It won't take a whole lot to undercut Cisco since they have always had ridiculous pricing. Even companies with damn near infinite amounts of cash finally started looking at other vendors because of ludicrous price levels.
However !
That said, I have decommissioned Cisco routers and switches that have been running ( without a reboot ) for twenty plus YEARS without a hiccup. I doubt you're going to find that sort of reliability in anything offered at rock bottom prices.
So, while expensive as hell, I can't complain about the operational track record.
Instead of focusing on a single company, why not target the crux of the problem instead ?
Get some serious privacy laws enacted so that NO company is allowed to obtain or collect private information from individuals without their express knowledge and consent. ( No, burying it on page 212 of a EULA doesn't qualify, nor does tying the right to spy on us for a discounted price for a service ) Obtaining it without consent is basically theft and should be treated as such.
Companies get a fucking slap on the wrist for surreptitiously obtaining data on us and / or losing it in a breach. Why is it I can get hit with a $150K fine for downloading a music track ( per infringement ) but companies stealing OUR personal data is perfectly legal ? Imagine if companies had to pay a $150K fine for every customers data they obtained without consent. ( Or on a per customer / account basis during a data breach ) That would be one impressive fine if you have several million customers data in your possession. . .
Additionally, some harsh laws ( at least on par with HIPAA laws ) need to be enacted to protect said information and force companies to take this matter seriously.
The only way you fix this is if you hurt them financially.
for being forced into an open office environment would simply be a nice set of headphones with music to last me the entire work day.
When folks realize they can't bug me verbally with incessant questions I've answered a dozen times already ( fucking take notes already, I'm not Google ) they eventually switch over to instant messaging. I can then simply turn it off, ( which is boring ), or let an automated script take over and answer every single incoming message with " I LIKE TURTLES ".
Bottom line: You want your employees / co-workers to be productive, leave them the fuck alone and LET them be productive.
for the same reasons I don't take a Taxi, Uber, the bus or a GD train.
I go where I want and, more importantly, WHEN I want. I'm not going to wait around for someone / something to come pick me up. Did the bus and / or Bart thing for years. Will never do it again.
IF a self-driving car is on par price wise with the current offerings, then I have no issues with owning one as I can get in it and go without someone / something else dictating WHEN I can go.
The " theater experience " is currently so poor, you could give me the tickets for FREE and I still won't go to the theater to see the movie.
I will wait for it to come out on Pay Per View, Blu-Ray or $random_streaming_service so I don't have to:
1) Wonder if my vehicle is getting broken into out in the theater parking lot while I see the show 2) Show up an hour early if I want any chance of a decent seat 3) Deal with folks on phones, folks who want to talk the whole time or heathen children running wild 4) The fact that management refuses to do anything about #3 even when it's brought to their attention 5) Put up with a poorly maintained sound system that's turned up a few dB past the threshold of pain 6) Worry about sticking to the floor where the soda was spilled a few days ago
that phones nearing that $1k price tag don't seem to sell so well. ( No matter what lovely colors it comes in )
The $700 variant will probably fare much better.
However, is it just me or does no one really give a damn about the " new " iPhones / Androids that come out every year with not a whole lot of anything to get excited about ?
Roll one out with a headphone jack, removable battery, the basic OS without all the GD bloatware, a physical switch that disables GPS, the MIC and Cameras and you might pique my interest. Selling me the same old sh*t with a colorful new paintjob just doesn't really do it for me I'm afraid.
Disconnect said device from the Internet. Problem solved via a simple solution. or Allow the connection, identify telemetry addresses and block those at the router. Problem solved via slightly more complex solution.
The former is easier than the latter. This really applies to EVERYTHING you connect to the Internet / Network. Assume it's hostile or a potentially leaky device and treat it as such.
You really need to look a bit beyond just the pay because, if you don't, you'll be job hopping again soon enough.
How long has the company been operating ? Are they established and stable, or a startup ? How much turnover does the company have ? Why ? Benefits ? Insurance ? Retirement ? Does it require travel ? What's the cost of living where the company wants you to move ? Telecommute a possibility ? Starting at bottom seniority means getting stuck with hours you hate ? How much personal / vacation / sick time they offer ? How many hours per week do they require ?
