As the summary said, the Consumer Data Industry Association "represents the Big Three credit bureaus". According to their membership information, CDIA member companies are engaged in credit reporting, tenant screening, employment reporting, etc. Companies that are not eligible for membership include:
* Commercial Banks
* Retail Stores
* Bankcard Issuers
* Retail Credit Card Issuers
* Credit Unions
* Mortgage Brokers
* Real Estate Agencies
* Nonbank Banks [wtf?]
* Savings and Loan Institutions
So CDIA is the credit reporting agencies, plus (most likely) ChoicePoint and Axciom and other datamining privacy haters. But not credit card companies or lenders, or anyone who loses money when identities are stolen.
A fairer headline would be "ESA Initiates Police Raid Against Games Counterfeiter."
That depends on whether he is being charged for the modding. If not, then you are 100% right.
(And it also depends on whether the modding had anything to do with initiating the investigation. If the investigation was begun only over piracy of the games that's one thing. But if they began the investigation *because* he's a modder, and then happened to find game piracy in the process, that's another thing.)
I didn't RTFA enough to know whether he's been charged for the modding.
Does anyone know of a page that charts relative contributions (hopefully some way better than kLoC, but that would be better than nothing) of different Linux distributors?
Jonathan Corbet at LWN has been charting out who contributes patches to the Linux kernel. It's an imperfect measure and of course doesn't include all the other significant stuff outside of the kernel, but it's kind of interesting if you're into that kind of thing. Among corporations, Red Hat has the most, but Novell has a lot too.
Nobody is buying your childish crap anymore. The Bush disaster can't just be wiped away with a i-hate-Hillary scarecrow. If she does get elected, it will partly the fault of your own party. You had your chance and you just screwed the pooch, over and over again.
If you want to talk about destroying valuable records related to an investigation, lets talk about what Hillary did with the records from the Rose Law firm in Little Rock.
Does this bluster pass for reason in your world? Blind loyalty to a man or a party is *not* patriotism.
Supposedly most of these groups take a very small number per year in order to preserve their traditions, not out of nutritional necessity. Because they used to subsist mainly on these beasts, their traditions are tightly bound to the hunt.
But you are right that it wasn't the Eskimo who brought whales to the point of extinction. Given the rapid extinction of native cultures, I say let them have a few whales while the rest of us (that means you Japan) show some restraint.
When it comes to spying, there are several types: 1) What gov't/law enforcement does (whether legally or nsa-style). This is done to enforce the law or for political control. 2) What HP's Patti Dunn or other private entities do to further a specific interest. Marginally legal at best. 3) What ChoicePoint, Axciom, etc. do. Amassing databases of identity and transactional information and selling datamining services usually for business purposes (and now also for gov't purposes). Still legal but mostly under-the-radar of public awareness. 4) What doubleclick and possibly some ISPs do -- the datamining of clickstreams mainly for the purpose of marketing.
#4 in particular is addressed by TFA, and encryption is not a real solution to that issue.
If my ISP is collecting clickstreams (i.e. the list of websites you visit) and using them for marketing purposes, I want to know about it.
Those links are bogus. One is the UK. The other is not free.
Have you actually tried to recycle e-waste lately? I remember when HP did a free recycling program with OfficeDepot a couple of years ago, I got rid of a garage worth of stuff, and then went out of my way to buy supplies at OfficeDepot out of sheer gratitude.
The point that I'm making is that it really doesn't (maybe) cost Dell anything, all things considered, to recycle these PCs.
I don't have any actual data on this, but I strongly suspect it *does* cost Dell something, and that's part of why they helped to write the Texas legislation -- so that their competitors will have to pay too.
(If they could make much money doing it, why is it hard to find places that will recycle computers for free?)
Yes, maybe at first. But Germany has a law that requires manufacturers to take things back for disposal. I think Japan has something similar. It is expected that manufacturers will as a result modify their designs to make disposal or reuse cheaper for themselves. The hope is that this means cutting down on the variety of different chemicals used, and substituting non-toxics where possible.
