Or turn off the broadband, which is what we're doing now when we figure that someone is zombied. Nothing scares up action like not being able to connect, and it's better for them to contact us rather than us contact them.
"One good thing about Windows Update is that it can be scheduled to just do all the updates with no questions asked."
I was thinking of an expletive to correctly enumerate my feelings on reading this, but I couldn't think of anything explosive enough, yet gentle in it's admonishment.
While Windows Update is a viable tool, just applying patches automatically is a recipe for disaster, and when that disaster happens you won't know where to step backward to because you didn't know what was installed. Add to that the relative uselessness of Media Playere 9, and I'd have to chop your hands off if you went anywhere near my PCs.
"I was hit three times within two minutes of booting, which gave me a whopping 3 minutes to download (not an issue) and install (BIG issue) the corresponding patch."
I opted for making the service restart the service rather than restart the machine. Funnily enough, it gave me hours of uptime to get the patch installed, then restore the RPC component to it's rather panicky restart state.
It helps knowing something about an operating system you dislike.
"The first question that comes to mind is, does plasma research benefit from being carried out in a natural vacuum environment rather than needing apparatus to create one artificially? How does the degree of evacuation inside a fusion containment vessel compare with that in LEO, far orbit, or on the Moon? Is there any benefit to be gained from ever-better vacuums, such as freedom from plasma contamination?"
And which state gets the massive influx of cash and jobs? Seriously, you don't seem to understand the game.
"how many search engines actually use meta tags? altavista, google, teoma, yahoo and msn don't support it"
Not in isolation, but playing with the rankings suggests that keywords help to 'weight' other words on a given page although a lot more credence has always been given 'relevance' and incoming links.
"Virtually impossible, I've been led to understand."
Only if you don't already appear in Experian's database and you've changed address in the past 3 years. The change has to be confirmed with the electoral roll for which there is a £1000 fine for not submitting your details.
I went to court a couple of times over the non-submission of my details to the electoral register simply because I pointed out that it's used a list for marketers. The non-listing version appeared afterwards.
The amount of data warehousing around in the UK is dizzying...I'm still trying to get an answer as to the Data Comissioner's standpoint on the database held by 'Envision', the TV licensing people. This is the _largest_ database of live locations in the country that is built from television purchases. You have to submit your details when you buy a TV, and if you aren't on the list when you shift your rental details or buy a TV, then they hit you for the license.
TV Detector vans were the biggest scam in the world; the handheld detectors used to cause me much hilarity.
"They can't be serious, how much damage do CCTV cameras do?"
In a fairly well-publicised case in the UK, a man was caught by camera using a cash machine within a time when someone used a cloned card. The police showed the film on TV so they could eliminate the man from their enquiries.
However, people who saw it assumed that he was guilty, and he lost his job and suffered a great deal of indignity before the mess was sorted out. He was just a guy legitimately using a cash machine.
One of the main problems is that people assume that cameras are infallible; relying on the output of a camera without _accurate_ context is a big problem.
"They can't invade your privacy unless you let them."
[sigh]
I have a camera across the road from my house. Despite that camera being there, I've been burgled once already. Apparently nobody staffs the camera and checking up I found it's actually placed and operated in contravention with the Data Protection Act. Now someone paid for the camera to be installed, but it's deterrent value has been slashed to nothing. I'd rather than they used the money for some useful social ordering than following a bandwagon like putting CCTV everywhere. It encourages laziness of the institutional kind.
As for invading your privacy unless you let them; if you don't know about the invasion, then you can hardly consent. I was told by the installers of the camera that a guy had been caught in his front room committing an illegal act. If true, then that's a huge invasion of privacy that could be justified by saying that the illegal act was more important than privacy. However, the end should never justify the means because that's the path to a police state.
I resisted, partly from the standpoint of respecting privacy even if the person is dumb enough to post them, and partly because I wouldn't want to inflict Slashdot's hordes of dumb, loud and brash trollish denizens on her.
"It sometimes amazes me about all the fuzz some countries make (UK now, but otoh, UK is against just about anything new:-) when id cards are introduced,"
It's not that we're against everything new, it's more the clouds of spurious chaff thrown out by David Blunkett, the curious quantities of ignorance shown to con arguments and the ludicrous execution of said that tends to suggest that the taxpayer will end up shelling for a form of identity that *should be* adequately covered by photo driving licenses and passports.
