We started using these devices at the office supply company I work at, and I'm glad. We routinely pay our furniture installers huge dribbling gobs of overtime, when all you have to do is drive by the local Timmies or McDonalds to see them goofing off on a 3 hour lunch break. But now, with GPS going in, they won't be able to bugger around like that. It's refreshing.
On a more productive note, we're also using it to start mapping out our office supply delivery routes, to look for ways we can increase efficiency in the routing. Again, I'm all for it.
It boils down to "you're being paid to do a job, so get off your ass and do it". When you're working outside the office, you're still WORKING. If I have to put up with our outside sales reps taking 3 hour lunches, then getting their dry cleaning, picking up their kids from school, doing their shopping, going out for coffee, heading home, and coming in the next day complaining about how they didn't get home till 7 last night, I'm gonna start shooting, I swear.
Now, there's an important difference between outside folks and Internal/Geek work: it's piecemeal. "You have x tasks to complete today. Get them done." If getting done early meant I got to go home, I wouldn't complain in the least about monitoring where I was... but, for most geeks, the truth is they just want you there to fix the stuff they break, and make their little blinky boxes do cool stuff, and apart from that, they don't really care how hard you work... at least, at most of the places I've been. Hell, they aren't bright enough to understand how hard we work (or don't work).
Now, as for those schmucks who want folks carrying a GPS cell phone around at all hours... if you're paying me for 24 hour call, I'll be on 24 hour call, but where I go when I'm not on "normal work hours" is none of your damn business. That is taking it just a wee bit too far for my taste. I think the important question we forget to ask is "why"? Why do you want me to be on 24 hour call for free? Why do you want GPS on me all the time? Why are you logging all 'net access?
"Why" is a very important question to ask when you wonder if the situation is acceptable or not. In this case, "Why GPS on outside employees" is a no brainer.
Thanks Michael. I really needed an excuse to ramble on for 4 pages. My physical therapy bill is in the mail for my poor, worn-down typing fingers.
A great idea that needs more press.
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Time Sharing Cars
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· Score: 4, Interesting
There are times when public tranportation is useful... I was a bus man for many years.
But, frankly, there's times when it's a pain... it's off-peak hours, the weather is crappy, you have to go a long distance with several transfers, you're picking up something that can't be easily carried around, you're going on a date (well, not YOU, per se... but a non-slashdot reader).
I got quite sick of planning to be on the bus several hours per day when I worked on the far side of the city, but I couldn't afford the incredibly outrageous amounts for a car.
I mean, come on folks... it's a freakin CAR, it's not made of gold, it doesn't come with a built-in treasure map... why in the name of Linus should a chunk of metal that explodes dead dinosaurs to move cost $40,000+, and have insurance, consumables, and maintenance that can add up to many thousands per year more? I think they're priced that way because we're all conditioned to think that they should be expensive.
But, I digress. I wish this had been available when it was the right time of life for me to use it... a convenient way to have occasional access to a vehicle (an occasional requirement in a city with an extremely low population density like Edmonton) without having to bend over and take it up the ass from all the fuckers who seem to think that because the word "auto" has 4 letters, all the associated costs should have 4 digits (significant). I hope projects like these get more coverage, and help stop the rush of people going out to buy cars they can't afford with loans they can't afford on income they can't guarantee.
In Other News: That guy who got the sysadmin job I applied for has now cost me over $60,000CDN in lost income. Bastard!
And the cow-irker who works down the hall and purchased a computer from CompuSlut instead of me cost me another $250. Bastard!
And all those people who wanted holiday photos printed, and went to a "professional printers" instead of letting me charge them $20 per page to do it on my colour laser just cost me over $600! Bastard!
I mean, what do we think we are, a capitalist society here or something? I have a right to this money, and it is inherently wrong for anyone but ME to get it!
We all need to band together to ensure that EVERYONE has to pay whatever price I set for my services, because it is just WRONG for some new paradigm to come along and get the money, just because they happen to have a cheaper method of doing things. It's WRONG, I tell you, and we must FIGHT IT. Send a message to these bastards, and give me all your money!
So you think it best to just pay the exploitative tax so you can sleep better? I think it is insane to punish ALL consumers for the trespasses of a few.
And this is just the kind of thinking that explains the american way of life.
Higher taxes for the social net are not a PUNISHMENT. I gladly pay my high taxes, so that I can go to sleep knowing that every man, woman and child who call themselves Canadian can get necessary medical care without having to mortgage the house. I happily see my doctor, knowing that her salary is based on a reasonable, and still relatively high, cap, instead of a "Pay me $xxx,xxx or I won't save your life" ultimatum.
My high taxes aren't a PUNISHMENT. They are a SERVICE to my fellow Canadians, a symbol of brotherhood, a manifestation of the belief that each and every one of us is entitled to a healthy life, free of prejudice and unnecessary hardship.
And they're also a GOOD IDEA, because if I ever lose my job and am somehow unemployable for an extended period of time, I know that I don't have to fear for my life because my neighbors would rather have a shiny new SUV than ensure the people around them don't die.
