Which sounds great and all untill you see the first goatse and tub girl pics in glorious 3D...
... shudder...
Take the "Personal" out of Business
on
The PC Is Not Dead
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Take the personal out of computing, and most companies would grind to a halt
I seriously doubt this.
One of the problems with "Business computing" is that it's become far too personal. While a business user may want the latest, greatest version of Webshots/RealAudio/Screen Saver of the Month, they don't actually need any of the "personalised" touches to perform their basic job.
System administration is hard enough with just operating system(1) and hardware variables(2) mucking things up. Adding personalization privileges to a few hundred end users, while nice and sweet on an emotional level, quite frankly causes more problems than a business should have to deal with.
It is completely uneccesssary for a user to be able to spend hours online looking for the perfect wallpaper. Equally unecessary for things like Solitaire or Minesweeper. While I laud Microsoft for introducing millions of people to computers (thus creating my field), I really hate the fact that the touchy-feely approach to user hand holding is the largest contributing factor to a slew of problems like viruses, spyware and spam. I used to love my job, but now, it's become just that: a job. A job where a significant portion of my day is spent explaining to users things like, "Just because the flash games website demands ShockwaveX, doesn't mean I'll be making a 30 mile trip to upgrade the version you currently have installed."
1) Whichever f*cker thought it'd be a bright idea to have Windows do a scheduled task scan of the entire network EVERY TIME Windows Explorer launches should be shot . . . multiple times.
All of this data will be placed in the hands of data aggregators known solely for their high moral integrity. You know, Choicepoint, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion . . .
C: well sonny how can i log on to my internet box and email my friends to let them know what ive gone and done if i cant log on with this here finger scanner
MS Tech Support: Well, I'm afraid Sir that since your copy of Windows had it's product activation linked to that one finger, you're no longer legally licensed to use it. If you'd like, I can make a direct withdrawal from your checking account to purchase a new copy of Windows, complete with Internet Explorer 7.01 that you can activate with any of your remaining digits, or, some other body part that you'd be less likely to be careless with.
Its a final transmission/warning from Jupiter just after the monolith converts the planet into a new star, with all of the Jovian moons becoming new planets for mankind to explore and colonize:
"All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there."
The last scenes of the movie were pretty cool, too.
I'm still waiting to see the Swiss Army Phone: complete with dual blades, toothpicks, corkscrew, drill, nail file, USB key, etc. You know, all the stuff that'll keep the f*cking thing from getting on a plane.
"[G]ee, we spend billions on NASA, can't I just pay less taxes then see it go to some stupid robot on Mars?"
"Sheeyit yeah! It's not like I'm made of money, for God's sake! I really need that extra cash to pay for the important things. Like my credit card bills for my Hummer's gas, my 72" plasma screen TV with 700 channel cable TV plus 350 satellite dish subscriptions, my titanium alloy kitchen appliances (32 cubic foot refrigerator, dual dishwashers, counter-based ice maker, iced frappaccino maker, pasta mill, etc.), my 'spinnaz', and all my bling, as well as the occasional and completely necessary trip to Windsor for some 'recreational' gambling."
This was exactly what I was wondering. Wouldn't a simple battery swap every now and then mangle the reliability of the drift data? What about the effects of power line conditions, electromagnetic interference, etc.?
When I renewed mine a few years back, the Gwinnett County post I visited actually asked me if I wanted it changed to a non-specific number. There had been a fuss in the papers around that time concerning the overuse of SSNs as personal identifiers and apparently someone had come in earlier in the morning asking about it, so it was fresh in the clerk's mind. I had intended to ask for a change anyway, but it was nice to know someone appeared to care.
Didn't stop them from pushing the fingerprint scan though . . .
The whole point is the government in the U.S. can now unilaterally decide what is terrorism
Here's a rather grotesque example:
The Democratic party, by virtue of its long stated opposition to the ideals and goals of the ruling Republican party is hereby declared an enemy of the state. All members of the Democratic party are hereby ordered to surrender their persons to the Federal Government for criminal prosecution.
Extreme, I know, but entirely plausible when just the right amount of lunacy is coupled with just the right amount of fear. One need only look at human history too see how easy it is to use public paranoia as a justification to sieze power.
This reminds me. Ever try to write a check at Fry's?
We just had a new store open here in the metreo Atlanta area a few months back. During one particular visit, I had enough items to justify writing a check so I wouldn't completely obliterate the contents of my wallet. When I presented the check, the Fry's clerk said that it would take about 10 minutes to get through all their "check approval" policies, which I was told was a one time deal. I'm thinking they're going to call the bank, verify my ID, credit history and that I had enough cash to cover the purchase.
