"...Breach of contract is a civil matter, not a criminal one, and in my opinion that's all this was..."
How old were the kids who were involved in this mess? Chances are, they were not even of an age where they could assent to a legally binding contract, no?
..."Among computer and Internet companies, Microsoft, through its PAC and employees, is the largest contributor during the 2004 election cycle. The software giant's employees and PAC have donated nearly $1.9 million to federal candidates or political groups. Microsoft's donations more than triple those of any other tech company, according to Opensecrets.org.
Microsoft's PAC and employees combine to be the 19th largest single donator to the Bush campaign during the 2004 election cycle, contributing nearly $185,000 as of early July..."
I guess Bill et al see these contributions as a worthwhile expense which is likely to increase shareholder value somehow or other.
Since the article is recycled, allow me to recycle my post from the last time this exact same subject was discussed on slashdot.
Read about some of the reasons why meds are so expensive [yarchive.net].
Apologies for the length of this quote from the above link, but I think it's worth reading (Steve Harris MD on medical costs and litigation):
"...You [Steve's correspondent] were complaining about the cost of American medical care not long ago. You are clueless as to the connection here. Drugs cost more here. Medicine costs more here. A lawyer costs more here. An artitect costs more here. Each of these things has reasons. Until you step away from medicine and see the big picture, you'll never figure it out...
... And that's not even the worst part. The worst part is what you don't see. The products that are never developed, or developed too late to help people, because everyone is afraid that somebody will get hurt, and sue. In the case of vaccines it got so bad that without DIRECT government intervention to hamstring the civil litigation process, you would not today be able to buy a dose of vaccine in the United States for love or money. The very last couple of makers were getting set to leave the U.S. market and sell only overseas, before the government stepped in and stopped an out of control civil litigation process...
...For less obvious things than vaccines and aircraft, FYI, the government does not step in, and the product you don't know about simply ceases to exist. If you need a lung lavage of fluorocarbon to save your life if you have lung damage from a fire or shock, you're not going to get it. 3M, which makes most of these chemicals, quite deliberately got out of the medical market years ago, after the Dow Corning Silicone suit. So you're out of luck. You won't know why, but that won't change a thing. If your heart valve fails, you'll never know that it might not have, if the suture 3M made for that purpose, in a little tiny subdivision of the company, was still available. But it's not, since a giant company like 3M has deep pockets, and they don't need the medical market liability grief. Now, it's YOUR problem."
Fucking hell! I gave the example of a hotdog as my lowest culinary ebb, now you come back at me with the microwave prepackaged burger!
Here's my take on the Literature:Food analogy:
"Moby Dick" (Herman Melville) = Fillet Mignon.
"The Stand" (Stephen King) = Hotdog.
"The National Enquirer" (!?) = Microwavable, prepackaged burger.
See where I'm coming from here? Any analogy has it's limits fer chrissakes. You have a sick, sick mind. And probably a pretty sick body if you scarf too many of those burgers.
"I can appreciate a good story, but I appreciate a well-written one more. Harry Potter is a guilty pleasure, like the trashy cyberpunk novels I sometimes read..."
There's a time and a place (in my diet) for fillet steak and another time and place for a hotdog.
Four geeks are walking on a beach......a med student, a physicist, a mathematician and a mechanical engineer.
They are enjoying their day out when they see a crowd of people crouching around a woman who is lying motionless on the sand. Their geek-curiosity is instantly aroused, and they jog over to investigate.
"What's up?", the med student asks.
"She got caught in the undertow, looks like she's drowned good", one of the crowd answers.
"I think I see a pulse in her temple!" cries the med student, "Quickly, men! Determined action may save her yet!"
The physicist takes off his backpack and from it produces his trusty supersoaker. It is the work of a few seconds to fashion it into an effective water pump.
"With this we can empty her lungs of water in no time!", cried the physicist.
The team set to work, and apply the device to her mouth, with the med student and physicist pumping away.
"Keep going men!", the med student encouraged his friends "I think we're winning!".
Minutes pass. Water continues to be pumped from the woman, mixed with sand, shells and candy wrappers.
"Remarkable" says the mathematician. By my calculations, they have removed enough water from that woman to fill a cylinder six feet long and two feet in diameter. Most remarkable!".