There is also a notion called Cradle to Cradle which is gaining ground.
So this Texas law could be the US starting to play catch-up.
There is also increasing awareness of the enviro-dumping you mention on the part of developed countries in India, China, Vietnam, etc.
Not that I would mind x86 in the embedded world, but it seems to me that this is going nowhere fast. The problem isn't technical - it's business. Most embedded systems run some sort of ARM variant, which would mean that code would have to be ported to x86.
The driver for smaller x86 boards is home media PCs and similar applications. For that, people want small, silent, AND powerful enough to handle video codecs.
But even without those, a portion of the general public wants small and quiet PCs. Dell, HP, Acer, and Asus have been selling compact PCs for some time. (However, Dell is not yet offering Ubuntu pre-loads on a compact.) There is a trend in that direction.
Oh, so everything's OK then?? Phew. And here I was worried that:
1. corporate privacy policies are basically meaningless because they don't actually protect *anything* under all that legalese
2. they often retain the right to change at any time
3. breeches are often hard to detect until long after the fact
4. there is no significant enforcement by FTC or anyone else
5. and worst of all there is no umbrella privacy law in the US.
The way things typically go, the Feds will end up passing something weaker than whatever is in California (whose notification law is the only reason the ChoicePoint mega-leak got any coverage), and they usually override the states rights to have any stronger law in the process to make a nice uniform environment for business.
Google just paid 3 *billion* dollars for doubleclick.
And ChoicePoint, which supposedly paid ~$5 million after their little data Valdez incident, seems to be chugging along quite nicely thank you.
Yeah, toothful privacy laws in this country would be great. But for now, I want useful independent information about bad actors so I can avoid them when possible.
I always check resellerratings.com to see what other people think about an online vendor before using them. It would be nice to have independent information about privacy as well. And truste doesn't cut it.
I usually read an online shop's privacy policy before buying (along with their other policies). And it's usually legalistic gunk, with a truste logo slapped on, which is worthless given that most policies say "we can change this anytime without prior notification".
So how do you rate what they _do_ instead of what they _say_?
No need. Just move to across the Crescent City Connection bridge to Gretna. The sheriff's deputies will make sure that none of the *cough*black*cough* "looters" will get to you.
There are probably many things the brain could do that we just never try to teach it.
I had a summer job in a warehouse (the real kind, not the defuct music store). I had to pack X number of things into a box all day long for three months. And after a while the counting became very automatic. My mind could wander, I could talk to the person next to me, and my count went on flawlessly (verified by weight).
Remember how hard it was when you first learned to drive? You couldn't keep the car going straight while keeping the speed even, etc.? And now look at you, steering with your knees while you eat a burger in one hand and work the radio pre-sets with the other, while carrying on a conversation with a passenger and eyeballing the rear-view mirror for cops.
So we shouldn't generalize about the limits of the brain based on what seems impossible without much practice.
I don't particularly like MS, but comparing it to global warming or electing the wrong people is just ridiculous.
I'm *not* comparing MS to global warming -- you missed the point. I'm comparing the individual's responsibility to act despite his miniscule effect in either case. You expressed defeatism: "everyone else does it, so I don't matter". And that's just BS.
BTW, I'm not anti-proprietary software. And I wouldn't care about MS itself one way or the other, if Microsoft wasn't actively trying to destroy FOSS.
Knowing that they are, like knowing that my car is helping cause global warming, lets me be more responsible in my choices. I still drive, but I drive less. And you can do whatever you want to -- but you can't tell me your choice makes no difference.
Well, it's in my self interests because more than 90% of the purchasers are going to get Windows machines anyway...
You're saying "I'm just one person with so little impact, so what I do doesn't matter".
Then why ever vote? Why do anything to make your own personal energy use more efficient in the face of global warming? Why refuse to sit in the back of the bus? What you do as an individual does matter.
"What I do doesn't matter anyway" is just rationalizing away your freedom to choose. Usually to avoid the responsibility of that choice. We all do it sometimes, but it's always a cop-out.
