What retailer in their right minds (especially the big ones, who have the power to make or break this technology) would allow the use of something that is so easily modified. Whatever RFID tags are used, they would have to be write-once-read-many. The article is obvious grand standing by someone who really doesn't know how much research (that is already) going into such a radical change. Doing this RFID thing right could mean the life or death of even the biggest of retailers.
They will start somewhere that is in a much more controlled environment; the supply chain. They will implement and discover its limitations there, where there isn't as higher likelihood of some little twirp wanting to cause havoc.
As someone who works in the retail industry, on systems that do need to identify items (i.e. reading barcodes), one thing I see is that implementing RFID will cost a lot more in systems development than what happens with today's barcodes. If I want to mimic a whole lot of products being scanned today, I simply print a whole heap of barcodes on a sheet of paper. I can print as many copies as I like and hand them out to as many developers and testers as I like (the only cost being the paper and toner, and perhaps licensing costs for the barcode font I'm using).
With RFID, you have to pay per tag you require. So, however many developers and components they are developing, plus however many testers you have and however many scenarios they're testing, multiplied by the (far higher) cost of the tag itself. You will come to much higher overheads in your development / testing cycle. And you can't just "make up" your own tags on the fly, so it will be by far more annoying than what happens today.
The differences you've mentioned don't apply just to Canada; in Australia, English speaking European countries, and practically every where else, you will see "metre", "colour", and you will hear "zed", and "quarter past", "quarter to", etc. Americans are the odd ones out here.
While we're on the topic, lets talk about bookmarking... why is it that its so hard to bookmark a framed site?? What makes it so difficult to remember which page has been loaded in each frame displayed in a website? Surely if you're a browser developer, you could go the full extent and remember the scrolling position of each frame also.
It has never made sense to me why a bookmark should only ever consist of *one* URL.
As for your other points (printing and linking), printing I believe has been taken care of; and linking is simply the job of the web developer to ensure all appropriate pages can be linked to.
The most common place I've seen this type of clause used is on websites... "Use of this website is subject to our terms and conditions".
I would argue that your use of my website is not a given right, unless you agree to my terms and conditions. Where is it defined that connecting to a website and using any of its functions is any more of a given right than that of logging on to an anonymous FTP server, downloading a piece of code that has a similar clause attached to it, modifying it, and publishing it?
Afterall, I'm granting you the right to use the application (website) that I've provided in the first place, I can take that away by disallowing your IP block, setting a cookie on your browser, or just taking the site offline. You are under no duress to use the website either.
Using your same argument, I woudl actually suggest that the GPL is taking away rights from the use of the source code you download with it. You have a whole heap of text files that you can do practically anything with, but once you read the GPL, suddenly you don't have the rights to do a couple of the things you could before you read it. Without the GPL attached, you are allowed to do a lot more with the code you've got.
I think you're missing the point a little (in a way not explained in other replies to your comment). Using the archilles and tortoise example, the point is that you can't measure both their positions at one particular point in time because they are in two different positions in space. Your measuring equipment will take two readings, at slightly different times (perhaps less than a millisecond apart, if your equipment is that good), and their positions will not quite be the same because they the difference between the two positions can be infinitely small.
The only way they can be in the same position is if the atoms of archillies are in the same position as the atoms of the tortoise, in which case they would actually have to be the same atoms (otherwise they will not be at the same position in space, there would be a distance of space between the two).
So when, exactly, would the two be at the same position in space? Not only can they not be physically in the same position, but your measurements of them being in the same place cannot be taken at the same time, because it is impossible to observe two bits of matter at the same time with the same equipment (the electrons that move in the circuits from the observational device to the recording device create a lag, for example).
Its fine to mathematically solve the problem, but when observing the scenario in real life, you'll probably find its not quite that simple.
ASP.NET also allows the developer to choose whether they use the querystring to track the session or cookies. Of course, the overhead in adding the sessionid to all href tags is something you'd want to consider (no matter which platform you're developing on)
All of you with a Windows 2000 / XP machine, with IIS installed (come on admit it, you do!) go into the IIS config console, select your default website (don't tell me you've deleted it), select properties, go to the "Home Directory" tab, "Configuration" button, "Options" tab, de-select "Enabled Session State".
There you go - it's not even up to the developer to disable it then...