More minutes pass, and water is still being pumped from the woman.
The med student is beginning to get disheartened: "I'm afraid we're losing her, fellas. She seems to contain more water than I ever thought possible. What time is it - for the records?".
The Engineer shakes his head and finally speaks: "Just move her over there," he says indicating a patch of sand about ten feet yonder "and keep pumping".
His colleagues are astounded by the audacity of this suggestion. "How can that affect the amount of water in her body?", asked the med student a touch tetchily.
"Because she's sitting in a puddle , dumbass", replied the engineer.
One day, after my application for a Parental License is approved by the DOJ, I hope my kid doesn't ask me, "Daddy, what was freedom like like when you were a boy?"
More likely that if you mention the word "freedom" in front of your kid, he'll report you to the authorities for subversion.
While you're cooling your heels in Alaskan Gitmo Camp #273, your kid will be lauded as a "Child Hero" of the state.
"...it's [the ID card] usefull to prove i am who i claim to be. everytime someone here issues a check it serves as proof of identity. i know of at least a couple of thieves who were arrested because they tried to issue a check they had stolen from my aunt. the supermarket called us because they didn't had the RG card to prove they were my aunt...."
That's part of what puts my nose out of joint about the prospect of being issued with an ID card - I honestly can't remember the last time I was asked to confirm my identity beyond telling someone my name. My fear, and I think it is a justifiable fear, is that the introduction of cards will change this. The society that operates on a certain level of trust will become the society where many common transactions will hinge on the production of a card. Ihre papieren bitte!
"...your fear that UK government will abuse any perceived "power" such database gives only proves your distrust in UK's government. what's the point in having a democratic government that can act pretty much as a dictatorship then ? son't you think that if elected the government, you should trust them a little ?..."
I do trust the government a little. Unfortunately, they are asking, well demanding that I trust them a hell of a lot. Think about it: They are promoting legislation which will fundamentally change the relationship between citizen and state. For the first time in peacetime UK, the law abiding citizen will be answerable to the state. Yet the government first attempted to rush this legislation through parliament with limited debate and no oversight or comment from the select comittee. This was foiled by the snap election, but now the bill has returned in the current parliament, and it's just as bad.
The justifications for the introduction of the card keep changing - first it was an anti-terrorist measure, then it was to curb illegal immegration, now the latest reason is to prevent identity theft. The notion thta an ID card will have a substantive effect on any of these problems has been soundly debunked (see here for more info). It appears that at best the government does not know why they wish to impose the card and database, other than to appear tough on law and order. You really think I should trust these people that much?
"the government already knows who you are. you pay taxes dont you ? if you pay taxes the government knows who you are, how much you money you make, how much you spend, if you leave the country they know, when you return the customs records your entry in the country...
"
As far as the tax authorities are concerned, someone calling themselves "titzandkunt"(!) earns so much money, and consequntly pays a certain rate of tax. Unless thay suspect that I'm under-declaring my income, that's the end of their involvment. They have no idea how much I spend - why should they?
"an ID card can be very usefull. we have them in brasil since... well, my grandmother still had hers RG (Registro Geral = general registry) from 1946..."
Useful for what? BTW, were ID cards introduced in Brasil during a democratic period, or during one of the dictatorships (1930-34, 1937-45, 1964-85).
"when someone have an accident here, the first thing paramedics do is check if the person is carying an RG card to know who he/she is, makes identification in case of death easier, proves that you are who you say you are when using a credit card or check."
I hope to God that this is hyperbole! If a patient is in a condition that they can't clearly state their identity, the paramedics ought to be checking the ABC's (airways, breathing, circulation) first.
When I'm presenting a credit card or cheque, I don't need further ID - both have got my name on them.
"a government issued ID only adds to convenience, IMHO"
Yet again, you don't say how.
The real problem that informed critics have with the proposed uk ID scheme is not the card per se, but with the database backing the card. Do you know what information the government proposes to hold on this database? Here we go:
- Name
- Other previous names or aliases;
- Date and place of birth and, if the person has died, the date of death;
- Address
- Previous addresses in the United Kingdom and elsewhere;
- Times of residency at different places in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;
- Current residential status;
- Residential statuses previously held;
- Information about numbers allocated to the applicant for identification purposes and about the documents to which they relate;
- Information about occasions on which recorded information in the Register has been provided to any person;
- Information recorded in the Register on request.