I should point out that the latter two identification methods have been redesigned in the past decade to stop counterfeiting, but in the case of the passports, blanks were on the streets within two weeks of the unveiling. Saying that you require another piece of identification is a tacit admission that your system is compromised, and we should be fixing those systems (seriously, I'll say it again...passports) rather than introducing another.
One of the reasons why this isn't necessarily the case is that the real kicker for a national ID card is the national ID card database; that's why this is being pushed so hard.
"At least these kind of things could be stopped if you needed to have your papers with you all the time."
Yeah, we have photos on our driving licenses now. The procedure is that you're given a document that indicates what you need to go into a police station with, then you have to present them within seven days or you'll have a warrant issued for your arrest. That's the UK method.
"At the same time you want to get social security, get unemployment money, drive a car, and much more, so at least prove who you are when you want to cash that check."
To take your points;
Social Security - We in the UK are issued a National Insurance number at 16. This is a primary form of identification because it links back to the Inland Revenue and the DSS. The same for unemployment money.
Drive a Car - Photo driving licenses that are backed with a database at the DVLA in Swansea. Incidentally the same place that records your car ownership, and the primary database queried by police.
Cash that check - Signatures are still considered the best form of identification for this, and most banks can call up a digitised copy of your signature for checking. I tend to carry my passport if more information is needed.
In terms of confirming your identity in the UK, most times a photo id is requested (passport, students union, driving license) along with two utility bills or bank statements.
This creates an 'intersection' of supporting information rather than relying on a single piece of documentation; a national ID card would be a single piece of information for which the only checking tools will available to law enforcement and government; given the record of other forms of ID, it seems unlikely that this will patch the hole it's intended for.
"Some lawyers are crooks. Some doctors are incompetent bunglers. Some politicians are liars. And some slashdot users? Can't spell "frivolous...""
So, in opposition to retaining a bad situation, wouldn't it be in the best interests of all the professions to clean house? And spelling has never been the strongest suit of geeks, you should know that.
"I had to pass an intensive background check before I was able to work in the profession I devoted three years of study to. How about you?"
Unfortunately, the Cosa Nostra has so far been reticent in gathering software developers to their well tailored bosom.
Likewise lawyers have more perceived power than us keyboard monkeys.
I think you're missing an itty-bitty point, though...litigation involves lawyers and an interpretation of a codified set of laws that produces a rough parallel with the Roman Catholic's domination of Christianity through interpretation of a book that most people didn't have access to, or could even read. The law, to most coders, should be something that you could follow rather than argue about in one of the most expensive places on the planet; can you honestly say that your advocacy is on a par with the treatment provided by a Doctor given that both sides in litigation claim innocence?
That's the perception you're fighting against because software development, science, engineering and generally technical fields *rely* on binary, single states of positive and null. Politics, Psychology, the law, religion, philosophy (to a lesser extent) and metaphysics fall into territory that most find untidy because they're largely subjective and interpretive.
Re:When did the Communists take over outer space?
on
Lawyers In Space...
·
· Score: 2, Informative
"The pilgrims initially attempted a communist-style society - from each according to his means, to each accoreding to his needs. They nearly starved to death. The next season they switched to a more capitalistic system and wound up with a surplus."
Hmm...perusing the manifests of the ships does betray a lot of long range thinking such as 'How am I going to survive through the winter on several pairs of shoes'. The Pilgrims were overconfident and failed to bring goods enough to survive. Later they achieved trading with natives (remember those?) and managed to bootstrap their colony into existence.
Your daft explanation tends to assume that there was a system of currency that meant a damn, when right from the 1640s, bartering was the commerical method of choice.
"Preventing private property rights in space will provide no incentive to develop it."
This I agree with, but only based on the ability to exploit the property rather than just allowing a vast mineral rights landgrab.
"roll out like America's Western expansion."
And pray that the interstellar sioux aren't belligerent in the face of a human scourge? Hopefully they don't have a system of ownership or it could get messy.
"Hopefully if the lawmakers see people like IBM doing things like this and in the end realise the system is broken and eventually do something about it."
Indulge me for a second, but aren't those lawmakers generally lawyers? Would lawyers stand to lose out or gain from a lot of loosely specified laws that require testing in court?