What they did, however, was take my driver's license back to a photocopier, and Xerox it and the copy of the check. Right off the bat, I'm upset, because with copies of just these two items alone, you could start a very healthy career as an identity thief (Georgia is still one of the states that uses your SSN as your driver's license number unless you specifically ask them not to). When I mention this to the clerk and a bystanding supervisor, they said it's standard practice at Fry's to keep this info on file (I'm imagining a large, unlocked filing cabinet in a minimum wage employee's office), and without it, I wouldn't be able to write checks at Fry's - ever. I took back my check, my ID, demanded the photocopies and left the store.
My questions are, does Fry's do this at every store? And is this something I can expect to see from other merchants in the future?
Odds are, Microsoft has enough patents in their arsenal to do a deal and get cross-licences
They also probably have enough cash in their pockets to just buy out the patents causing the fuss. While its amusing to see someone in MS's legal department pulling a oversight boner like this, I doubt it'll slow down the company at all in the long run.
By ROBERT LUKE, MATT KEMPNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/25/05
Thirteen days after the arrest of a suspect in the ChoicePoint identity theft case -- and more than three months before the problem surfaced publicly -- the company's top two executives began selling their stock.
Since the sales began in November, ChoicePoint CEO Derek Smith and President Douglas Curling have sold 472,000 ChoicePoint shares worth nearly $21 million, according to the executives' Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Smith said Thursday that he did not know about the security breach at the Alpharetta-based company until well after he began selling the stock. Curling was not available for comment Thursday.
The stock sales -- for what the executives described as estate planning and asset diversification -- continued this week, even as ChoicePoint's shares began to tumble nearly 10 percent. The identity theft was disclosed publicly only last week.
ChoicePoint chief marketing officer James Lee said outside advisers suggested continuing with the trading program. "Their advice is that the program is fine, even in light of the recent events," he said.
"If you are trying to make the case that this is somehow insider trading, you are going down the wrong road," Lee said.
The selling of stock by Smith, the CEO, and Curling, the company's president, normally wouldn't raise eyebrows, since the sales were part of a prearranged stock trading plan allowed under SEC rules.
Lee said ChoicePoint's board approved the stock trading plan on Oct. 26, the day before police in Los Angeles -- after being tipped off by ChoicePoint -- made their only arrest in a case that has become the biggest security breach in the company's history. ChoicePoint is notifying about 145,000 people that their personal information -- possibly including their Social Security numbers and credit reports -- may have been sold to identity thieves.
Smith and Curling have been selling shares of their company's stock weekly since Nov. 9, when their Rule 10b5-1 trading plans took effect. The plans expire in April.
SEC inquiry likely
In an interview with Journal-Constitution reporters Thursday, Smith said he first found out about the identity theft problem in late December or January, which would be about two months after the company notified California law enforcement officials.
Smith said his stock sales aren't inappropriate.
"I didn't do anything that I had any belief that was inappropriate or whatever," he said. "To the extent that it gives any impression of anything that I knew or the company knew that would have weighted on the value of the stock, then that would be unfortunate. Because it certainly isn't true."
A lawyer familiar with the enforcement of federal securities laws thinks an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission is inevitable.
"Even with this public statement that he did not know until January about the problems in California does not mean that the SEC will not ask questions anyway," said Jacob S. Frenkel, chairman of the securities enforcement and white-collar practice at the Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker law firm in Rockville, Md.
"The SEC will not only ask him, but they also will ask everybody who knew about the information, including what they told others and when they told them," said Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement lawyer and federal prosecutor. "They are going to look at anybody who may have traded the stock."
Smith said he has not been contacted by the SEC about the stock sales.
Smith and Curling have sold about 64 percent of the total 737,380 shares they have until April to sell under the plan, after exercising employee stock options permitting them to acquire the shares at various prices. The prices they paid for the stock were significantly below the market price at the time of sale, allowing the executives to make significan
Apparently, some of the choice point executives knew there was going to be quite a bit of fallout over this. This morning's Atlanta Journal/Constitution (reg. required - Google cache anyone?) is reporting that:
Since the sales began in November, ChoicePoint CEO Derek Smith and President Douglas Curling have sold 472,000 ChoicePoint shares worth nearly $21 million, according to the executives' Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Your account has been suspended. We have sent you an email explaining why. This email should also contain information on how you can unsuspend your account.
So I'm guessing you can only stay "5upr l33t" for so long...
Slashdot Mirror
Which sounds great and all untill you see the first goatse and tub girl pics in glorious 3D...