Personally, some of the items on the above list are MORE important to me than the pay is.
It's more profitable to sue folks pirating adult films than it is to actually SELL adult films in this day and age.
The film itself is produced as bait knowing there will be lots of opportunities to sue folks who download it. If not, then the firms themselves create those opportunities by uploading said content and waiting for the inevitable downloads to start.
Even with top tier cable / satellite, you still don't get to see everything. What you do get is about 10% of what you want to watch, bundled with 90% filler and bullshit. ( Like the Scientology channel, two dozen Jesus channels, the seemingly infinite number of shopping or infomercial channels and a multitude of channels in a language you don't even speak )
There is a financial breaking point for everyone where they will sell out and give you anything you want from them. No matter how rich you are, no matter how moral or ethical you are, the vast majority of people will cave in eventually once the price is high enough.
For this reason alone, I laugh when Government and LE types try to claim there is no way such secrets can ever fall into the wrong hands.
People are, and have always been, the weakest link in the chain.
My normal license plate also does not contain GPS or RFID which, while it allows you to see where your car is at any given moment, so too does it allow anyone else with a badge or enough money the very same ability. You've read the same stories we all have about the abuses of privacy. How rampant it is and how little those in charge give a shit about violating it. Do you REALLY think they won't do the same with this data ?
On top of this, my current license plate works perfectly after a decade in the sun, snow, rain, hail, mud, rocks and whatever hazards the highways love to kick up. At most it might get a dent or two but it won't cost me more $$$ to get it replaced when it fails.
I haven't tuned in any stations in the car for years. They're still set to whatever the factory defaults are. The receiver in my living room has no antenna connected to it and has no stations programmed either.
Maybe they don't care about Pirate stations because so few even bother to listen any more.
This is going into play so that, later on, they will announce this ' limitation ' will not impact customers who are streaming from Xfinity's own video services.
The simple definition of " Cloud " is infrastructure you neither own nor control.
By offloading this responsibility to a third party ( Google in this case ) you simply add an additional point of failure in the chain.
With any substantial amount of money on the line, the better way to do things is to have your own servers ( preferably two locations, one primary and one backup ) so if one site goes down, it's more of an annoyance than a Class A Catastrophe.
Most companies, however, have to get burned before they understand that there is a limit to the number of corners you can cut.
but, when dealing with human beings, you should know that just about everyone has a price at which they can be bought. ( With enough Carrots, you don't need a stick )
Feeble human traits like nobility, doing-the-right-thing, ethics, morals, etc. are no match for the promises of Wealth. ( You may come to regret such a decision in later years, but we rarely think that far ahead )
They put enough money in front of these people and I guarantee you this becomes a totally different story. One that doesn't have the "feel-good-they're-doing-the-right-thing" happy ending. ( Unless you're Google or the Military )
At some point, if they throw enough money your way, even the purest and nigh-incorruptible will fall from grace.
I'm guessing this idea is born from the ashes of the recent school shootings and is a technological attempt to identify and / or alert about individuals on campus that do not belong. Ex students / staff, parents, contractors, etc.
I would guess that visitors to the school would have to check in via the main office to get their photo taken so they can be entered into the system as a temporary guest otherwise the system would send an alert about a non-authorized individual once the camera is unable to match their face with its database. Hell, it could even be used to operate entry doors.
The question I would have is how accurate are these things and would they be chasing around ghosts from constant false triggers ?
It does nothing for a student who IS allowed to be on campus who wakes up one day and decides to shoot / burn / blow up / $mayhem the facility because his girl friend dumped him last week. Or who has been picked on / bullied during the school year(s) by other students too fucking stupid to understand what the consequences of their actions can lead to. ( Eg: Student pokes bear with stick all year -> Bear has enough and eats student -> Everyone mad at Bear -> Students are the victim of terrible Bear )
" For starters, it costs millions of dollars (Lockport spent almost $4 million), which could be used for things like Wi-Fi, new computers, or 3D printers. "
I did get a good laugh at that line. The high school in my town recently spent somewhere close to $100M for new Football, Basketball arenas and other sports related venues. It basically boils down to the fact that schools don't want to spend money on security because, for them, it's not as important as a new Football Stadium.:|
If they were serious about it, $100M pays for an awful lot of security for quite a long time.