Not only does it cost money for the big corporation to fix the site... it also costs to investigate the attack. This cost would probably be absorbed by the company hosting the site (big corporations don't necessarily host their own sites). Lets not forget the tax payer dollars spent on the police investigation that may take place also (most companies will take an attack on their good name very very seriously, and report it as a criminal offence).
The hosting company I work for once had a high profile site defaced - the site content was fixed by the site's developers (employees of the site's company), time was also spent by the sys admin of the data centre sifting through web and firewall logs, and all collated information was forwarded on to the police, who then investigated and eventually charged the person who attacked the site.
I don't think they'll let it go on July 6th just because they read in some newspaper that its a day of hacking.
I work as a web developer in exactly this type of environment. The entire network is Microsoft based, and have personally found that the one technical reason for web apps to be IE specific is that its the only browser supporting NTLM.
Hallelujah! Finally I might be able to get away from IE here at work, just like I have at home. It (was) the only thing stopping me from using Mozilla all the time.
It is possible that the writer (Kevin Coughlin) interpreted "writing a search engine that links to mp3 files on a network" to "offered hundreds of mp3 songs" simply because he was the programmer who wrote that software.
I don't think its safe to assume that he actually offered the files from his machine just because a writer chose that wording.
Maybe our friend Kevin has already been sucked in by the RIAA just like every joe bloggs out there will soon?
Anyone that argues ADSL (we're talking 128k or perhaps 256k here) isn't broadband may indeed be ignorant of the technical details, but the meaning of the word to them is obviously different to what the meaning is to a person who is technically inclined.
When a service is advertised as broadband, the meaning changes from what the technical aspects are, to what is accepted by the general population. The meaning for the general population is "fast" - I personally would not consider 128kbs as fast (16kB per second minus IP overhead doesn't amount to much!).
I'm sure a number of people out there would be dissapointed with their "broadband" ("fast") service after signing up for that particular product.
FTP over SSH is a good way to secure FTP, and there are a number of clients (Cute FTP Pro being one of them) that supports such implementations out-of-the-box, complete with drag&drop functionality, etc. (assuming of course they're using Windows, which is a fair assumption if they are a clueless end-user:))
Extreme Programming, from what I've seen, is a development process theory that fits in well to where "crap development" (tm) occurs. i.e. it is a cycle that allows for quick deployment while doing things properly at the same time. Google knows (google in austalia is a cool thing btw!).
While I do know the difference between the presentation layer, business logic, and data storage - what if the customer doesn't actually know the full requirements of the site (or indeed a specific section of the site) prior to them wanting it to go live?
I personally love working on projects where the presentation logic is separated from business logic, but unfortunately the majority of my customers need it in production yesterday, and have no time themselves to actually go through the requirements, nor are willing to commit to requirements that will no doubt change in 3 months time.
And for them, I believe, its just a matter of being in the business they are in - their core business has practically nothing to do with I.T. (short of perhaps the checkout scanners at the front of each of their stores). Its only that they are a nation-wide company, and therefore have an image to uphold.
I'm taking a bit of a stab in the dark here, but I think this guy actually wants to know *what* he's paying for - so he can perhaps engage his ISP in some informed discussion so as to bargain the costs to him incurred from say, a slashdotting, down. Not all ISPs out there would be bastards, let him be the judge of whether the ISP will engage in this conversation or not. Don't patronise him for raising the question.
Australia's largest retailing group cancelled Christmas on us. We normally have a nice Christmas gig with the whole shebang - this year, the CEO decided it wasn't financially justifiable. And to add salt, he put a stop to any company funding towards any Christmas celebrations whatsoever.
I guess at least with the doll, you'd have something to take your frustration out on:)
Only in the same way that Tom Clancey's competitors can take advantage of reading his books. The code is still under the full protection of copyright law, and since competitors would be required to disclose source as well, violations would easily be detected. Just like in the world of books.
I presume we're not only talking about software that is widely distributed here. So your analogy of Tom Clancey's books doesn't quite fit. Its a lot easier for me to get the source code for some application developed in some country over the other side of the world, compile it, sell it as my own to a local business or businesses, without the developer over the other side of the world (who is, in effect, Tom Clancey) knowing any different. You also have the problem of inconsistencies with copyright laws internationally.
I should be able to sell a product under any terms I choose. If I choose to keep the source closed, they are the terms I choose. The entity buying the product can then choose not to buy my product if they don't trust me that much.