If it's not a laptop, you can add a modem later for five bucks. Big dealy, yo.
The whole point is guaranteed compatibility (i.e. "hassle free"). We want Dell to use their might to improve the driver situation for Linux.
BTW, I totally understand that in the amazingly short time-frame Dell launched this, it's not realistic to expect that they could solve a problem that the Linux community has been just living with for years. Kudos to Dell for what they've accomplished so far.
But I still hope they find a sane way to offer a compatible modem.
Exactly, that's why Target ate K-mart's lunch and Wal-mart is worried about them too. It's not just the cleanliness, it's bringing a little design and pizazz into the cheap crap from China. Cheap but also kinda nice is Target's successful MO.
But Starbucks is meant to be more of a premium experience rather than a McDonalds experience. Espresso coffee houses have always had elite-ish associations, either the wealthy travelled-in-Europe kind or the over-educated hippy kind. Target, or any big-box chain, will always represent the opposite of that.
Whereas Dell has always covered the whole spectrum, selling plenty of $500 systems and flooding TV with those "Dude" ads. Selling their low-end stuff in Wal-Mart is totally consistent with that approach, to my sensibility. When I see a Panasonic TV in a store like Wal-Mart it doesn't change my opinion of Panasonic.
Slashdot Mirror
As the summary said, the Consumer Data Industry Association "represents the Big Three credit bureaus". According to their membership information, CDIA member companies are engaged in credit reporting, tenant screening, employment reporting, etc. Companies that are not eligible for membership include:
* Commercial Banks
* Retail Stores
* Bankcard Issuers
* Retail Credit Card Issuers
* Credit Unions
* Mortgage Brokers
* Real Estate Agencies
* Nonbank Banks [wtf?]
* Savings and Loan Institutions
So CDIA is the credit reporting agencies, plus (most likely) ChoicePoint and Axciom and other datamining privacy haters. But not credit card companies or lenders, or anyone who loses money when identities are stolen.
That depends on whether he is being charged for the modding. If not, then you are 100% right.
(And it also depends on whether the modding had anything to do with initiating the investigation. If the investigation was begun only over piracy of the games that's one thing. But if they began the investigation *because* he's a modder, and then happened to find game piracy in the process, that's another thing.)
I didn't RTFA enough to know whether he's been charged for the modding.
Jonathan Corbet at LWN has been charting out who contributes patches to the Linux kernel. It's an imperfect measure and of course doesn't include all the other significant stuff outside of the kernel, but it's kind of interesting if you're into that kind of thing. Among corporations, Red Hat has the most, but Novell has a lot too.
Redhat, Ubuntu, and now Mandriva are not just holding out for more money from MS before caving in on the patent threat.
You can take that to the bank. And celebrate!
Nobody is buying your childish crap anymore. The Bush disaster can't just be wiped away with a i-hate-Hillary scarecrow. If she does get elected, it will partly the fault of your own party. You had your chance and you just screwed the pooch, over and over again.
Does this bluster pass for reason in your world? Blind loyalty to a man or a party is *not* patriotism.
Yes it's unethical. I'd never do that on purpose myself, but it's good to know anyway.
Supposedly most of these groups take a very small number per year in order to preserve their traditions, not out of nutritional necessity. Because they used to subsist mainly on these beasts, their traditions are tightly bound to the hunt.
But you are right that it wasn't the Eskimo who brought whales to the point of extinction. Given the rapid extinction of native cultures, I say let them have a few whales while the rest of us (that means you Japan) show some restraint.
When it comes to spying, there are several types:
1) What gov't/law enforcement does (whether legally or nsa-style). This is done to enforce the law or for political control.
2) What HP's Patti Dunn or other private entities do to further a specific interest. Marginally legal at best.
3) What ChoicePoint, Axciom, etc. do. Amassing databases of identity and transactional information and selling datamining services usually for business purposes (and now also for gov't purposes). Still legal but mostly under-the-radar of public awareness.
4) What doubleclick and possibly some ISPs do -- the datamining of clickstreams mainly for the purpose of marketing.