The reasoning behind such rules is to ensure that the subordinate employee isn't shown any preferential treatment. It's already obvious when hormones get involved, logical decisions go right out the window.
This also prevents a subordinate employee from gaining any leverage against the individual in question ( in this case, the CEO ). Once a relationship begins, the subordinate can now demand quite a bit via the threat of blackmail.
Finally, it doesn't matter if he / she was an employee or not. If you're having an affair, it puts you at risk for blackmail. Which is significant when you're the CEO. Imagine if the one he decided to have an affair with actually worked for or had interests with AMD or another competitor.
You see the problem this can create ?
As CEO, I would think he would have more snap than that.
Independents are like Linux in a world dominated by PCs and Macs. Very, very few people pay attention to Linux because it's a raindrop in an ocean.
A single Independent is akin to a single palm tree trying to stop a tidal wave. The wave simply mows down everything in its path. The gesture is noteworthy, but gestures don't fix problems. You'll need a forest of trees to make a difference.
However !
If a day ever comes when Independents are on equal footing with their corrupt Red and Blue counterparts, you can bet they will eventually become corporate targets as well and, ultimately, it will be difficult to distinguish them from the people we love to hate today.
Every election we're fed the same lies about how bad things have been for X years and how this FRESH, NEW, candidate understands us because they are ONE OF US and are going to lead us back to Red, White and Blue Glory ! ( cue fireworks, country music, and images of Eagles, Soldiers and the so called ' American Dream ' )
Every. Fucking. Election. ( and every time, it's complete bullshit )
It's rather depressing really.:|
TL:DR - If the Independents ever grow in number and actually have a voice in how things work, they'll get a taste of that Corporate Donor money and be every bit as corrupt as our current parties are.
There really isn't any means to " prepare " for it.
You won't know the signature for it until after it is released. We can combine a payload with any number of existing pathogens altered just enough so the body won't know what it is, until it's too late.
You can't prepare for this any more than you can prepare for the next computer virus that has yet to be released.
I'm curious how they " discovered " the alleged child porn if it was encrypted under three layers of passwords. I find it unlikely he would have voluntarily given up that information considering the punishment for possession of said material is far greater than failing to divulge a password ( or three ) to investigators. I also find it unlikely that, considering the work he did for the Agency, said material would be so easily discovered on anything he owns since he would have much better insight as to what methods they can utilize to infiltrate and / or gain access to targeted systems.
I suppose since it's the CIA we're talking about, nothing would be off limits ( unofficially ) in how they conduct their own investigations since they tend to operate without much oversight. ( That statement should scare the hell out of anyone. ) My gut feeling is it's a warning shot for any others who might consider similar actions against the Agency in the future.
Do anything to expose or embarrass us and we will bury you forever. ( Even if we have to fabricate the evidence ourselves. )
I have to wonder if the Universities considering this path actually CARE about how capable / incapable their prospective student body is. My guess is they've done the math on the amount of money they're missing out on due to setting the bar too high via SAT / ACT scores.
They will all happily take your money regardless if you can handle the curriculum or not. You finishing your degree is relevant to them only as long as you continue to pay.
Of course, this is short sighted thinking on the Universities part.
In the short term, you have a larger influx of cash as the bar for entrance requirements is taken down a few notches and more students attend. In the long term, bringing in students who may not be able to handle the curriculum ultimately tarnishes the reputation of the University. ( As the drop out rate increases, reputation plummets and fewer students will want to attend. )
Keep the entrance standards high and come to the realization that college is not in the cards for everyone.
bad mouthing the BabyBoomers is bad, wait till the generation that is growing up in 2100 ( assuming we survive that long ) starts throwing blame around:D
" Those GD Neanderthals back in 2018 F*CKED UP THE ENTIRE PLANET FOR US ALL "
Slashdot Mirror
It won't take a whole lot to undercut Cisco since they have always had ridiculous pricing.
Even companies with damn near infinite amounts of cash finally started looking at other vendors because of ludicrous price levels.
However !
That said, I have decommissioned Cisco routers and switches that have been running ( without a reboot ) for twenty plus YEARS without a hiccup.
I doubt you're going to find that sort of reliability in anything offered at rock bottom prices.
