Yet nobody has access to it by click of a mouse. Just like with cameras on public places: yes, 100 people can see me on the street. But if you ask them if they saw me, 99% will say "no" (1% is the guy that bumped into me). If you ask a computerized system whether it saw me on the street, it will crunch a second or two and then it will say "yes" and highlight my outline on picture - 99% of the time (1% of the time when it is raining and everybody has a an umbrella above him).
During my high school days I had to spend a week in a IT lab by a real company. I (and 5-6 of my other classmates) were assigned a room with a PMD-85. It was a 8-bit computer a bit similar to old Atari or Amiga. As the wiki page says, it often suffered from overheating. So the solution implemented by the company was: to rip 5x10cm hole in the ROM module cover and ram a hair dryer into the hole (set to "cold" of course).
The point is that "you can afford one" as long as you have any property. You have to spend it all, before you are entitled to ex-offo. When all is said and done, you are left with nothing. Even if you win.
First off, the term "identity theft" is completely ridiculous. No one is taking away who you are....
If you are not the only one "Jonboy X" that can prove that he is "Jonboy X" than you don't have identity. You are left with plurality at best;-) You had identity before and now you don't have it anymore. Sounds pretty much like theft to me. Of course it is not only about the name. If someone can succesfully pretend to be you - including your debt history, providing correct address, SSN, CC # and your/. account... - how do we know it is you? We don't. You lost your identification.
> by your same logic, if i murder you, it's a natural act
> so therefore, i should not be held accountable, right?
Well the dolphins for sure would not care if you killed me. From their perspective that is a natural act. If a dolphin A kills a dolphin B, then other dolphins may become angry at dolphin A and punish him, though.
I think the web (web 2.0 particularly) threw the concept of "uniform UI" out the window. Once the average user was supposed to learn to use a small, consistent and coherent set of widgets, practices, metaphors, etc. now they are exposed to different login procedures, different password schemes, captchas (an absolute UI WTF), flash interfaces, AJAX interfaces, JAVA interfaces, standard Web forms, etc.
Just for fun I tried once to write a text book for high school on subject Informatics i.e. the classes for "coping with computers". I thought that instead to explaining how to change font to bold by clicking menu Format->Character in MS Word (what usually current textbooks do) I'd explain concepts: what are the common widgets, how they behave and what they are used for. Dialog windows, frame windows, check boxes, radio buttons, combo boxes, menus, tabs, scroll bars... Then I saw beta of new MS Office. I could not find File->Open for 5 minutes. Diverging from using standard widgets will make it difficult to switch products. Even if they are from the same vendor. I can't image how this will be taught at schools.
Good for you. Basically the same laws are valid in my country. The problem is that they do not work.
I got good offer from a bank for a credit card (they are not so common here, most people use debit cards). I applied and I had to supply some information about my backround, so the bank knows I can pay back my debts.
(that was the 1st strange thing because they aproached me because of my account history). After one manth I got a written balance statement and I saw that the offer is not that good as advertisied. The clerk in bank simply told me something what turned out not to be true. I said: ok, cancel the credit card. And I formally asked for list of informations they received as part of application, list of 3rd parties they provided this info to and I asked them to delete that information. The reply: You are right that based on the "privacy law" you can request deletion of that data, but based on "archiving law" we and "National credit bureau" can keep the data for next 5 years.
"National privacy protection office" confirmed this. I never heard about "archiving law" before.
So, don't trust laws in your country unless you get a chance to test them on your own.
On the other hand, it is enough to read the RFID when the cover is only slightly open. What prevents reading the data from 10 metres while the imigration officer is looking at the open passport?
> > How about if you're going to conduct business in a country, you follow and obey all local rules and regulations? If you can't comply, then about making it so that you block access yourself so you don't violate those laws and regulations.
>I'm sorry, but your post doesn't conform to the prevailing anti-American meme that has taken hold of Slashdot. Never mind that you are correct. Please surrender your username and password.
Was he really "going to conduct business in US". Or did he just set up a web site in UK? Because in that case I'd have to think twice about setting up my homepage here in Central Europe. I should better consult some US laywer to make sure that I don't publish some information that is illegal in US. Right?
> > WHEREAS ALL they NEED to do and HAD to do is to bar all access from u.s. to that u.k. site
> If the US government did that, then you'd be complaining about censorship.
People outside US would not notice. US citizens would complain to US government about moronic laws. Which is exactly what should happen.
Suits aren't security experts, and they don't need to be. In fact, they're not necessarily experts in everything/anything.