Mainly a side effect of a system that makes it more costly to defend than settle, meaning that spurious lawsuits can usually squeeze a little cash out of the victim.
There's also the feeling that litigation is 'dirty', too.
"I think Katie Jones will try and fight it to the best of her abilities."
She won't need to. There's enough grassroots support to ensure that Penguin, Katie T and Aftab get deluged with emails, although I don't think that Katie T need be involved. From reading it seems that Aftab is the one that needs to know that there are a lot of interested people watching closely. Given that she's a free speech advocate, of sorts, it does seem a little ironic.
"You need to start documenting the blood loss from this kind of rogue user."
...Director
Re:Both were caused by bad management
on
Soyuz To The Moon?
·
· Score: 1
"That's why they wear pressure suits during the launch."
You sure they aren't to avoid blood pooling by compressing the blood vessels in the limbs during ascent? Note what I said at the end of the quoted by about environmental support failing; I'm aware that the helmets worn during launch are connected to cockpit systems rather than having self-contained supplies.
"I react to it and to practice staying focused."
Altitude training, the cheapest being getting as high above sealevel as you can and using a snorkel while running.;o)
Let us know how that works out. The main problem with this idea is you've essentially let the world know there are infringements which means that SCO-likes can start to look closely at their patent portfolios...whether they bring a lawsuit or not is going to be judged on whether they can drag it out long enough to send the OSRM under or get Ravicher to run from the court. That's a gamble.
"It should not be discounted."
Absolutely right. It should be fought. On their terms, on their ground. So how about fighting the prior art angle on awarded patents or maybe contacting government as a 'voting block' rather than a lobby group. How many individuals are up in arms about this?
Time and time again I see these disparate collectives trying to shoehorn themselves into the political arena without the fundamental basics of the sheer weight of voters and small companies that will disappear if this situation continues. Challenge representatives on their assumptions and worldview. No, they don't like it, but that's the point...recycle your pointmen and keep hammering.
"Then I was fighting someone at work who had put us into a really awkward and inappropriate situation, not by mistake or sheer incompetence, but because he knew we'd make it work no matter what."
I feel you. My director is completely incompetent at simply coming to us with customer requirements, and clueless with regard to the net in terms that he gets two different URLs confused and blames us.
A simple two week job has stretched to months because of this guy, and our record has been shipping eighteen months late. I shit you not.
We've achieved the impossible on a couple of occasions because he was unwilling to budge on an unworkable design, or 'designed' something so convoluted that it beggered belief. Changing things is such an uphill struggle that in our pair, I'm 'bad cop' and the other guy is 'good cop'.
"You're being theoretical. You need to deal in practical reality."
We get, 'Use your common sense'. Which translates as 'fix my crappy design'.
"stop thinking and working for those who would make it harder to work and think, even while profiting from the fruits of that thought and labor."
I'm building my own customer portfolio that is _completely_ separate from my current business because I have this sense of honour that suggests that taking the quick route out is best left to people who will shortcut other things, such as paying for items. It's slow progress, and will mean that in a couple of months I won't see daylight for the best part of half a year. But if I can bring in the amount of cash into my own business as I'm bringing in here, then I should be doing pretty well within two years.
However, this freedom of movement doesn't mean that it's right for a given employer to lay claim to my ideas in perpetuity.
On a stranger note, I didn't like my contract, so I didn't sign it. 2 years later and I still don't have a contract, even though it's legally mandated by the employment Act in the UK.
The thing is if you examine the employment act carefully (I had to do this as part of the duties of my first directorship), all the weight behind the contract comes down behind the employer and not the employee; it's essentially binding to the employee.
This asymmetric inbalance to things has led me to not mention the contract of employment, and so far this company's fairly lax adherence to the correct paperwork has kept me free of such encumberences.
Slashdot Mirror
"and scare them into compliance"
Or turn off the broadband, which is what we're doing now when we figure that someone is zombied. Nothing scares up action like not being able to connect, and it's better for them to contact us rather than us contact them.
"One good thing about Windows Update is that it can be scheduled to just do all the updates with no questions asked."
I was thinking of an expletive to correctly enumerate my feelings on reading this, but I couldn't think of anything explosive enough, yet gentle in it's admonishment.
While Windows Update is a viable tool, just applying patches automatically is a recipe for disaster, and when that disaster happens you won't know where to step backward to because you didn't know what was installed. Add to that the relative uselessness of Media Playere 9, and I'd have to chop your hands off if you went anywhere near my PCs.