- Photograph
- Fingerprints
- "Other" biometrics (iris recognition);
- Signature
- Nationality;
- Entitlement to remain in the United Kingdom; and
- Where entitlement derives from a grant of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, the terms and conditions of that leave.
- National Identity Registration Number;
- The number of any ID card that has been issued;
- National Insurance number;
- The number of any relevant immigration document;
- The number of any United Kingdom passport (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77)) that has been issued;
- The number of any passport issued by or on behalf of the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or by or on behalf of an international organisation;
- The number of any document that can be used (in some or all circumstances) instead of a passport;
- The number of any identity card issued by the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom;
- Any reference number allocated by the Secretary of State in connection with an application made for permission to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom;
- The number of any work permit (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971);
- Any driver number connected to a driving licence;
- The number of any designated document which is held by the ap
Hm. I remember some time back - when captchas were starting to be used in anger - some/.ers predicted that spammers and the like would set up shop in some low-rent burg somewhere in the world, and have teams of malnourished orphans typing in the words/answers.
Looks like my estimate of the gullibility of the surfing public was way too low, and they just need to dangle a PSP in front of people's eyes to get them to bust captchas for free.
[Regarding the importance of Human Factors engineers] "...You must mean in academia, because HCI [Human Computer Interface] is not even a consideration in the business world I live in..."
Do tell what business world you live in. Is this the business world where all HCI's are utter ass?
Just because you haven't heard of it, or don't understand it, you really shouldn't be so shortsighted as to dismiss out of hand a whole domain of IT endeavour which can significantly affect your bottom line.
I've seen UI's which were "designed" by programmers. One of them is a product of my current comapany, designed before we realised the importance of ergonomics/HCI input. If we weren't the only game in town, the customer would probably have rejected the product and walked on the contract. As it is, we're contractually obliged to train the users to a specified level of capability for a fixed cost. We're swallowing the increased training cost necessitated by shoddy UI design. Hundreds of thousands of GBP are going down the drain when this cash would be otherwise be pure profit.
"...I never got why thaey bothered aquiring the I, robot rights. I mean it's not like anyone who has read the book was fooled into thinking that it was going to be anything like it. All they did was piss off a bunch of Asimov fans (myself included) without bringing in any extra audience...."
The makers of "I, Robot" (the film) probably acuired the rights to "I, Robot" (the collection of short stories) so that they could refer to and use Asimov's three laws of robotics, without being spanked to Africa and back by the Asimov estate for copyright infringement.
The perversion of of the three laws underlie the main plot elements of the film, so it's pretty vital that they be able to name and refer to the laws. Of course, with the rights to the stories, they also got Susan Calvin, "positronic brains", and associated tech. bunkum to throw into the pot.
"...USB drives are what the babysitters should be shitting themselves over. How many companies have a huge list of staff in engineering and other sensitive areas with have local admin rights?. plug, play, cut, paste and you could see hundred sensitive documents go to your competition...."
Try plugging an unauthorised usb drive into the secure* network at my place of work. Nada, nil, zilch. You'll get a dialog box telling you to fuck off in short order, and I don't doubt that the failed mount gets logged with IT. Same story if you try to mount a CD-R/W, DVD+-R/W. Floppies are ok, presumably because they're so limited.
"Authorised" usb drives work ok, but like our hard drives (which live in caddies), they are assigned to an individual, are supposed never leave the site and to go in the safe at the end of the day. These safes do get checked against the inventory at odd intervals - if it ain't random, I'm jiggered if I can see a pattern. If the drives in the safe don't match your allocation, you're in a world of pain.
Nobody outside of IT has any admin rights on the secure network.
T&K.
*We have 2 networks - 1 "commercial" which talks to the outside world, and one "secure" which has a bona-fide air gap between it and any other network.
"Linux was based on Minix. A UnixLite OS designed to run on PCs. However, it was really only a teaching tool. Andrew Tanenbaum repeatedly refused to add the new (legitimate) features the users and even developers asked for. Linus Torvalds set out simply to add functionality to his own version of Minix (the copyright allows use to do so for your own personal use, but you cannot sell or distibute it).