That said... in Canada, I can legally copy music for personal use (don't nitpick, I know the details, it's just too much to type). The levy ensures that I can still have that right, despite all the dumbasses who copy music and then don't pay for it. The idea behind the levy is sound.
However, given the numerous studies that show either CD sales aren't declining faster than the economy drop, or that they're declining because new music is shit, I'd really rather see the issue revisited as to whether or not it is fair to tax consumers for recordable media when it has no ill effect on the artist. I'd also rather see the scale reversed, so that the poorest artists are the ones who get more. A CD sale lost to Ms (ug) Dion means nothing, but a sale lost to, say, Trooper, or The Watchmen (RIP), means much more.
And finally, I'd much rather have a levy that doens't result in me purchasing a spindle, taking it to the cashier, and having him ask me "So, if these are for recording music, the levy is X, but if you tell me it's for data, the levy is the much lower Y."
Does anyone else worry that such bans will become more commonplace on non-technically oriented crimes?
I mean, I recall (possibly incorrectly) that the journalist who was just given house arrest for not revealing his sources is banned from the net.
How long before smoking pot bans you from the net? Or protesting?;-)
With the Internet as the primary communications method for the world (or at least the backbone for the various protocols), how long before repressive governments use this to suppress those who's opinions they don't like?
Would it be so clear-cut if you, convicted of a non-technical crime, were banned from sending snail-mail or using the telephone for a year?
Not for research labs. Not for government agencies. Not for nuclear wessels or the CIA.
No, it's for the other 80% of the users. Bob in Accounting, Sally in Finance, Anne, who currently is working hard under Bobs desk. These are the raving morons who write down their passwords, who pick really dumb easy ones, who cause grief.
It's the dumb salespeople and the drooling managers who cost us the most money and the most time. THESE are the accounts that biometrics are best for. My pref is for fingerprint pads, because (a) they're unobtrusive (b) they're easy to use and (c) they have a 'cool' factor.
These are the accounts that have a low tech factor, but can hose us if someone gets access.
Yes, yes, someone can hack a fingerprint with some candy and a little time... but this is no different than anything else. Social engineering got me more passwords than hacking ever did. And, really, if Bobs password is his fingerprint, he's not likely to get hacked from outside. If his password is "annesass", someone will get that.
At our org, most of our passwords are still "321" from when we changed domains and reset all user accounts. It hurts me, it does, to see such idiocy. Knowing that a little stupid pad and a secure server would be 8x more secure than our existing (nonexistant) policy toasts my grits. It's about "bang for the buck", and how likely said account is to be nailed... and biometrics is easy to use, relatively more secure than text passwords, and can't be written down, or told to someone on the phone. It's almost impervious to general, not-on-site social engineering.
I had an (ex) manager who I once convinced of the wonders of heavy passwords. 12 chars, changed 6x annually, nonalphanumeric requirements, dictionary challenged... he wanted security, I gave him what I could at the time. Everyone obeyed policy, didn't write it down, worked hard to remember it. Said manager got a call one day... "Hi, this is Dave with Telus, I'm just running some maintenance on our DSL accounts. Could you please tell me your username/password?"
Said company was underbid on every contract for the next 6 mos, and folded.
That's my rant. Users are dumb. They will take the easiest route to get to something, no matter what the possible consequences are, and they will claim innocence and ignorance when they fsck everything up. We must get around the users brain... fingerprints are the best way to do this.
And cattleprods. Used as anal probes. After hi-octane enemas. I like this plan...
Actually, I still do that as reminants of a very old and very funny run of jokes on a MUD I used to be on. We "ii"'d EVERYTHING that could be pluralized, even stretching simple comments for several sentences to work it in... alas, I still do it as a matter of habit (and for a good chuckle)
eg: These swordii are the worst piecii of crap I've ever used! Theirii edges are duller than wild herdii of lemmingii. We'd have better luck raping their assii with martha stewart dollii!
Seriously, a 'vulnerability' in the 'oh shit!' sense of the phrase is "an opening by which an innocent user could get fscked by no fault of their own".
This strikes me as about as dangerous as the post-SP2 "Warning! If you copy and paste shit files from the net and click a few boxes, YOU COULD GET SPYWARE!".
For the record, I just nuked and reinstalled XP-Sp2 + hotfixes a few days ago (for once, not because it was fucked up, but my new raid0 array), so I have cherry IE6 and unextensioned-FireFox 1.
I tried several variations of the convoluted instructions, and could get no explicitly dangerous behavior. Mozilla didn't bat an eye, and IE once popped up a box saying "The script is trying to close this window, do you want to let it?" If I let it, then it opened the Citibank site in the window again.
Oooh, scary.
I'm sure there may be some actual, dangerous vulnerability here somewhere. But I've gotten better instructions from the japanese ASUS site, translated through google.
Re:As long as they come with an off switch.
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Spies Riding Shotgun
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· Score: 1
That presumes that a/. nerd would get a date, and even GWB isn't dumb enough to think that.
Of course, his concern of homosexuality will probably lead to the closing of at least half the internets.