Slashdot Mirror
What retailer in their right minds (especially the big ones, who have the power to make or break this technology) would allow the use of something that is so easily modified. Whatever RFID tags are used, they would have to be write-once-read-many. The article is obvious grand standing by someone who really doesn't know how much research (that is already) going into such a radical change. Doing this RFID thing right could mean the life or death of even the biggest of retailers.
They will start somewhere that is in a much more controlled environment; the supply chain. They will implement and discover its limitations there, where there isn't as higher likelihood of some little twirp wanting to cause havoc.
As someone who works in the retail industry, on systems that do need to identify items (i.e. reading barcodes), one thing I see is that implementing RFID will cost a lot more in systems development than what happens with today's barcodes. If I want to mimic a whole lot of products being scanned today, I simply print a whole heap of barcodes on a sheet of paper. I can print as many copies as I like and hand them out to as many developers and testers as I like (the only cost being the paper and toner, and perhaps licensing costs for the barcode font I'm using).
With RFID, you have to pay per tag you require. So, however many developers and components they are developing, plus however many testers you have and however many scenarios they're testing, multiplied by the (far higher) cost of the tag itself. You will come to much higher overheads in your development / testing cycle. And you can't just "make up" your own tags on the fly, so it will be by far more annoying than what happens today.
The differences you've mentioned don't apply just to Canada; in Australia, English speaking European countries, and practically every where else, you will see "metre", "colour", and you will hear "zed", and "quarter past", "quarter to", etc. Americans are the odd ones out here.
While we're on the topic, lets talk about bookmarking... why is it that its so hard to bookmark a framed site?? What makes it so difficult to remember which page has been loaded in each frame displayed in a website? Surely if you're a browser developer, you could go the full extent and remember the scrolling position of each frame also.
It has never made sense to me why a bookmark should only ever consist of *one* URL.
As for your other points (printing and linking), printing I believe has been taken care of; and linking is simply the job of the web developer to ensure all appropriate pages can be linked to.
You watched Law and Order last night too huh?
A link to the Australian Broadcasting Council news story on the same item.
It's actually the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as noted throughout their copyright notice, etc.
The most common place I've seen this type of clause used is on websites... "Use of this website is subject to our terms and conditions".
I would argue that your use of my website is not a given right, unless you agree to my terms and conditions. Where is it defined that connecting to a website and using any of its functions is any more of a given right than that of logging on to an anonymous FTP server, downloading a piece of code that has a similar clause attached to it, modifying it, and publishing it?
Afterall, I'm granting you the right to use the application (website) that I've provided in the first place, I can take that away by disallowing your IP block, setting a cookie on your browser, or just taking the site offline. You are under no duress to use the website either.
Using your same argument, I woudl actually suggest that the GPL is taking away rights from the use of the source code you download with it. You have a whole heap of text files that you can do practically anything with, but once you read the GPL, suddenly you don't have the rights to do a couple of the things you could before you read it. Without the GPL attached, you are allowed to do a lot more with the code you've got.
The only way they can be in the same position is if the atoms of archillies are in the same position as the atoms of the tortoise, in which case they would actually have to be the same atoms (otherwise they will not be at the same position in space, there would be a distance of space between the two).
So when, exactly, would the two be at the same position in space? Not only can they not be physically in the same position, but your measurements of them being in the same place cannot be taken at the same time, because it is impossible to observe two bits of matter at the same time with the same equipment (the electrons that move in the circuits from the observational device to the recording device create a lag, for example).
Its fine to mathematically solve the problem, but when observing the scenario in real life, you'll probably find its not quite that simple.
ASP.NET also allows the developer to choose whether they use the querystring to track the session or cookies. Of course, the overhead in adding the sessionid to all href tags is something you'd want to consider (no matter which platform you're developing on)
All of you with a Windows 2000 / XP machine, with IIS installed (come on admit it, you do!) go into the IIS config console, select your default website (don't tell me you've deleted it), select properties, go to the "Home Directory" tab, "Configuration" button, "Options" tab, de-select "Enabled Session State".
There you go - it's not even up to the developer to disable it then...
Not only does it cost money for the big corporation to fix the site... it also costs to investigate the attack. This cost would probably be absorbed by the company hosting the site (big corporations don't necessarily host their own sites). Lets not forget the tax payer dollars spent on the police investigation that may take place also (most companies will take an attack on their good name very very seriously, and report it as a criminal offence).