So, while expensive as hell, I can't complain about the operational track record.
Instead of focusing on a single company, why not target the crux of the problem instead ?
Get some serious privacy laws enacted so that NO company is allowed to obtain or collect private information from individuals without their express knowledge and consent. ( No, burying it on page 212 of a EULA doesn't qualify, nor does tying the right to spy on us for a discounted price for a service ) Obtaining it without consent is basically theft and should be treated as such.
Companies get a fucking slap on the wrist for surreptitiously obtaining data on us and / or losing it in a breach. Why is it I can get hit with a $150K fine for downloading a music track ( per infringement ) but companies stealing OUR personal data is perfectly legal ? Imagine if companies had to pay a $150K fine for every customers data they obtained without consent. ( Or on a per customer / account basis during a data breach ) That would be one impressive fine if you have several million customers data in your possession. . .
Additionally, some harsh laws ( at least on par with HIPAA laws ) need to be enacted to protect said information and force companies to take this matter seriously.
The only way you fix this is if you hurt them financially.
for being forced into an open office environment would simply be a nice set of headphones with music to last me the entire work day.
When folks realize they can't bug me verbally with incessant questions I've answered a dozen times already ( fucking take notes already, I'm not Google ) they eventually switch over to instant messaging. I can then simply turn it off, ( which is boring ), or let an automated script take over and answer every single incoming message with " I LIKE TURTLES ".
Bottom line: You want your employees / co-workers to be productive, leave them the fuck alone and LET them be productive.
You might be surprised at the results.
for the same reasons I don't take a Taxi, Uber, the bus or a GD train.
I go where I want and, more importantly, WHEN I want. I'm not going to wait around for someone / something to come pick me up. Did the bus and / or Bart thing for years. Will never do it again.
IF a self-driving car is on par price wise with the current offerings, then I have no issues with owning one as I can get in it and go without someone / something else dictating WHEN I can go.
Until then, I'll just keep on driving.
Here's what they're not getting:
The " theater experience " is currently so poor, you could give me the tickets for FREE and I still won't go to the theater to see the movie.
I will wait for it to come out on Pay Per View, Blu-Ray or $random_streaming_service so I don't have to:
1) Wonder if my vehicle is getting broken into out in the theater parking lot while I see the show
2) Show up an hour early if I want any chance of a decent seat
3) Deal with folks on phones, folks who want to talk the whole time or heathen children running wild
4) The fact that management refuses to do anything about #3 even when it's brought to their attention
5) Put up with a poorly maintained sound system that's turned up a few dB past the threshold of pain
6) Worry about sticking to the floor where the soda was spilled a few days ago
that phones nearing that $1k price tag don't seem to sell so well.
( No matter what lovely colors it comes in )
The $700 variant will probably fare much better.
However, is it just me or does no one really give a damn about the " new " iPhones / Androids that come out every year with not a whole lot of anything to get excited about ?
Roll one out with a headphone jack, removable battery, the basic OS without all the GD bloatware, a physical switch that disables GPS, the MIC and Cameras and you might pique my interest. Selling me the same old sh*t with a colorful new paintjob just doesn't really do it for me I'm afraid.
" on internet-connected TVs "
Disconnect said device from the Internet. Problem solved via a simple solution.
or
Allow the connection, identify telemetry addresses and block those at the router. Problem solved via slightly more complex solution.
The former is easier than the latter.
This really applies to EVERYTHING you connect to the Internet / Network. Assume it's hostile or a potentially leaky device and treat it as such.
" Trust, but verify " as the saying goes.
You really need to look a bit beyond just the pay because, if you don't, you'll be job hopping again soon enough.
How long has the company been operating ?
Are they established and stable, or a startup ?
How much turnover does the company have ? Why ?
Benefits ? Insurance ? Retirement ?
Does it require travel ?
What's the cost of living where the company wants you to move ?
Telecommute a possibility ?
Starting at bottom seniority means getting stuck with hours you hate ?
How much personal / vacation / sick time they offer ?
How many hours per week do they require ?
Personally, some of the items on the above list are MORE important to me than the pay is.
It's more profitable to sue folks pirating adult films than it is to actually SELL adult films in this day and age.
The film itself is produced as bait knowing there will be lots of opportunities to sue folks who download it.