I agree, which is why I made sure to say "With a human-readable caption".:) So Grannie can look at her nice piece of paper and say "Yep, it says Bush and I voted for Bush, so it must be right."
Yes, there is the remote possibility that someone could reprogram the printer to print the barcode for Bush while saying "Kerry" in english next to it.
The more real worry for me, though, is that private companies are counting your votes. Some may think that the Big Kahuna of Diebold promising to deliver Ohio to Bush doens't mean he *would* do anything bad, but by nature, private companies are more closed than public ones.
What you should really,truly have, is a government organization dedicated to setting up and running these systems, with complete transparancy. There should only be a few things that the public cannot know: the code used in the machines, the way that they phone in results, and how it is encrypted. Security through obscurity works when it's only used every few years.
Additionally, I'd have the voting machines sealed... completely. Fill with a gas that doesn't like oxygen, and tends to destroy the inner components when exposed to it. A firm inventory control system with satellite tracking chips to ensure no-one can make off with one and reverse engineer. They may sound space-age, but they've both been in use for many years now.
Overkill? Maybe, but how important is your illusion of democracy?:)
Electronic voting is a convenience. It ensures there are no hanging chads, no double-votes, no half-filled circles, or ballots with coffee spilled on them. But, because people are inherintly selfish and self-centred, there ALWAYS has to be a backup.
Really, there is NO reason to even have the option of 'delivering the memory cards by hand' and that being the only reporting done. Let's set up the voting machines with a mega-encrypted dial-up link to an undisclosed number and collection site, and have them report in themselves. The memory cards are delivered at the end of the day, loaded, and compared with the dial-up results reported. Finally, at the time of voting, a little paper slip with easy-to-scan barcodes and short human-language captions is printed, which the voter drops in a sealed box. If the dial-up and memory card results don't match, then the paper is counted.
It's really not that freaking hard to comprehend. E-Voting is nice and fast, but in the end, people only trust what they see, and if they can get a piece of paper that says "You voted for Kerry/Bush/Nader/Whoever", then they feel confident that their results are accurate. Someone can tamper with a dial-up...someone can tamper with a memory card... but to hack an encrypted dial-up DURING the election, hack dozens of encrypted memory cards AFTER the election, and then replaced thousands of paper ballots... that is stretching the bounds of believability.
And, as a final suggestion... what ever happened to counting the number of voters who came in that day, and making sure that total matched the number of ballots you had on hand? How does a district with 700 voters suddenly get 5000 ballots? And how does no-one notice?
Ok,/rant.:) Oblig Futurama Reference to close:
"MomCorp shareholders will now vote on the motion to aquire Planet Express..." [Mom votes] Yes = 99.7% No = 0% [Smart son votes] Yes = 99.8% No = 0% [Average son votes] Yes = 99.9% No = 0% [Dumb son votes] "Uhhh.....uhhh.... ohhhh...." Yes = 99.9% No = 0% Pat Buchanan = 0.01%
... which is why I'm building an air-cooling solution.
Step 1: Pick up cheap LAN rack. In my case, enclosed, but any will do.
Step 2: Buy a big fan. Bathroom vent style. Mine is 200CFM, and I slapped a dimmer switch on there to moderate the speed as required. Enclose it in a big wood box to cut down noise, and have the only inlet as a standard 2" pvc tube. An outlet might be a good idea too.
Step 3: Build enclosed cases. Have 1 hole on top, connecting to the 2" tube from the fan. Inlets on the far side of the case. My cases are 3-4U high, thick wood.
Now, we have well-vented cases that cool to room temperature.
The kicker: Step 4: Connect all your case inlets via flexible tubing to another box on the bottom of the rack, with your choice of cooler... peltier, standard A/C, bar fridge, bucket of ice cubes, whatever. Poof! Room temperature just became 10C.
I live in Alberta, so I'll just run the tube outside... ahhh, refreshing -40C air. That won't hurt the PC, right?
With a mega-size rad on your CPU, you'll never have an overheating problem again, it's quiet, it doesn't matter if one part of the system fails, because standard thermal dynamics will keep things going the right way until it's fixed. It won't leak, short out my PC, get me wet, break if my cat chews it...
I really would... except that I took lower pay in my job, just to have more hours and steady money, even though I consider myself worth at least 50% more.
But the difference is, I'm just a geek.... if I fall asleep at the switch, things go down for a few minutes and then the emergency plans kick in. If a nurse falls asleep at the switch, well, patients can't perform CPR on themselves. I find it funny that truckers (to pick an example out of the hat) have their hours severely restricted, in hours per day worked, hours per week, and contiguous hours, and yet the person who can kill me if they give me 50CCs instead of 15CCs is not only worked like a dog, but can even volunteer for more work.
The bottom line is that the power of money is seductive. Maybe you have a kid to support, a coke habit (either liquid or powder), or you just want a dual xeon system for home... working a few extra hours doesn't seem like much, until you kill someone.