Over time, in adding functionality to Minix, Linus Torvalds found that he had created an entirely new kernel. I was very similar to Minix but used none of the Minix source code..."
(Who modded the preceeding garbage "Informative!?)
Linux began as a development that was hosted on a pc running Minix. Linus set out, from the start, to create a posix compatible kernel of his very own. The idea that he created the kernel by accident is as laughable as it is insulting.
See here for a a rather more factual account of the development of the Linux kernel.
The concept that PR influences media is about as novel as the concept that media exists primarily as an advertising vehicle. None of this is anything new.
"...No wonder India is becoming popular. If I owned a small to medium sized programing shop not only would I be tempted to outsource, I would move my whole company there. I do not need these IP laws hanging around my neck in order to compete..."
Where are you going to be selling your software? Where are your users going to be based? Don't forget that end-users can be sued for using patent-infringing software.
A few shot-across-the-bows press releases from the patent monster (MS, Sun, Apple, Sony et al), and no customer in a western country will touch you with a twenty-foot pole.
Hm. This sounds like two people doing the job of a typist - if everyone knows what attributes and functions are required, it all sounds a bit waterfall-ey.
Design->Code->Test. Do it once, and do it *right*. Fred Brooks has much to say about the pitfalls of this strategy. Waterfall is often associated with over-design or design paralysis and failed, over-budget projects.
Nowadays, many folk prefer some iterative or incremental approach, where skiing off piste (unforseen additions/removals/refactoring) during an implementation phase is ok and often vital: It can be round-tripped back into the design and acommodated during the next design phase.
On this basis, I don't see any impending clamour for multiple carets & editor views.
"...Why don't we have two carets in the same file so we can edit both at the same time..."
For the same reason that cars don't have two steering wheels up front.
You're renaming/deleting class member variables in your editor view, while your buddy suddenly sees the member functions he's working on fall to pieces, because they depend on those variables?
Of course you could tell him what you're doing, and he can wait until you're done. And like many world-beating multi-threaded concepts, it is degraded into a single-threaded way of working in order to avoid those pesky race conditions & deadlocks.
This is a simplistic objection. Coming up with more horrific examples is left as an exercise for the reader.
Slashdot Mirror
"...Breach of contract is a civil matter, not a criminal one, and in my opinion that's all this was..."
How old were the kids who were involved in this mess? Chances are, they were not even of an age where they could assent to a legally binding contract, no?
T&K
"Is there a partnership between the US government and M$? Are US citizens required to also be M$ customers? "
Well, who really knows?
I guess Bill et al see these contributions as a worthwhile expense which is likely to increase shareholder value somehow or other.
T&K.
Since the article is recycled, allow me to recycle my post from the last time this exact same subject was discussed on slashdot.
Read about some of the reasons why meds are so expensive [yarchive.net].
Apologies for the length of this quote from the above link, but I think it's worth reading (Steve Harris MD on medical costs and litigation):
"...You [Steve's correspondent] were complaining about the cost of American medical care not long ago. You are clueless as to the connection here. Drugs cost more here. Medicine costs more here. A lawyer costs more here. An artitect costs more here. Each of these things has reasons. Until you step away from medicine and see the big picture, you'll never figure it out...
T&K.
Fucking hell! I gave the example of a hotdog as my lowest culinary ebb, now you come back at me with the microwave prepackaged burger!
Here's my take on the Literature:Food analogy:
"Moby Dick" (Herman Melville) = Fillet Mignon.
"The Stand" (Stephen King) = Hotdog.
"The National Enquirer" (!?) = Microwavable, prepackaged burger.
See where I'm coming from here? Any analogy has it's limits fer chrissakes. You have a sick, sick mind. And probably a pretty sick body if you scarf too many of those burgers.
T&K.
"I can appreciate a good story, but I appreciate a well-written one more. Harry Potter is a guilty pleasure, like the trashy cyberpunk novels I sometimes read..."
There's a time and a place (in my diet) for fillet steak and another time and place for a hotdog.
Why should reading matter be any different?
T&K.
Four geeks are walking on a beach...
They are enjoying their day out when they see a crowd of people crouching around a woman who is lying motionless on the sand. Their geek-curiosity is instantly aroused, and they jog over to investigate.
"What's up?", the med student asks.