Experts? Please tell me what a password is? I was told that a password is something what I use to prove to the system that it is me. It is a protection measure. In no other field of our life, are protection measures regarded as something what we can substitute with something weak. Walls of your house are not made of thin paper, seatbelts are not made of shoe-laces and passwords should not be this easy to guess.
Are you able to keep the whole world in order? You do realize at there's 6 billion people on the planet right? Most of them would kill you, your family, and everyone you know, if it made their lives even marginally better. So go ahead, try to "keep the world in order", I'm sure that'll work out great for you, by yourself. What's that? You'll get some friends to help? You do realize you just created a government then, right? Albiet, an informal government that probably would rule by force. Good job. [Emphasis mine]
Please keep your government to rule your country. The other 5.7 billion people can do without oversight of US quite well. Thank you.
> I feel more confident in the future of the Internet if DNS remains into American control than if it were to be placed into the hands of a UN-like international body. There are too many dictatorships in the world who would seek to hinder freedom on the net.
So I don't understand why you prefer "American control" then.
Slashdot Mirror
Why would you print building blocks, when you can print the assembled thing?
During my high school days I had to spend a week in a IT lab by a real company. I (and 5-6 of my other classmates) were assigned a room with a PMD-85. It was a 8-bit computer a bit similar to old Atari or Amiga. As the wiki page says, it often suffered from overheating. So the solution implemented by the company was: to rip 5x10cm hole in the ROM module cover and ram a hair dryer into the hole (set to "cold" of course).
Move him to the Sales&Marketing dept. Problem solved.
The point is that "you can afford one" as long as you have any property. You have to spend it all, before you are entitled to ex-offo. When all is said and done, you are left with nothing. Even if you win.
Right. Credit Suisse is using Linux since 2002.
If you are not the only one "Jonboy X" that can prove that he is "Jonboy X" than you don't have identity. You are left with plurality at best ;-) You had identity before and now you don't have it anymore. Sounds pretty much like theft to me. Of course it is not only about the name. If someone can succesfully pretend to be you - including your debt history, providing correct address, SSN, CC # and your /. account ... - how do we know it is you? We don't. You lost your identification.
> so therefore, i should not be held accountable, right?
Well the dolphins for sure would not care if you killed me. From their perspective that is a natural act. If a dolphin A kills a dolphin B, then other dolphins may become angry at dolphin A and punish him, though.
I don't know about background, but checks from financial institutions are always welcome.
So they "have a good moment" when they take some technology from someone else. Great. ;-)
Name three.
>Such as say, http://www.ntfs-3g.org/?
Just like that. Only it would not have to be reverse-engineered and it would not be beta. (Though I appreciate the ntfs-3g team work very much.)
Good for you. Basically the same laws are valid in my country. The problem is that they do not work.
I got good offer from a bank for a credit card (they are not so common here, most people use debit cards). I applied and I had to supply some information about my backround, so the bank knows I can pay back my debts. (that was the 1st strange thing because they aproached me because of my account history). After one manth I got a written balance statement and I saw that the offer is not that good as advertisied. The clerk in bank simply told me something what turned out not to be true. I said: ok, cancel the credit card. And I formally asked for list of informations they received as part of application, list of 3rd parties they provided this info to and I asked them to delete that information. The reply: You are right that based on the "privacy law" you can request deletion of that data, but based on "archiving law" we and "National credit bureau" can keep the data for next 5 years. "National privacy protection office" confirmed this. I never heard about "archiving law" before.
So, don't trust laws in your country unless you get a chance to test them on your own.
Um, by examining the scientific evidence?
http://rastos.org/flamewar.html
On the other hand, it is enough to read the RFID when the cover is only slightly open. What prevents reading the data from 10 metres while the imigration officer is looking at the open passport?
>I'm sorry, but your post doesn't conform to the prevailing anti-American meme that has taken hold of Slashdot. Never mind that you are correct. Please surrender your username and password.
Was he really "going to conduct business in US". Or did he just set up a web site in UK? Because in that case I'd have to think twice about setting up my homepage here in Central Europe. I should better consult some US laywer to make sure that I don't publish some information that is illegal in US. Right?
> If the US government did that, then you'd be complaining about censorship.
People outside US would not notice. US citizens would complain to US government about moronic laws. Which is exactly what should happen.
Experts? Please tell me what a password is? I was told that a password is something what I use to prove to the system that it is me. It is a protection measure. In no other field of our life, are protection measures regarded as something what we can substitute with something weak. Walls of your house are not made of thin paper, seatbelts are not made of shoe-laces and passwords should not be this easy to guess.
Please keep your government to rule your country. The other 5.7 billion people can do without oversight of US quite well. Thank you.
Um, I find your post to be "annoying and offensive" ... oops.
So I don't understand why you prefer "American control" then.