- Lucas paraphrase: I'm releasing it now, at the height of the pirated movie craze, because in 3 years the pirates will win and everything will be 0w|\|3d. - Am I the only one who recalls that, originally, Lucas was going to do 3 prequels and 3 sequels? Am I also the only one who thinks he saw how shitty the first 2 have been, and couldn't get funding to do another 3 piles of crap? - That all these "Special Edition" and "Platinum Edition" and "Unrated Edition" releases are SHIT? Seriously, a friend got the "Unrated Edition" of "The girl next door", which has been getting all this commercial coverage as "Oooh, unrated! racy! sexsexsex!", and I've been forced to sit through Sex and the City episodes that were racier? See, "Apocalypse Now: Redux" was a SPECIAL edition, with noticable extra content... even Das Boot: SE had noticable additions. But the 5th release of Terminator, the 12th of Star Wars 1-3, and pretty much every other SE in the last few years has been absolute crap. Most of them don't even incorporate the clips into the movie... they're "Extras" that you have to play later and go "yeah, that was cool, wish I had seen it an hour ago when I was actually watching a movie", and silly interviews where everyone says they love each other, and occasional directors commentaries that you can tell were recorded on a dictaphone while he was sitting on the crapper, scraping crabs off his Intel after another night at the Casting Couch.
I had a point in that rant. I think it was "Special Editions almost always suck, and I won't buy any movie that I have not seen first, and that includes SEs, because they're all crap".
Except for Natural Born Killers. That was one wicked-ass directors cut.
It's heartwarming to see so many geeks, all agreeing on the greatness of this man. Normally, celeb stories are a mix of "they were nice to me" and "that bastard!", but in this case, dozens of admitted geeks got to rub elbows with Scotty, and all have good things to say about it. Truly the mark of a good man. I wish there were more like him... honest, brave, and talented, but without the jackass attitude that goes with it.
Well, I don't think "Funny" is the word I'd use...
And talk about a small world. I post my comments yesterday, go home, and my roommate slices himself to the bone, trying to pry apart some half-frozen steaks. Queue a long wait, but ultimately, he's stiched up and consulting with a plastic surgeon to repair the arterial and nerve damage in his hand... and we went in with nothing but change for the parking meter in our pocket.
I'm no expert on the US system, but from what I understand, down there, he'd have to pay to get that taken care of, up front. Things like this make the extra few % of tax seem worth it.
Admittedly, I could have lived without the 6 hour wait (he was bleeding the whole time, too), but that's more a result of local budget policy, rather than an indictment of the system.
That's funny, I look at the steady flow of uninsured Americans coming to Canada, trying to get help here because they can't pay for it down there. And while I sympathize with those who suffer poor service (I've had it myself), I'd rather pay a little extra tax to know that I have what I need to stay alive, rather than take my chances.:)
How can any normal, middle of the road, average income human being expect to pay this?
It's cases like that (EXACTLY like that, in fact), that make me thankful I'm Canadian. Universal health care. Yes, the profiteers are chipping away on it, but I know that if I get creamed crossing the street tonight, I won't have to sell my house, my car, and take out a loan to pay for the resulting damage (to me, not the car).
How can any civilized society look at numbers like that, and rationally argue against universal health care? Yes, we pay more in taxes, but (theoretically) we pay less in insurance premiums,et al, because we don't have to worry about this kind of insanity.
80 freaking thousand dollars. You'll legislate helmets, bumpers, airbags, seatbelts, "Caution! Coffee Hot!" labels, helmets for children riding bikes, and a million other things to protect the innocent and the idiotic, but you have a hard time deciding whether or not preventing stuff like this is a good thing.
Americans will buy anything if it is sold the right way, so we've gone from a culture that says "I'm responsible and I will solve the problem" to a culture that says "I'm not responsible, I'll call 911 and hope that someone else will solve the problem in time." Many people have called 911 and then spent the rest of their lives waiting for help...
I had several hotmail accounts, I used them faithfully. I put up with the small size because I had a history with the accounts, and some people could only get ahold of me through them.
Then Hotmail came out with their "Sign in every 30 days or we'll turf you." I kept up my normal routine, and then I had a busy travel month, didn't sign in, and all my accounts died. I didn't bother reactivating them. As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to take an active, frequently-used account, that has been active and frequently used for years, and turf it because I don't sign in for 30 days, then you don't want my eyeballs on your banners. I could understand turfing after 3 months, or even 6, but 30 days cuts it a little tight for those of us who don't have it as a primary account.
So, no more hotmail. I still have my original RocketMail account, opened circa 1994, and even though it was bought out by Yahoo! years ago, it still works like a charm. I have my ISP accounts, and I just recently got a GMail account because it's ubernifty... and, frankly, I don't miss Hotmail at all, and "Sorry, we fucked up!" just won't cut it. Maybe with a brick-and-mortar business, but on the CAPITAL-I Internet, those who fuck up become the next "Hey, do you remember...?"
Slashdot Mirror
Damn good!
We started using these devices at the office supply company I work at, and I'm glad. We routinely pay our furniture installers huge dribbling gobs of overtime, when all you have to do is drive by the local Timmies or McDonalds to see them goofing off on a 3 hour lunch break. But now, with GPS going in, they won't be able to bugger around like that. It's refreshing.