"I was hit three times within two minutes of booting, which gave me a whopping 3 minutes to download (not an issue) and install (BIG issue) the corresponding patch."
I opted for making the service restart the service rather than restart the machine. Funnily enough, it gave me hours of uptime to get the patch installed, then restore the RPC component to it's rather panicky restart state.
It helps knowing something about an operating system you dislike.
" in EU it's Siemens."
You did mean GEC?
"The first question that comes to mind is, does plasma research benefit from being carried out in a natural vacuum environment rather than needing apparatus to create one artificially? How does the degree of evacuation inside a fusion containment vessel compare with that in LEO, far orbit, or on the Moon? Is there any benefit to be gained from ever-better vacuums, such as freedom from plasma contamination?"
And which state gets the massive influx of cash and jobs? Seriously, you don't seem to understand the game.
The average fourteen year old boy would be happy to come out and fix machines, and wouldn't be distracted by the big, yellow, shiny Symantec boxes.
This just betrays one of the most annoying things in the modern world; the average consumer trusts shrinkwrapped solutions more than competence.
"how many search engines actually use meta tags? altavista, google, teoma, yahoo and msn don't support it"
Not in isolation, but playing with the rankings suggests that keywords help to 'weight' other words on a given page although a lot more credence has always been given 'relevance' and incoming links.
"Virtually impossible, I've been led to understand."
Only if you don't already appear in Experian's database and you've changed address in the past 3 years. The change has to be confirmed with the electoral roll for which there is a £1000 fine for not submitting your details.
I went to court a couple of times over the non-submission of my details to the electoral register simply because I pointed out that it's used a list for marketers. The non-listing version appeared afterwards.
The amount of data warehousing around in the UK is dizzying...I'm still trying to get an answer as to the Data Comissioner's standpoint on the database held by 'Envision', the TV licensing people. This is the _largest_ database of live locations in the country that is built from television purchases. You have to submit your details when you buy a TV, and if you aren't on the list when you shift your rental details or buy a TV, then they hit you for the license.
TV Detector vans were the biggest scam in the world; the handheld detectors used to cause me much hilarity.
"You ought to listen to the "Today" programme."
Always brightens up my day to hear Blunkett flustered, or some hapless PR flak being dismantled on air.
"They can't be serious, how much damage do CCTV cameras do?"
In a fairly well-publicised case in the UK, a man was caught by camera using a cash machine within a time when someone used a cloned card. The police showed the film on TV so they could eliminate the man from their enquiries.
However, people who saw it assumed that he was guilty, and he lost his job and suffered a great deal of indignity before the mess was sorted out. He was just a guy legitimately using a cash machine.
One of the main problems is that people assume that cameras are infallible; relying on the output of a camera without _accurate_ context is a big problem.
"They can't invade your privacy unless you let them."
[sigh]
I have a camera across the road from my house. Despite that camera being there, I've been burgled once already. Apparently nobody staffs the camera and checking up I found it's actually placed and operated in contravention with the Data Protection Act. Now someone paid for the camera to be installed, but it's deterrent value has been slashed to nothing. I'd rather than they used the money for some useful social ordering than following a bandwagon like putting CCTV everywhere. It encourages laziness of the institutional kind.
As for invading your privacy unless you let them; if you don't know about the invasion, then you can hardly consent. I was told by the installers of the camera that a guy had been caught in his front room committing an illegal act. If true, then that's a huge invasion of privacy that could be justified by saying that the illegal act was more important than privacy. However, the end should never justify the means because that's the path to a police state.
"I quote from her website"
I resisted, partly from the standpoint of respecting privacy even if the person is dumb enough to post them, and partly because I wouldn't want to inflict Slashdot's hordes of dumb, loud and brash trollish denizens on her.
I did email, however.
"It sometimes amazes me about all the fuzz some countries make (UK now, but otoh, UK is against just about anything new :-) when id cards are introduced,"
It's not that we're against everything new, it's more the clouds of spurious chaff thrown out by David Blunkett, the curious quantities of ignorance shown to con arguments and the ludicrous execution of said that tends to suggest that the taxpayer will end up shelling for a form of identity that *should be* adequately covered by photo driving licenses and passports.