"She got caught in the undertow, looks like she's drowned good", one of the crowd answers.
"I think I see a pulse in her temple!" cries the med student, "Quickly, men! Determined action may save her yet!"
The physicist takes off his backpack and from it produces his trusty supersoaker. It is the work of a few seconds to fashion it into an effective water pump.
"With this we can empty her lungs of water in no time!", cried the physicist.
The team set to work, and apply the device to her mouth, with the med student and physicist pumping away.
"Keep going men!", the med student encouraged his friends "I think we're winning!".
Minutes pass. Water continues to be pumped from the woman, mixed with sand, shells and candy wrappers.
"Remarkable" says the mathematician. By my calculations, they have removed enough water from that woman to fill a cylinder six feet long and two feet in diameter. Most remarkable!".
More minutes pass, and water is still being pumped from the woman.
The med student is beginning to get disheartened: "I'm afraid we're losing her, fellas. She seems to contain more water than I ever thought possible. What time is it - for the records?".
The Engineer shakes his head and finally speaks: "Just move her over there," he says indicating a patch of sand about ten feet yonder "and keep pumping".
His colleagues are astounded by the audacity of this suggestion. "How can that affect the amount of water in her body?", asked the med student a touch tetchily.
"Because she's sitting in a puddle , dumbass", replied the engineer.
T&K. Finally the engineer speaks "
One day, after my application for a Parental License is approved by the DOJ, I hope my kid doesn't ask me, "Daddy, what was freedom like like when you were a boy?"
More likely that if you mention the word "freedom" in front of your kid, he'll report you to the authorities for subversion.
While you're cooling your heels in Alaskan Gitmo Camp #273, your kid will be lauded as a "Child Hero" of the state.
"...it's [the ID card] usefull to prove i am who i claim to be. everytime someone here issues a check it serves as proof of identity. i know of at least a couple of thieves who were arrested because they tried to issue a check they had stolen from my aunt. the supermarket called us because they didn't had the RG card to prove they were my aunt.
That's part of what puts my nose out of joint about the prospect of being issued with an ID card - I honestly can't remember the last time I was asked to confirm my identity beyond telling someone my name. My fear, and I think it is a justifiable fear, is that the introduction of cards will change this. The society that operates on a certain level of trust will become the society where many common transactions will hinge on the production of a card. Ihre papieren bitte!
"...your fear that UK government will abuse any perceived "power" such database gives only proves your distrust in UK's government. what's the point in having a democratic government that can act pretty much as a dictatorship then ? son't you think that if elected the government, you should trust them a little ?..."
I do trust the government a little. Unfortunately, they are asking, well demanding that I trust them a hell of a lot. Think about it: They are promoting legislation which will fundamentally change the relationship between citizen and state. For the first time in peacetime UK, the law abiding citizen will be answerable to the state. Yet the government first attempted to rush this legislation through parliament with limited debate and no oversight or comment from the select comittee. This was foiled by the snap election, but now the bill has returned in the current parliament, and it's just as bad.
The justifications for the introduction of the card keep changing - first it was an anti-terrorist measure, then it was to curb illegal immegration, now the latest reason is to prevent identity theft. The notion thta an ID card will have a substantive effect on any of these problems has been soundly debunked (see here for more info). It appears that at best the government does not know why they wish to impose the card and database, other than to appear tough on law and order. You really think I should trust these people that much?
"the government already knows who you are. you pay taxes dont you ? if you pay taxes the government knows who you are, how much you money you make, how much you spend, if you leave the country they know, when you return the customs records your entry in the country... "
As far as the tax authorities are concerned, someone calling themselves "titzandkunt"(!) earns so much money, and consequntly pays a certain rate of tax. Unless thay suspect that I'm under-declaring my income, that's the end of their involvment. They have no idea how much I spend - why should they?
"an ID card can be very usefull. we have them in brasil since... well, my grandmother still had hers RG (Registro Geral = general registry) from 1946..."
Useful for what? BTW, were ID cards introduced in Brasil during a democratic period, or during one of the dictatorships (1930-34, 1937-45, 1964-85).
"when someone have an accident here, the first thing paramedics do is check if the person is carying an RG card to know who he/she is, makes identification in case of death easier, proves that you are who you say you are when using a credit card or check."