On a more productive note, we're also using it to start mapping out our office supply delivery routes, to look for ways we can increase efficiency in the routing. Again, I'm all for it.
It boils down to "you're being paid to do a job, so get off your ass and do it". When you're working outside the office, you're still WORKING. If I have to put up with our outside sales reps taking 3 hour lunches, then getting their dry cleaning, picking up their kids from school, doing their shopping, going out for coffee, heading home, and coming in the next day complaining about how they didn't get home till 7 last night, I'm gonna start shooting, I swear.
Now, there's an important difference between outside folks and Internal/Geek work: it's piecemeal. "You have x tasks to complete today. Get them done." If getting done early meant I got to go home, I wouldn't complain in the least about monitoring where I was... but, for most geeks, the truth is they just want you there to fix the stuff they break, and make their little blinky boxes do cool stuff, and apart from that, they don't really care how hard you work... at least, at most of the places I've been. Hell, they aren't bright enough to understand how hard we work (or don't work).
Now, as for those schmucks who want folks carrying a GPS cell phone around at all hours... if you're paying me for 24 hour call, I'll be on 24 hour call, but where I go when I'm not on "normal work hours" is none of your damn business. That is taking it just a wee bit too far for my taste. I think the important question we forget to ask is "why"? Why do you want me to be on 24 hour call for free? Why do you want GPS on me all the time? Why are you logging all 'net access?
"Why" is a very important question to ask when you wonder if the situation is acceptable or not. In this case, "Why GPS on outside employees" is a no brainer.
Thanks Michael. I really needed an excuse to ramble on for 4 pages. My physical therapy bill is in the mail for my poor, worn-down typing fingers.
There are times when public tranportation is useful... I was a bus man for many years.
But, frankly, there's times when it's a pain... it's off-peak hours, the weather is crappy, you have to go a long distance with several transfers, you're picking up something that can't be easily carried around, you're going on a date (well, not YOU, per se... but a non-slashdot reader).
I got quite sick of planning to be on the bus several hours per day when I worked on the far side of the city, but I couldn't afford the incredibly outrageous amounts for a car.
I mean, come on folks... it's a freakin CAR, it's not made of gold, it doesn't come with a built-in treasure map... why in the name of Linus should a chunk of metal that explodes dead dinosaurs to move cost $40,000+, and have insurance, consumables, and maintenance that can add up to many thousands per year more? I think they're priced that way because we're all conditioned to think that they should be expensive.
But, I digress. I wish this had been available when it was the right time of life for me to use it... a convenient way to have occasional access to a vehicle (an occasional requirement in a city with an extremely low population density like Edmonton) without having to bend over and take it up the ass from all the fuckers who seem to think that because the word "auto" has 4 letters, all the associated costs should have 4 digits (significant). I hope projects like these get more coverage, and help stop the rush of people going out to buy cars they can't afford with loans they can't afford on income they can't guarantee.
Heh, +1 Funny. :)
In Other News:
That guy who got the sysadmin job I applied for has now cost me over $60,000CDN in lost income. Bastard!
And the cow-irker who works down the hall and purchased a computer from CompuSlut instead of me cost me another $250. Bastard!
And all those people who wanted holiday photos printed, and went to a "professional printers" instead of letting me charge them $20 per page to do it on my colour laser just cost me over $600! Bastard!
I mean, what do we think we are, a capitalist society here or something? I have a right to this money, and it is inherently wrong for anyone but ME to get it!
We all need to band together to ensure that EVERYONE has to pay whatever price I set for my services, because it is just WRONG for some new paradigm to come along and get the money, just because they happen to have a cheaper method of doing things. It's WRONG, I tell you, and we must FIGHT IT. Send a message to these bastards, and give me all your money!
Sincerely;
Cerv
And this is just the kind of thinking that explains the american way of life.
Higher taxes for the social net are not a PUNISHMENT. I gladly pay my high taxes, so that I can go to sleep knowing that every man, woman and child who call themselves Canadian can get necessary medical care without having to mortgage the house. I happily see my doctor, knowing that her salary is based on a reasonable, and still relatively high, cap, instead of a "Pay me $xxx,xxx or I won't save your life" ultimatum.
My high taxes aren't a PUNISHMENT. They are a SERVICE to my fellow Canadians, a symbol of brotherhood, a manifestation of the belief that each and every one of us is entitled to a healthy life, free of prejudice and unnecessary hardship.
And they're also a GOOD IDEA, because if I ever lose my job and am somehow unemployable for an extended period of time, I know that I don't have to fear for my life because my neighbors would rather have a shiny new SUV than ensure the people around them don't die.
That said... in Canada, I can legally copy music for personal use (don't nitpick, I know the details, it's just too much to type). The levy ensures that I can still have that right, despite all the dumbasses who copy music and then don't pay for it. The idea behind the levy is sound.