If not, then the firms themselves create those opportunities by uploading said content and waiting for the inevitable downloads to start.
Netflix should negotiate with the porn industry to include an adults only tier. :D
Watch how that subscriber base jumps by several orders of magnitude.
"Go back to a $100/month cable bill."
Pro Tip:
Even with top tier cable / satellite, you still don't get to see everything. What you do get is about 10% of what you want to watch, bundled with 90% filler and bullshit. ( Like the Scientology channel, two dozen Jesus channels, the seemingly infinite number of shopping or infomercial channels and a multitude of channels in a language you don't even speak )
There is a financial breaking point for everyone where they will sell out and give you anything you want from them.
No matter how rich you are, no matter how moral or ethical you are, the vast majority of people will cave in eventually once the price is high enough.
For this reason alone, I laugh when Government and LE types try to claim there is no way such secrets can ever fall into the wrong hands.
People are, and have always been, the weakest link in the chain.
My normal license plate also does not contain GPS or RFID which, while it allows you to see where your car is at any given moment, so too does it allow anyone else with a badge or enough money the very same ability. You've read the same stories we all have about the abuses of privacy. How rampant it is and how little those in charge give a shit about violating it. Do you REALLY think they won't do the same with this data ?
On top of this, my current license plate works perfectly after a decade in the sun, snow, rain, hail, mud, rocks and whatever hazards the highways love to kick up.
At most it might get a dent or two but it won't cost me more $$$ to get it replaced when it fails.
Nope. Nope and more Nope.
but who listens to the radio anymore ?
I haven't tuned in any stations in the car for years. They're still set to whatever the factory defaults are.
The receiver in my living room has no antenna connected to it and has no stations programmed either.
Maybe they don't care about Pirate stations because so few even bother to listen any more.
This is going into play so that, later on, they will announce this ' limitation ' will not impact customers who are streaming from Xfinity's own video services.
Remember folks:
The simple definition of " Cloud " is infrastructure you neither own nor control.
By offloading this responsibility to a third party ( Google in this case ) you simply add an additional point
of failure in the chain.
With any substantial amount of money on the line, the better way to do things is to have your own servers
( preferably two locations, one primary and one backup ) so if one site goes down, it's more of an annoyance
than a Class A Catastrophe.
Most companies, however, have to get burned before they understand that there is a limit to the number of
corners you can cut.
but, when dealing with human beings, you should know that just about everyone has a price at which they can be bought.
( With enough Carrots, you don't need a stick )
Feeble human traits like nobility, doing-the-right-thing, ethics, morals, etc. are no match for the promises of Wealth.
( You may come to regret such a decision in later years, but we rarely think that far ahead )
They put enough money in front of these people and I guarantee you this becomes a totally different story.
One that doesn't have the "feel-good-they're-doing-the-right-thing" happy ending. ( Unless you're Google or the Military )
At some point, if they throw enough money your way, even the purest and nigh-incorruptible will fall from grace.
There is no cure for it.
It's what we are.
I'm guessing this idea is born from the ashes of the recent school shootings and is a technological attempt to identify and / or alert about individuals on campus that do not belong. Ex students / staff, parents, contractors, etc.
I would guess that visitors to the school would have to check in via the main office to get their photo taken so they can be entered into the system as a temporary guest otherwise the system would send an alert about a non-authorized individual once the camera is unable to match their face with its database. Hell, it could even be used to operate entry doors.
The question I would have is how accurate are these things and would they be chasing around ghosts from constant false triggers ?
It does nothing for a student who IS allowed to be on campus who wakes up one day and decides to shoot / burn / blow up / $mayhem the facility because his girl friend dumped him last week. Or who has been picked on / bullied during the school year(s) by other students too fucking stupid to understand what the consequences of their actions can lead to. ( Eg: Student pokes bear with stick all year -> Bear has enough and eats student -> Everyone mad at Bear -> Students are the victim of terrible Bear )
" For starters, it costs millions of dollars (Lockport spent almost $4 million), which could be used for things like Wi-Fi, new computers, or 3D printers. "
I did get a good laugh at that line. The high school in my town recently spent somewhere close to $100M for new Football, Basketball arenas and other sports related venues. It basically boils down to the fact that schools don't want to spend money on security because, for them, it's not as important as a new Football Stadium. :|
If they were serious about it, $100M pays for an awful lot of security for quite a long time.