... shudder ...
I seriously doubt this.
One of the problems with "Business computing" is that it's become far too personal. While a business user may want the latest, greatest version of Webshots/RealAudio/Screen Saver of the Month, they don't actually need any of the "personalised" touches to perform their basic job.
System administration is hard enough with just operating system(1) and hardware variables(2) mucking things up. Adding personalization privileges to a few hundred end users, while nice and sweet on an emotional level, quite frankly causes more problems than a business should have to deal with.
It is completely uneccesssary for a user to be able to spend hours online looking for the perfect wallpaper. Equally unecessary for things like Solitaire or Minesweeper. While I laud Microsoft for introducing millions of people to computers (thus creating my field), I really hate the fact that the touchy-feely approach to user hand holding is the largest contributing factor to a slew of problems like viruses, spyware and spam. I used to love my job, but now, it's become just that: a job. A job where a significant portion of my day is spent explaining to users things like, "Just because the flash games website demands ShockwaveX, doesn't mean I'll be making a 30 mile trip to upgrade the version you currently have installed."
1) Whichever f*cker thought it'd be a bright idea to have Windows do a scheduled task scan of the entire network EVERY TIME Windows Explorer launches should be shot . . . multiple times.
2) Two words: "DLL Hell".
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that too much.
All of this data will be placed in the hands of data aggregators known solely for their high moral integrity. You know, Choicepoint, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion . . .
Wouldn't reading Slashdot while being slashdotted be considered some sort of bizarre electronic paradox?
MS Tech Support: Well, I'm afraid Sir that since your copy of Windows had it's product activation linked to that one finger, you're no longer legally licensed to use it. If you'd like, I can make a direct withdrawal from your checking account to purchase a new copy of Windows, complete with Internet Explorer 7.01 that you can activate with any of your remaining digits, or, some other body part that you'd be less likely to be careless with.
Mom?!?
Its a final transmission/warning from Jupiter just after the monolith converts the planet into a new star, with all of the Jovian moons becoming new planets for mankind to explore and colonize:
The last scenes of the movie were pretty cool, too.
Heh heh.
I'm still waiting to see the Swiss Army Phone: complete with dual blades, toothpicks, corkscrew, drill, nail file, USB key, etc. You know, all the stuff that'll keep the f*cking thing from getting on a plane.
"Sheeyit yeah! It's not like I'm made of money, for God's sake! I really need that extra cash to pay for the important things. Like my credit card bills for my Hummer's gas, my 72" plasma screen TV with 700 channel cable TV plus 350 satellite dish subscriptions, my titanium alloy kitchen appliances (32 cubic foot refrigerator, dual dishwashers, counter-based ice maker, iced frappaccino maker, pasta mill, etc.), my 'spinnaz', and all my bling, as well as the occasional and completely necessary trip to Windsor for some 'recreational' gambling."
So that explains the whole Robert Novak/Valerie Plame thing . . . Robert must be quite the sexy beast.
. . . and the Bushes.
Damn, just used my last mod point.
This was exactly what I was wondering. Wouldn't a simple battery swap every now and then mangle the reliability of the drift data? What about the effects of power line conditions, electromagnetic interference, etc.?
If anyone can answer, I'm genuinely curious.
Mother of God, that's got to be one of the worse translations I've ever tried to read.
When I renewed mine a few years back, the Gwinnett County post I visited actually asked me if I wanted it changed to a non-specific number. There had been a fuss in the papers around that time concerning the overuse of SSNs as personal identifiers and apparently someone had come in earlier in the morning asking about it, so it was fresh in the clerk's mind. I had intended to ask for a change anyway, but it was nice to know someone appeared to care.
Didn't stop them from pushing the fingerprint scan though . . .
Here's a rather grotesque example:
The Democratic party, by virtue of its long stated opposition to the ideals and goals of the ruling Republican party is hereby declared an enemy of the state. All members of the Democratic party are hereby ordered to surrender their persons to the Federal Government for criminal prosecution.
Extreme, I know, but entirely plausible when just the right amount of lunacy is coupled with just the right amount of fear. One need only look at human history too see how easy it is to use public paranoia as a justification to sieze power.
This reminds me. Ever try to write a check at Fry's?
We just had a new store open here in the metreo Atlanta area a few months back. During one particular visit, I had enough items to justify writing a check so I wouldn't completely obliterate the contents of my wallet. When I presented the check, the Fry's clerk said that it would take about 10 minutes to get through all their "check approval" policies, which I was told was a one time deal. I'm thinking they're going to call the bank, verify my ID, credit history and that I had enough cash to cover the purchase.