However, given the numerous studies that show either CD sales aren't declining faster than the economy drop, or that they're declining because new music is shit, I'd really rather see the issue revisited as to whether or not it is fair to tax consumers for recordable media when it has no ill effect on the artist. I'd also rather see the scale reversed, so that the poorest artists are the ones who get more. A CD sale lost to Ms (ug) Dion means nothing, but a sale lost to, say, Trooper, or The Watchmen (RIP), means much more.
And finally, I'd much rather have a levy that doens't result in me purchasing a spindle, taking it to the cashier, and having him ask me "So, if these are for recording music, the levy is X, but if you tell me it's for data, the levy is the much lower Y."
Does anyone else worry that such bans will become more commonplace on non-technically oriented crimes?
;-)
I mean, I recall (possibly incorrectly) that the journalist who was just given house arrest for not revealing his sources is banned from the net.
How long before smoking pot bans you from the net? Or protesting?
With the Internet as the primary communications method for the world (or at least the backbone for the various protocols), how long before repressive governments use this to suppress those who's opinions they don't like?
Would it be so clear-cut if you, convicted of a non-technical crime, were banned from sending snail-mail or using the telephone for a year?
Biometrics, my friends, it's the way to go.
Not for research labs. Not for government agencies. Not for nuclear wessels or the CIA.
No, it's for the other 80% of the users. Bob in Accounting, Sally in Finance, Anne, who currently is working hard under Bobs desk. These are the raving morons who write down their passwords, who pick really dumb easy ones, who cause grief.
It's the dumb salespeople and the drooling managers who cost us the most money and the most time. THESE are the accounts that biometrics are best for. My pref is for fingerprint pads, because (a) they're unobtrusive (b) they're easy to use and (c) they have a 'cool' factor.
These are the accounts that have a low tech factor, but can hose us if someone gets access.
Yes, yes, someone can hack a fingerprint with some candy and a little time... but this is no different than anything else. Social engineering got me more passwords than hacking ever did. And, really, if Bobs password is his fingerprint, he's not likely to get hacked from outside. If his password is "annesass", someone will get that.
At our org, most of our passwords are still "321" from when we changed domains and reset all user accounts. It hurts me, it does, to see such idiocy. Knowing that a little stupid pad and a secure server would be 8x more secure than our existing (nonexistant) policy toasts my grits. It's about "bang for the buck", and how likely said account is to be nailed... and biometrics is easy to use, relatively more secure than text passwords, and can't be written down, or told to someone on the phone. It's almost impervious to general, not-on-site social engineering.
I had an (ex) manager who I once convinced of the wonders of heavy passwords. 12 chars, changed 6x annually, nonalphanumeric requirements, dictionary challenged... he wanted security, I gave him what I could at the time. Everyone obeyed policy, didn't write it down, worked hard to remember it. Said manager got a call one day... "Hi, this is Dave with Telus, I'm just running some maintenance on our DSL accounts. Could you please tell me your username/password?"
Said company was underbid on every contract for the next 6 mos, and folded.
That's my rant. Users are dumb. They will take the easiest route to get to something, no matter what the possible consequences are, and they will claim innocence and ignorance when they fsck everything up. We must get around the users brain... fingerprints are the best way to do this.
And cattleprods. Used as anal probes. After hi-octane enemas. I like this plan...
Damn users.
I always like to follow up on my postii. ;-)
Actually, I still do that as reminants of a very old and very funny run of jokes on a MUD I used to be on. We "ii"'d EVERYTHING that could be pluralized, even stretching simple comments for several sentences to work it in... alas, I still do it as a matter of habit (and for a good chuckle)
eg: These swordii are the worst piecii of crap I've ever used! Theirii edges are duller than wild herdii of lemmingii. We'd have better luck raping their assii with martha stewart dollii!
Ok, it was funny at the time.
Seriously, a 'vulnerability' in the 'oh shit!' sense of the phrase is "an opening by which an innocent user could get fscked by no fault of their own".
This strikes me as about as dangerous as the post-SP2 "Warning! If you copy and paste shit files from the net and click a few boxes, YOU COULD GET SPYWARE!".
For the record, I just nuked and reinstalled XP-Sp2 + hotfixes a few days ago (for once, not because it was fucked up, but my new raid0 array), so I have cherry IE6 and unextensioned-FireFox 1.
I tried several variations of the convoluted instructions, and could get no explicitly dangerous behavior. Mozilla didn't bat an eye, and IE once popped up a box saying "The script is trying to close this window, do you want to let it?" If I let it, then it opened the Citibank site in the window again.
Oooh, scary.
I'm sure there may be some actual, dangerous vulnerability here somewhere. But I've gotten better instructions from the japanese ASUS site, translated through google.
That presumes that a /. nerd would get a date, and even GWB isn't dumb enough to think that.
Of course, his concern of homosexuality will probably lead to the closing of at least half the internets.
I agree, which is why I made sure to say "With a human-readable caption". :) So Grannie can look at her nice piece of paper and say "Yep, it says Bush and I voted for Bush, so it must be right."