I hope to God that this is hyperbole! If a patient is in a condition that they can't clearly state their identity, the paramedics ought to be checking the ABC's (airways, breathing, circulation) first.
When I'm presenting a credit card or cheque, I don't need further ID - both have got my name on them.
"a government issued ID only adds to convenience, IMHO"
Yet again, you don't say how.
The real problem that informed critics have with the proposed uk ID scheme is not the card per se, but with the database backing the card. Do you know what information the government proposes to hold on this database? Here we go:
- Name
- Other previous names or aliases;
- Date and place of birth and, if the person has died, the date of death;
- Address
- Previous addresses in the United Kingdom and elsewhere;
- Times of residency at different places in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;
- Current residential status;
- Residential statuses previously held;
- Information about numbers allocated to the applicant for identification purposes and about the documents to which they relate;
- Information about occasions on which recorded information in the Register has been provided to any person;
- Information recorded in the Register on request.
- Photograph
- Fingerprints
- "Other" biometrics (iris recognition);
- Signature
- Nationality;
- Entitlement to remain in the United Kingdom; and
- Where entitlement derives from a grant of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, the terms and conditions of that leave.
- National Identity Registration Number;
- The number of any ID card that has been issued;
- National Insurance number;
- The number of any relevant immigration document;
- The number of any United Kingdom passport (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77)) that has been issued;
- The number of any passport issued by or on behalf of the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or by or on behalf of an international organisation;
- The number of any document that can be used (in some or all circumstances) instead of a passport;
- The number of any identity card issued by the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom;
- Any reference number allocated by the Secretary of State in connection with an application made for permission to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom;
- The number of any work permit (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971);
- Any driver number connected to a driving licence;
- The number of any designated document which is held by the ap
Just tuck it away in a commonly used header file, use touch to restore the last date/time of modification, and you're all set.
#define void int
Hours & hours of irritation & confusion!
T&K.
Hm. I remember some time back - when captchas were starting to be used in anger - some
Looks like my estimate of the gullibility of the surfing public was way too low, and they just need to dangle a PSP in front of people's eyes to get them to bust captchas for free.
T&K.
[Regarding the importance of Human Factors engineers]
"...You must mean in academia, because HCI [Human Computer Interface] is not even a consideration in the business world I live in..."
Do tell what business world you live in. Is this the business world where all HCI's are utter ass?
Just because you haven't heard of it, or don't understand it, you really shouldn't be so shortsighted as to dismiss out of hand a whole domain of IT endeavour which can significantly affect your bottom line.
I've seen UI's which were "designed" by programmers. One of them is a product of my current comapany, designed before we realised the importance of ergonomics/HCI input. If we weren't the only game in town, the customer would probably have rejected the product and walked on the contract. As it is, we're contractually obliged to train the users to a specified level of capability for a fixed cost. We're swallowing the increased training cost necessitated by shoddy UI design. Hundreds of thousands of GBP are going down the drain when this cash would be otherwise be pure profit.
This is the business world I live in.
T&K.
"...I never got why thaey bothered aquiring the I, robot rights. I mean it's not like anyone who has read the book was fooled into thinking that it was going to be anything like it. All they did was piss off a bunch of Asimov fans (myself included) without bringing in any extra audience.
The makers of "I, Robot" (the film) probably acuired the rights to "I, Robot" (the collection of short stories) so that they could refer to and use Asimov's three laws of robotics, without being spanked to Africa and back by the Asimov estate for copyright infringement.
The perversion of of the three laws underlie the main plot elements of the film, so it's pretty vital that they be able to name and refer to the laws. Of course, with the rights to the stories, they also got Susan Calvin, "positronic brains", and associated tech. bunkum to throw into the pot.
T&K.
Ha! Do you think I can tell you that!?
"...USB drives are what the babysitters should be shitting themselves over. How many companies have a huge list of staff in engineering and other sensitive areas with have local admin rights?. plug, play, cut, paste and you could see hundred sensitive documents go to your competition...."
Try plugging an unauthorised usb drive into the secure* network at my place of work. Nada, nil, zilch. You'll get a dialog box telling you to fuck off in short order, and I don't doubt that the failed mount gets logged with IT. Same story if you try to mount a CD-R/W, DVD+-R/W. Floppies are ok, presumably because they're so limited.