I should point out that the latter two identification methods have been redesigned in the past decade to stop counterfeiting, but in the case of the passports, blanks were on the streets within two weeks of the unveiling. Saying that you require another piece of identification is a tacit admission that your system is compromised, and we should be fixing those systems (seriously, I'll say it again...passports) rather than introducing another.
One of the reasons why this isn't necessarily the case is that the real kicker for a national ID card is the national ID card database; that's why this is being pushed so hard.
"At least these kind of things could be stopped if you needed to have your papers with you all the time."
Yeah, we have photos on our driving licenses now. The procedure is that you're given a document that indicates what you need to go into a police station with, then you have to present them within seven days or you'll have a warrant issued for your arrest. That's the UK method.
"At the same time you want to get social security, get unemployment money, drive a car, and much more, so at least prove who you are when you want to cash that check."
To take your points;
Social Security - We in the UK are issued a National Insurance number at 16. This is a primary form of identification because it links back to the Inland Revenue and the DSS. The same for unemployment money.
Drive a Car - Photo driving licenses that are backed with a database at the DVLA in Swansea. Incidentally the same place that records your car ownership, and the primary database queried by police.
Cash that check - Signatures are still considered the best form of identification for this, and most banks can call up a digitised copy of your signature for checking. I tend to carry my passport if more information is needed.
In terms of confirming your identity in the UK, most times a photo id is requested (passport, students union, driving license) along with two utility bills or bank statements.
This creates an 'intersection' of supporting information rather than relying on a single piece of documentation; a national ID card would be a single piece of information for which the only checking tools will available to law enforcement and government; given the record of other forms of ID, it seems unlikely that this will patch the hole it's intended for.
"What it is is fairly well documented, but that's pretty much a requirement with an API as large and messy as PHP's."
Next: A Diatribe on the English language. Or "why do we need more than one 'were', and what's that apostrophe shit about?"
"Some lawyers are crooks. Some doctors are incompetent bunglers. Some politicians are liars. And some slashdot users? Can't spell "frivolous...""
So, in opposition to retaining a bad situation, wouldn't it be in the best interests of all the professions to clean house? And spelling has never been the strongest suit of geeks, you should know that.
"I had to pass an intensive background check before I was able to work in the profession I devoted three years of study to. How about you?"
Unfortunately, the Cosa Nostra has so far been reticent in gathering software developers to their well tailored bosom.
Likewise lawyers have more perceived power than us keyboard monkeys.
I think you're missing an itty-bitty point, though...litigation involves lawyers and an interpretation of a codified set of laws that produces a rough parallel with the Roman Catholic's domination of Christianity through interpretation of a book that most people didn't have access to, or could even read. The law, to most coders, should be something that you could follow rather than argue about in one of the most expensive places on the planet; can you honestly say that your advocacy is on a par with the treatment provided by a Doctor given that both sides in litigation claim innocence?
That's the perception you're fighting against because software development, science, engineering and generally technical fields *rely* on binary, single states of positive and null. Politics, Psychology, the law, religion, philosophy (to a lesser extent) and metaphysics fall into territory that most find untidy because they're largely subjective and interpretive.
"The pilgrims initially attempted a communist-style society - from each according to his means, to each accoreding to his needs. They nearly starved to death. The next season they switched to a more capitalistic system and wound up with a surplus."
Hmm...perusing the manifests of the ships does betray a lot of long range thinking such as 'How am I going to survive through the winter on several pairs of shoes'. The Pilgrims were overconfident and failed to bring goods enough to survive. Later they achieved trading with natives (remember those?) and managed to bootstrap their colony into existence.
Your daft explanation tends to assume that there was a system of currency that meant a damn, when right from the 1640s, bartering was the commerical method of choice.
"Preventing private property rights in space will provide no incentive to develop it."
This I agree with, but only based on the ability to exploit the property rather than just allowing a vast mineral rights landgrab.
"roll out like America's Western expansion."
And pray that the interstellar sioux aren't belligerent in the face of a human scourge? Hopefully they don't have a system of ownership or it could get messy.
"unless of course we are forced to defend ourselves"
Is that 'defend' in terms of responding to attack, or defend as in 'bombing the shit out of Iraq'?
"Hopefully if the lawmakers see people like IBM doing things like this and in the end realise the system is broken and eventually do something about it."
