Examples include the MP3 of Beethoven that BBC Radio 3 gave away; and the BBCs Creative Archive
It is unfortunate that DRM is a part of the BBCs world, but the option would be to not provide content at all. Additionally some of the UK media would whip up a frenzy -- "UK licence payers foot the bill for worldwide quality internet TV". This comes about because of the disconnect between the UK licencing system and the World Wide Web.
Google have this nice Desktop (looks a lot like a sidebar to me); Early Longhorn screendumps had this type of thing; and you can find all manner of sidebars to add to your Win98 setup if you wish.
Now, I like the idea that my computer encourages me to do one thing at once (pretty much). Does anyone else feel that all this info on a sidebar would just be a disraction?
Imagine how the productivity of womenfolk would drop if the images section included some fluffy kittens or a little dog.
This new platform was going to be brilliant because it would allow Flash animations, and was XP-based.
Once roll out was under way, all 1000 ATMs in the network has to be re-booted *TWICE* per week because of a memory leak in the NCR software. Nothing crazy happended (like £20s being dispensed in place of £10s), but the availability of the ATM fleet went through the floor.
On the VISA issue, some time ago, VISA insisted that some Philips ATMs were removed from the network because of their security. They were OS/2 based. I'm sure people with huge losses to make (like VISA) are driving security here. Banks seem to like to go for the 'softer' side of buying ATM software (Flash animation, familiar UI for cashiers etc.)
Some time ago (perhaps 2 years) I saw a Nationwide Building Society ATM that was crashed displaying it's own IP address for all to see. I don't think moving to Windows for ATMs is a really new thing.
I've spent many a happy hour browsing Ceefax, and this website about how it all fits together. As a youth it takes a lot of effort to work out how Ceefax sends the page you ask for, but there's no two-way communication -- Page Frame Relay comes to the rescue.
Bit of trivia -- Ceefax is ocasionally known as in the UK as the Skinternet because of the relative cheapness of getting on to Ceefax as opposed to the internet.
[ Skint + Internet ]
OK, Lets say we can live with that request. But how does SCO translate this into the Points 1 to 8 (The not using Linux, making sure all contractors are aware...)? IANAL -- surley just a statement to say 'YES -- I am using it within the rights you conferred on me' should satisfy that part of the agreement.
...it might just be me, but is that a Windows 2003 Server ad that appears on the page along with Ernie Ball's story?
Good point -- I like it that in the UK checks are made on your vehicle after any claim. So, for example, if you insure your car, and it gets crashed, the insurer looks through the car database (MIAFTR(?)) and only then tells you that it was acuatlly a write-off and so your insurance is invalid. Why, oh why, don't they do this checking before the policy starts?
My biggest problem with Novell is that to get any of the great benefits that Netware provides, I have to buy a slew of stuff -- like ZenWorks and BorderWare. To get a complete network OS, I have to either shell out, or make some kludges to get things to work together, using olde batch files, for example.
In all, this means it's better to start of with something that only claims to be the hub of an NOS and build other software on to it -- like SME Server -- and its at no cost.
In buying Ximian, I hope Novell will be able to offer SMEs a workable, useful, solution that gives everyting a NOS should be capable of for the same price (rather than just the core) so desktop management (over Windows, Linux and Mac), e-mail, and firewalling would all come together at a Microsoft-beating price.
The scope for litigation would be enormous -- weather would now be the responsibility of local government.
Schemes to control weather in the UK have generally failed. I feel that the scale of experimatation needed to get it right will stop us from ever fine-tuning the weather and knowing the consequences.
Checking links and so on
Try Mercury's Astra Quick Test which is a free download for a limited subset of protocols, but is useful for checking dead links automatically.
Performance Testing Web Applications
We use Mercury to test massive ebusiness applications -- on the scale of a large UK bank. We have 7 people who work on LoadRunner all the time.
For recording and replaying simple processes, LoadRunner is fine. There are some quirks, though, that can really upset testing -- like if a developer uses non-standard technologies: like ScriptX controls. LoadRunner also gets upset at things like gzipping content.
The biggest issue we have is making sure data from a large number of systems is in line with each other and fed into LoadRunner in the right way.
We have looked at other tools (like Segue Silk Performer) but they seemed to be slightly behind LoadRunner.
The quality of LoadRunner isn't too great, there are numerous crashes (v. frustrating) and 'features' that crop up in the middle of testing. We keep around 0.5 of a version behind the current offering which is pretty stable and has the problems ironed out.
Mercury can be buggers about licencing: once you buy, say, 1000 Virtual users for the Web, you can't swap them for Oracle. Mercury also insist on using dongles which limits the amount of simultaneous testing performed. At the moment we pay around £70k for 100 VUsers and a dongle. We also have to pay 20% per year in Maintainance -- although Tech. Support in the UK isn't too great.