"Authorised" usb drives work ok, but like our hard drives (which live in caddies), they are assigned to an individual, are supposed never leave the site and to go in the safe at the end of the day. These safes do get checked against the inventory at odd intervals - if it ain't random, I'm jiggered if I can see a pattern. If the drives in the safe don't match your allocation, you're in a world of pain.
Nobody outside of IT has any admin rights on the secure network.
T&K.
*We have 2 networks - 1 "commercial" which talks to the outside world, and one "secure" which has a bona-fide air gap between it and any other network.
"Linux was based on Minix. A UnixLite OS designed to run on PCs. However, it was really only a teaching tool. Andrew Tanenbaum repeatedly refused to add the new (legitimate) features the users and even developers asked for. Linus Torvalds set out simply to add functionality to his own version of Minix (the copyright allows use to do so for your own personal use, but you cannot sell or distibute it).
Over time, in adding functionality to Minix, Linus Torvalds found that he had created an entirely new kernel. I was very similar to Minix but used none of the Minix source code..."
(Who modded the preceeding garbage "Informative!?)
Linux began as a development that was hosted on a pc running Minix. Linus set out, from the start, to create a posix compatible kernel of his very own. The idea that he created the kernel by accident is as laughable as it is insulting.
See here for a a rather more factual account of the development of the Linux kernel.
T&K.
The concept that PR influences media is about as novel as the concept that media exists primarily as an advertising vehicle. None of this is anything new.
Remember subliminal advertising?"
Er, no.
Isn't that point?
T&K.
"...I handle it with fake racism..."
I'm not convinced that you do.
"...They are usually so superstitious about first world technology, that they actually believe this [some GPS/Bioweapon garbage] and hang up..."
Nope. Couldn't spot any fake racism here.
T&K.
I ran windows update, and got the full package including the Malicious Software Removal Tool.
During the update, the Steam icon on my desktop flickered.
Sure enough, steam.exe appears to have been removed, presumably by the aforementioned removal tool.
Am I the only one out there who's had this happen? (in which case, I'm hallucinationg, and all will be ok by morning)
Ab gebhoyr ng nyy. V guvax gur SN vf n ybnq bs ohaxhz! G&X.
"...No wonder India is becoming popular. If I owned a small to medium sized programing shop not only would I be tempted to outsource, I would move my whole company there. I do not need these IP laws hanging around my neck in order to compete..."
Where are you going to be selling your software? Where are your users going to be based? Don't forget that end-users can be sued for using patent-infringing software.
A few shot-across-the-bows press releases from the patent monster (MS, Sun, Apple, Sony et al), and no customer in a western country will touch you with a twenty-foot pole.
T&K.
"...Check out, for example, the Asylum Street Spankers...."
This sounds disconcertingly like a product of the band name generator
T&K.
"...'Why don't you just peddle[sic] (you lazy f*ck)?' Because I'm sure that thought NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND. Ever...."
Sadly, given the (general) state of our health and our fitness levels, this could easily be true.
T&K
Hm. This sounds like two people doing the job of a typist - if everyone knows what attributes and functions are required, it all sounds a bit waterfall-ey.
Design->Code->Test. Do it once, and do it *right*. Fred Brooks has much to say about the pitfalls of this strategy. Waterfall is often associated with over-design or design paralysis and failed, over-budget projects.
Nowadays, many folk prefer some iterative or incremental approach, where skiing off piste (unforseen additions/removals/refactoring) during an implementation phase is ok and often vital: It can be round-tripped back into the design and acommodated during the next design phase.
On this basis, I don't see any impending clamour for multiple carets & editor views.
T&K.
"...Why don't we have two carets in the same file so we can edit both at the same time..."
For the same reason that cars don't have two steering wheels up front.
You're renaming/deleting class member variables in your editor view, while your buddy suddenly sees the member functions he's working on fall to pieces, because they depend on those variables?
Of course you could tell him what you're doing, and he can wait until you're done. And like many world-beating multi-threaded concepts, it is degraded into a single-threaded way of working in order to avoid those pesky race conditions & deadlocks.
This is a simplistic objection. Coming up with more horrific examples is left as an exercise for the reader.
T&K.