You're missing the point I think.
The reasoning behind such rules is to ensure that the subordinate employee isn't shown any preferential treatment.
It's already obvious when hormones get involved, logical decisions go right out the window.
This also prevents a subordinate employee from gaining any leverage against the individual in question ( in this case, the CEO ).
Once a relationship begins, the subordinate can now demand quite a bit via the threat of blackmail.
Finally, it doesn't matter if he / she was an employee or not. If you're having an affair, it puts you at risk for blackmail. Which is
significant when you're the CEO. Imagine if the one he decided to have an affair with actually worked for or had interests with AMD or
another competitor.
You see the problem this can create ?
As CEO, I would think he would have more snap than that.
" This is why I vote independent. "
I have some terrible news to share with you.
Independents are like Linux in a world dominated by PCs and Macs.
Very, very few people pay attention to Linux because it's a raindrop in an ocean.
A single Independent is akin to a single palm tree trying to stop a tidal wave. The wave simply mows
down everything in its path. The gesture is noteworthy, but gestures don't fix problems. You'll need a forest
of trees to make a difference.
However !
If a day ever comes when Independents are on equal footing with their corrupt Red and Blue counterparts, you
can bet they will eventually become corporate targets as well and, ultimately, it will be difficult to distinguish them
from the people we love to hate today.
Every election we're fed the same lies about how bad things have been for X years and how this FRESH, NEW,
candidate understands us because they are ONE OF US and are going to lead us back to Red, White and Blue Glory !
( cue fireworks, country music, and images of Eagles, Soldiers and the so called ' American Dream ' )
Every. Fucking. Election.
( and every time, it's complete bullshit )
It's rather depressing really. :|
TL:DR - If the Independents ever grow in number and actually have a voice in how things work, they'll get a taste
of that Corporate Donor money and be every bit as corrupt as our current parties are.
There really isn't any means to " prepare " for it.
You won't know the signature for it until after it is released. We can combine a payload with any number of existing pathogens altered just enough so the body won't know what it is, until it's too late.
You can't prepare for this any more than you can prepare for the next computer virus that has yet to be released.
I'm quite sure they'll rethink this idea when Google simply delists them from the search engine.
When their site traffic drops off to near zero, those companies will end up begging to be relisted soon enough.
I'm curious how they " discovered " the alleged child porn if it was encrypted under three layers of passwords. I find it unlikely he would have voluntarily given up that information considering the punishment for possession of said material is far greater than failing to divulge a password ( or three ) to investigators. I also find it unlikely that, considering the work he did for the Agency, said material would be so easily discovered on anything he owns since he would have much better insight as to what methods they can utilize to infiltrate and / or gain access to targeted systems.
I suppose since it's the CIA we're talking about, nothing would be off limits ( unofficially ) in how they conduct their own investigations since they tend to operate without much oversight. ( That statement should scare the hell out of anyone. ) My gut feeling is it's a warning shot for any others who might consider similar actions against the Agency in the future.
Do anything to expose or embarrass us and we will bury you forever. ( Even if we have to fabricate the evidence ourselves. )
I have to wonder if the Universities considering this path actually CARE about how capable / incapable their prospective student body is.
My guess is they've done the math on the amount of money they're missing out on due to setting the bar too high via SAT / ACT scores.
They will all happily take your money regardless if you can handle the curriculum or not.
You finishing your degree is relevant to them only as long as you continue to pay.
Of course, this is short sighted thinking on the Universities part.
In the short term, you have a larger influx of cash as the bar for entrance requirements is taken down a few notches and more students attend.
In the long term, bringing in students who may not be able to handle the curriculum ultimately tarnishes the reputation of the University.
( As the drop out rate increases, reputation plummets and fewer students will want to attend. )
Keep the entrance standards high and come to the realization that college is not in the cards for everyone.
bad mouthing the BabyBoomers is bad, wait till the generation that is growing up in 2100 ( assuming we survive that long ) starts throwing blame around :D
" Those GD Neanderthals back in 2018 F*CKED UP THE ENTIRE PLANET FOR US ALL "
*stomps foot for dramatic effect*