,truly have, is a government organization dedicated to setting up and running these systems, with complete transparancy. There should only be a few things that the public cannot know: the code used in the machines, the way that they phone in results, and how it is encrypted. Security through obscurity works when it's only used every few years.
:)
Yes, there is the remote possibility that someone could reprogram the printer to print the barcode for Bush while saying "Kerry" in english next to it.
The more real worry for me, though, is that private companies are counting your votes. Some may think that the Big Kahuna of Diebold promising to deliver Ohio to Bush doens't mean he *would* do anything bad, but by nature, private companies are more closed than public ones.
What you should really
Additionally, I'd have the voting machines sealed... completely. Fill with a gas that doesn't like oxygen, and tends to destroy the inner components when exposed to it. A firm inventory control system with satellite tracking chips to ensure no-one can make off with one and reverse engineer. They may sound space-age, but they've both been in use for many years now.
Overkill? Maybe, but how important is your illusion of democracy?
Electronic voting is a convenience. It ensures there are no hanging chads, no double-votes, no half-filled circles, or ballots with coffee spilled on them. But, because people are inherintly selfish and self-centred, there ALWAYS has to be a backup.
/rant. :) Oblig Futurama Reference to close:
Really, there is NO reason to even have the option of 'delivering the memory cards by hand' and that being the only reporting done. Let's set up the voting machines with a mega-encrypted dial-up link to an undisclosed number and collection site, and have them report in themselves. The memory cards are delivered at the end of the day, loaded, and compared with the dial-up results reported. Finally, at the time of voting, a little paper slip with easy-to-scan barcodes and short human-language captions is printed, which the voter drops in a sealed box. If the dial-up and memory card results don't match, then the paper is counted.
It's really not that freaking hard to comprehend. E-Voting is nice and fast, but in the end, people only trust what they see, and if they can get a piece of paper that says "You voted for Kerry/Bush/Nader/Whoever", then they feel confident that their results are accurate. Someone can tamper with a dial-up...someone can tamper with a memory card... but to hack an encrypted dial-up DURING the election, hack dozens of encrypted memory cards AFTER the election, and then replaced thousands of paper ballots... that is stretching the bounds of believability.
And, as a final suggestion... what ever happened to counting the number of voters who came in that day, and making sure that total matched the number of ballots you had on hand? How does a district with 700 voters suddenly get 5000 ballots? And how does no-one notice?
Ok,
"MomCorp shareholders will now vote on the motion to aquire Planet Express..."
[Mom votes]
Yes = 99.7%
No = 0%
[Smart son votes]
Yes = 99.8%
No = 0%
[Average son votes]
Yes = 99.9%
No = 0%
[Dumb son votes]
"Uhhh.....uhhh.... ohhhh...."
Yes = 99.9%
No = 0%
Pat Buchanan = 0.01%
"The ballot was confusing!"
... which is why I'm building an air-cooling solution.
Step 1: Pick up cheap LAN rack. In my case, enclosed, but any will do.
Step 2: Buy a big fan. Bathroom vent style. Mine is 200CFM, and I slapped a dimmer switch on there to moderate the speed as required. Enclose it in a big wood box to cut down noise, and have the only inlet as a standard 2" pvc tube. An outlet might be a good idea too.
Step 3: Build enclosed cases. Have 1 hole on top, connecting to the 2" tube from the fan. Inlets on the far side of the case. My cases are 3-4U high, thick wood.
Now, we have well-vented cases that cool to room temperature.
The kicker:
Step 4: Connect all your case inlets via flexible tubing to another box on the bottom of the rack, with your choice of cooler... peltier, standard A/C, bar fridge, bucket of ice cubes, whatever. Poof! Room temperature just became 10C.
I live in Alberta, so I'll just run the tube outside... ahhh, refreshing -40C air. That won't hurt the PC, right?
With a mega-size rad on your CPU, you'll never have an overheating problem again, it's quiet, it doesn't matter if one part of the system fails, because standard thermal dynamics will keep things going the right way until it's fixed. It won't leak, short out my PC, get me wet, break if my cat chews it...
So, I say again... BAH! Water!
Professor: Now, Fry, scientists renamed Uranus in 2256 to put an end to that silly joke.
:)
It's now called "Urectum".
->Note: Quoted from memory, not accurate, deal.
-"Dude, you're getting a D....ahhhhh! My arm is on fire! Ahhhh, the pain!!!"
-"Dude, you're getting a skin graft!
Ah yes, the new motto:
Dell: Now burning more innocent children alive than Microsoft!
I really would... except that I took lower pay in my job, just to have more hours and steady money, even though I consider myself worth at least 50% more.
But the difference is, I'm just a geek.... if I fall asleep at the switch, things go down for a few minutes and then the emergency plans kick in. If a nurse falls asleep at the switch, well, patients can't perform CPR on themselves. I find it funny that truckers (to pick an example out of the hat) have their hours severely restricted, in hours per day worked, hours per week, and contiguous hours, and yet the person who can kill me if they give me 50CCs instead of 15CCs is not only worked like a dog, but can even volunteer for more work.