Indulge me for a second, but aren't those lawmakers generally lawyers? Would lawyers stand to lose out or gain from a lot of loosely specified laws that require testing in court?
Interesting concept, no?
"thinking that Americans are far too litigious"
Mainly a side effect of a system that makes it more costly to defend than settle, meaning that spurious lawsuits can usually squeeze a little cash out of the victim.
There's also the feeling that litigation is 'dirty', too.
"I think Katie Jones will try and fight it to the best of her abilities."
She won't need to. There's enough grassroots support to ensure that Penguin, Katie T and Aftab get deluged with emails, although I don't think that Katie T need be involved. From reading it seems that Aftab is the one that needs to know that there are a lot of interested people watching closely. Given that she's a free speech advocate, of sorts, it does seem a little ironic.
"You need to start documenting the blood loss from this kind of rogue user."
...Director
"That's why they wear pressure suits during the launch."
;o)
You sure they aren't to avoid blood pooling by compressing the blood vessels in the limbs during ascent? Note what I said at the end of the quoted by about environmental support failing; I'm aware that the helmets worn during launch are connected to cockpit systems rather than having self-contained supplies.
"I react to it and to practice staying focused."
Altitude training, the cheapest being getting as high above sealevel as you can and using a snorkel while running.
"This organization isn't the enemy, folks."
The enemy? Jesus.
The problem is the method and execution, not who works there. Likewise we could point out that Caldera used to have a Linux distro
"The effect is to reduce nuisance suits."
Let us know how that works out. The main problem with this idea is you've essentially let the world know there are infringements which means that SCO-likes can start to look closely at their patent portfolios...whether they bring a lawsuit or not is going to be judged on whether they can drag it out long enough to send the OSRM under or get Ravicher to run from the court. That's a gamble.
"It should not be discounted."
Absolutely right. It should be fought. On their terms, on their ground. So how about fighting the prior art angle on awarded patents or maybe contacting government as a 'voting block' rather than a lobby group. How many individuals are up in arms about this?
Time and time again I see these disparate collectives trying to shoehorn themselves into the political arena without the fundamental basics of the sheer weight of voters and small companies that will disappear if this situation continues. Challenge representatives on their assumptions and worldview. No, they don't like it, but that's the point...recycle your pointmen and keep hammering.
"Then I was fighting someone at work who had put us into a really awkward and inappropriate situation, not by mistake or sheer incompetence, but because he knew we'd make it work no matter what."
I feel you. My director is completely incompetent at simply coming to us with customer requirements, and clueless with regard to the net in terms that he gets two different URLs confused and blames us.
A simple two week job has stretched to months because of this guy, and our record has been shipping eighteen months late. I shit you not.
We've achieved the impossible on a couple of occasions because he was unwilling to budge on an unworkable design, or 'designed' something so convoluted that it beggered belief. Changing things is such an uphill struggle that in our pair, I'm 'bad cop' and the other guy is 'good cop'.
"You're being theoretical. You need to deal in practical reality."
We get, 'Use your common sense'. Which translates as 'fix my crappy design'.
"stop thinking and working for those who would make it harder to work and think, even while profiting from the fruits of that thought and labor."
I'm building my own customer portfolio that is _completely_ separate from my current business because I have this sense of honour that suggests that taking the quick route out is best left to people who will shortcut other things, such as paying for items. It's slow progress, and will mean that in a couple of months I won't see daylight for the best part of half a year. But if I can bring in the amount of cash into my own business as I'm bringing in here, then I should be doing pretty well within two years.
However, this freedom of movement doesn't mean that it's right for a given employer to lay claim to my ideas in perpetuity.
"id Software lost $2.75 million to record-breaking piracy on the weekend before Doom 3's release. Thanks, guys!"
They've lost billions due to the laxness of not giving away PCs to the low waged. Let's put them all in jail for not sucking the corporate teat.
On a stranger note, I didn't like my contract, so I didn't sign it. 2 years later and I still don't have a contract, even though it's legally mandated by the employment Act in the UK.
The thing is if you examine the employment act carefully (I had to do this as part of the duties of my first directorship), all the weight behind the contract comes down behind the employer and not the employee; it's essentially binding to the employee.
This asymmetric inbalance to things has led me to not mention the contract of employment, and so far this company's fairly lax adherence to the correct paperwork has kept me free of such encumberences.