What they did, however, was take my driver's license back to a photocopier, and Xerox it and the copy of the check. Right off the bat, I'm upset, because with copies of just these two items alone, you could start a very healthy career as an identity thief (Georgia is still one of the states that uses your SSN as your driver's license number unless you specifically ask them not to). When I mention this to the clerk and a bystanding supervisor, they said it's standard practice at Fry's to keep this info on file (I'm imagining a large, unlocked filing cabinet in a minimum wage employee's office), and without it, I wouldn't be able to write checks at Fry's - ever. I took back my check, my ID, demanded the photocopies and left the store.
My questions are, does Fry's do this at every store? And is this something I can expect to see from other merchants in the future?
They also probably have enough cash in their pockets to just buy out the patents causing the fuss. While its amusing to see someone in MS's legal department pulling a oversight boner like this, I doubt it'll slow down the company at all in the long run.
By ROBERT LUKE, MATT KEMPNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/25/05
Thirteen days after the arrest of a suspect in the ChoicePoint identity theft case -- and more than three months before the problem surfaced publicly -- the company's top two executives began selling their stock.
Since the sales began in November, ChoicePoint CEO Derek Smith and President Douglas Curling have sold 472,000 ChoicePoint shares worth nearly $21 million, according to the executives' Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Smith said Thursday that he did not know about the security breach at the Alpharetta-based company until well after he began selling the stock. Curling was not available for comment Thursday.
The stock sales -- for what the executives described as estate planning and asset diversification -- continued this week, even as ChoicePoint's shares began to tumble nearly 10 percent. The identity theft was disclosed publicly only last week.
ChoicePoint chief marketing officer James Lee said outside advisers suggested continuing with the trading program. "Their advice is that the program is fine, even in light of the recent events," he said.
"If you are trying to make the case that this is somehow insider trading, you are going down the wrong road," Lee said.
The selling of stock by Smith, the CEO, and Curling, the company's president, normally wouldn't raise eyebrows, since the sales were part of a prearranged stock trading plan allowed under SEC rules.
Lee said ChoicePoint's board approved the stock trading plan on Oct. 26, the day before police in Los Angeles -- after being tipped off by ChoicePoint -- made their only arrest in a case that has become the biggest security breach in the company's history. ChoicePoint is notifying about 145,000 people that their personal information -- possibly including their Social Security numbers and credit reports -- may have been sold to identity thieves.
Smith and Curling have been selling shares of their company's stock weekly since Nov. 9, when their Rule 10b5-1 trading plans took effect. The plans expire in April.
SEC inquiry likely
In an interview with Journal-Constitution reporters Thursday, Smith said he first found out about the identity theft problem in late December or January, which would be about two months after the company notified California law enforcement officials.
Smith said his stock sales aren't inappropriate.
"I didn't do anything that I had any belief that was inappropriate or whatever," he said. "To the extent that it gives any impression of anything that I knew or the company knew that would have weighted on the value of the stock, then that would be unfortunate. Because it certainly isn't true."
A lawyer familiar with the enforcement of federal securities laws thinks an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission is inevitable.
"Even with this public statement that he did not know until January about the problems in California does not mean that the SEC will not ask questions anyway," said Jacob S. Frenkel, chairman of the securities enforcement and white-collar practice at the Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker law firm in Rockville, Md.
"The SEC will not only ask him, but they also will ask everybody who knew about the information, including what they told others and when they told them," said Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement lawyer and federal prosecutor. "They are going to look at anybody who may have traded the stock."
Smith said he has not been contacted by the SEC about the stock sales.
Smith and Curling have sold about 64 percent of the total 737,380 shares they have until April to sell under the plan, after exercising employee stock options permitting them to acquire the shares at various prices. The prices they paid for the stock were significantly below the market price at the time of sale, allowing the executives to make significan
Apparently, some of the choice point executives knew there was going to be quite a bit of fallout over this. This morning's Atlanta Journal/Constitution (reg. required - Google cache anyone?) is reporting that:
Or, until you realize that you just posted your comment to someone else's comment for the wrong article. Damn you, Firefox tabs!!
P.S. Original comment was intended for the "DRM of Silence" article. Now if you'll excuse me, I shall crawl to a corner in shame...
So I'm guessing you can only stay "5upr l33t" for so long...
Give or take a few centimeters here and there, it'll be roughly the size of 2 1/2 stacked Mac-Minis.
I don't know, man. John Cusack was pretty badass with a ballpoint in Grosse Point Blank. :-)