The bottom line is that the power of money is seductive. Maybe you have a kid to support, a coke habit (either liquid or powder), or you just want a dual xeon system for home... working a few extra hours doesn't seem like much, until you kill someone.
... who thinks the following odd:
- Lucas paraphrase: I'm releasing it now, at the height of the pirated movie craze, because in 3 years the pirates will win and everything will be 0w|\|3d.
- Am I the only one who recalls that, originally, Lucas was going to do 3 prequels and 3 sequels? Am I also the only one who thinks he saw how shitty the first 2 have been, and couldn't get funding to do another 3 piles of crap?
- That all these "Special Edition" and "Platinum Edition" and "Unrated Edition" releases are SHIT? Seriously, a friend got the "Unrated Edition" of "The girl next door", which has been getting all this commercial coverage as "Oooh, unrated! racy! sexsexsex!", and I've been forced to sit through Sex and the City episodes that were racier? See, "Apocalypse Now: Redux" was a SPECIAL edition, with noticable extra content... even Das Boot: SE had noticable additions. But the 5th release of Terminator, the 12th of Star Wars 1-3, and pretty much every other SE in the last few years has been absolute crap. Most of them don't even incorporate the clips into the movie... they're "Extras" that you have to play later and go "yeah, that was cool, wish I had seen it an hour ago when I was actually watching a movie", and silly interviews where everyone says they love each other, and occasional directors commentaries that you can tell were recorded on a dictaphone while he was sitting on the crapper, scraping crabs off his Intel after another night at the Casting Couch.
I had a point in that rant. I think it was "Special Editions almost always suck, and I won't buy any movie that I have not seen first, and that includes SEs, because they're all crap".
Except for Natural Born Killers. That was one wicked-ass directors cut.
So, one last time, I salute you, Mr Scott:
Very funny Scotty. Now beam down my clothes!
Well, I don't think "Funny" is the word I'd use...
And talk about a small world. I post my comments yesterday, go home, and my roommate slices himself to the bone, trying to pry apart some half-frozen steaks. Queue a long wait, but ultimately, he's stiched up and consulting with a plastic surgeon to repair the arterial and nerve damage in his hand... and we went in with nothing but change for the parking meter in our pocket.
I'm no expert on the US system, but from what I understand, down there, he'd have to pay to get that taken care of, up front. Things like this make the extra few % of tax seem worth it.
Admittedly, I could have lived without the 6 hour wait (he was bleeding the whole time, too), but that's more a result of local budget policy, rather than an indictment of the system.
That's funny, I look at the steady flow of uninsured Americans coming to Canada, trying to get help here because they can't pay for it down there. And while I sympathize with those who suffer poor service (I've had it myself), I'd rather pay a little extra tax to know that I have what I need to stay alive, rather than take my chances. :)
The mind boggles...
,et al, because we don't have to worry about this kind of insanity.
80 FREAKING THOUSAND DOLLARS?????
How can any normal, middle of the road, average income human being expect to pay this?
It's cases like that (EXACTLY like that, in fact), that make me thankful I'm Canadian. Universal health care. Yes, the profiteers are chipping away on it, but I know that if I get creamed crossing the street tonight, I won't have to sell my house, my car, and take out a loan to pay for the resulting damage (to me, not the car).
How can any civilized society look at numbers like that, and rationally argue against universal health care? Yes, we pay more in taxes, but (theoretically) we pay less in insurance premiums
80 freaking thousand dollars. You'll legislate helmets, bumpers, airbags, seatbelts, "Caution! Coffee Hot!" labels, helmets for children riding bikes, and a million other things to protect the innocent and the idiotic, but you have a hard time deciding whether or not preventing stuff like this is a good thing.
Sheesh.
Amen, brother...
I like it... heck, I love it, it's beautiful!
/.'d the site last time the story was posted... did we have to go and break it again?
That must be why it's been my wallpaper for almost TWO FRIGGIN YEARS!
Slashdot: News for procrastinating nerds, stuff that mattered a while ago.
Really people... it was bad enough when we
I had several hotmail accounts, I used them faithfully. I put up with the small size because I had a history with the accounts, and some people could only get ahold of me through them.
Then Hotmail came out with their "Sign in every 30 days or we'll turf you." I kept up my normal routine, and then I had a busy travel month, didn't sign in, and all my accounts died. I didn't bother reactivating them. As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to take an active, frequently-used account, that has been active and frequently used for years, and turf it because I don't sign in for 30 days, then you don't want my eyeballs on your banners. I could understand turfing after 3 months, or even 6, but 30 days cuts it a little tight for those of us who don't have it as a primary account.
So, no more hotmail. I still have my original RocketMail account, opened circa 1994, and even though it was bought out by Yahoo! years ago, it still works like a charm. I have my ISP accounts, and I just recently got a GMail account because it's ubernifty... and, frankly, I don't miss Hotmail at all, and "Sorry, we fucked up!" just won't cut it. Maybe with a brick-and-mortar business, but on the CAPITAL-I Internet, those who fuck up become the next "Hey, do you remember...?"