The hosting company I work for once had a high profile site defaced - the site content was fixed by the site's developers (employees of the site's company), time was also spent by the sys admin of the data centre sifting through web and firewall logs, and all collated information was forwarded on to the police, who then investigated and eventually charged the person who attacked the site.
I don't think they'll let it go on July 6th just because they read in some newspaper that its a day of hacking.
I work as a web developer in exactly this type of environment. The entire network is Microsoft based, and have personally found that the one technical reason for web apps to be IE specific is that its the only browser supporting NTLM.
Hallelujah! Finally I might be able to get away from IE here at work, just like I have at home. It (was) the only thing stopping me from using Mozilla all the time.
(Now to download the win32 binary...)
It is possible that the writer (Kevin Coughlin) interpreted "writing a search engine that links to mp3 files on a network" to "offered hundreds of mp3 songs" simply because he was the programmer who wrote that software.
I don't think its safe to assume that he actually offered the files from his machine just because a writer chose that wording.
Maybe our friend Kevin has already been sucked in by the RIAA just like every joe bloggs out there will soon?
Anyone that argues ADSL (we're talking 128k or perhaps 256k here) isn't broadband may indeed be ignorant of the technical details, but the meaning of the word to them is obviously different to what the meaning is to a person who is technically inclined.
When a service is advertised as broadband, the meaning changes from what the technical aspects are, to what is accepted by the general population. The meaning for the general population is "fast" - I personally would not consider 128kbs as fast (16kB per second minus IP overhead doesn't amount to much!).
I'm sure a number of people out there would be dissapointed with their "broadband" ("fast") service after signing up for that particular product.
FTP over SSH is a good way to secure FTP, and there are a number of clients (Cute FTP Pro being one of them) that supports such implementations out-of-the-box, complete with drag&drop functionality, etc. (assuming of course they're using Windows, which is a fair assumption if they are a clueless end-user :))
Extreme Programming, from what I've seen, is a development process theory that fits in well to where "crap development" (tm) occurs. i.e. it is a cycle that allows for quick deployment while doing things properly at the same time. Google knows (google in austalia is a cool thing btw!).
While I do know the difference between the presentation layer, business logic, and data storage - what if the customer doesn't actually know the full requirements of the site (or indeed a specific section of the site) prior to them wanting it to go live?
I personally love working on projects where the presentation logic is separated from business logic, but unfortunately the majority of my customers need it in production yesterday, and have no time themselves to actually go through the requirements, nor are willing to commit to requirements that will no doubt change in 3 months time.
And for them, I believe, its just a matter of being in the business they are in - their core business has practically nothing to do with I.T. (short of perhaps the checkout scanners at the front of each of their stores). Its only that they are a nation-wide company, and therefore have an image to uphold.
I'm taking a bit of a stab in the dark here, but I think this guy actually wants to know *what* he's paying for - so he can perhaps engage his ISP in some informed discussion so as to bargain the costs to him incurred from say, a slashdotting, down. Not all ISPs out there would be bastards, let him be the judge of whether the ISP will engage in this conversation or not. Don't patronise him for raising the question.
what, you can't read english? :p
Australia's largest retailing group cancelled Christmas on us. We normally have a nice Christmas gig with the whole shebang - this year, the CEO decided it wasn't financially justifiable. And to add salt, he put a stop to any company funding towards any Christmas celebrations whatsoever.
I guess at least with the doll, you'd have something to take your frustration out on :)
Only in the same way that Tom Clancey's competitors can take advantage of reading his books. The code is still under the full protection of copyright law, and since competitors would be required to disclose source as well, violations would easily be detected. Just like in the world of books.
I presume we're not only talking about software that is widely distributed here. So your analogy of Tom Clancey's books doesn't quite fit. Its a lot easier for me to get the source code for some application developed in some country over the other side of the world, compile it, sell it as my own to a local business or businesses, without the developer over the other side of the world (who is, in effect, Tom Clancey) knowing any different. You also have the problem of inconsistencies with copyright laws internationally.
I should be able to sell a product under any terms I choose. If I choose to keep the source closed, they are the terms I choose. The entity buying the product can then choose not to buy my product if they don't trust me that much.
Isn't everything branded as "Microsoft" these days?