#4 in particular is addressed by TFA, and encryption is not a real solution to that issue.
If my ISP is collecting clickstreams (i.e. the list of websites you visit) and using them for marketing purposes, I want to know about it.
Those links are bogus.
One is the UK.
The other is not free.
Have you actually tried to recycle e-waste lately? I remember when HP did a free recycling program with OfficeDepot a couple of years ago, I got rid of a garage worth of stuff, and then went out of my way to buy supplies at OfficeDepot out of sheer gratitude.
I don't have any actual data on this, but I strongly suspect it *does* cost Dell something, and that's part of why they helped to write the Texas legislation -- so that their competitors will have to pay too.
(If they could make much money doing it, why is it hard to find places that will recycle computers for free?)
Yes, maybe at first. But Germany has a law that requires manufacturers to take things back for disposal. I think Japan has something similar. It is expected that manufacturers will as a result modify their designs to make disposal or reuse cheaper for themselves. The hope is that this means cutting down on the variety of different chemicals used, and substituting non-toxics where possible.
There is also a notion called Cradle to Cradle which is gaining ground.
So this Texas law could be the US starting to play catch-up.
There is also increasing awareness of the enviro-dumping you mention on the part of developed countries in India, China, Vietnam, etc.
It's a step-by-step process to fix this mess.
Dell's recycling option is offered for free. They give you mailing labels to send your old computer and monitor via DHL or something.
I don't know how much it actually costs Dell (obviously more than they charge), but so far Dell still has very low prices.
I can see why Dell would help force this on the competition... But in the end it's probably net positive for everybody.
The driver for smaller x86 boards is home media PCs and similar applications. For that, people want small, silent, AND powerful enough to handle video codecs.
But even without those, a portion of the general public wants small and quiet PCs. Dell, HP, Acer, and Asus have been selling compact PCs for some time. (However, Dell is not yet offering Ubuntu pre-loads on a compact.) There is a trend in that direction.
Oh, so everything's OK then?? Phew. And here I was worried that:
1. corporate privacy policies are basically meaningless because they don't actually protect *anything* under all that legalese
2. they often retain the right to change at any time
3. breeches are often hard to detect until long after the fact
4. there is no significant enforcement by FTC or anyone else
5. and worst of all there is no umbrella privacy law in the US.
The way things typically go, the Feds will end up passing something weaker than whatever is in California (whose notification law is the only reason the ChoicePoint mega-leak got any coverage), and they usually override the states rights to have any stronger law in the process to make a nice uniform environment for business.
Google just paid 3 *billion* dollars for doubleclick.
And ChoicePoint, which supposedly paid ~$5 million after their little data Valdez incident, seems to be chugging along quite nicely thank you.
Yeah, toothful privacy laws in this country would be great. But for now, I want useful independent information about bad actors so I can avoid them when possible.
I always check resellerratings.com to see what other people think about an online vendor before using them. It would be nice to have independent information about privacy as well. And truste doesn't cut it.
I usually read an online shop's privacy policy before buying (along with their other policies). And it's usually legalistic gunk, with a truste logo slapped on, which is worthless given that most policies say "we can change this anytime without prior notification".
So how do you rate what they _do_ instead of what they _say_?
No need. Just move to across the Crescent City Connection bridge to Gretna. The sheriff's deputies will make sure that none of the *cough*black*cough* "looters" will get to you.
There are probably many things the brain could do that we just never try to teach it.
I had a summer job in a warehouse (the real kind, not the defuct music store). I had to pack X number of things into a box all day long for three months. And after a while the counting became very automatic. My mind could wander, I could talk to the person next to me, and my count went on flawlessly (verified by weight).
Remember how hard it was when you first learned to drive? You couldn't keep the car going straight while keeping the speed even, etc.? And now look at you, steering with your knees while you eat a burger in one hand and work the radio pre-sets with the other, while carrying on a conversation with a passenger and eyeballing the rear-view mirror for cops.
So we shouldn't generalize about the limits of the brain based on what seems impossible without much practice.
I'm *not* comparing MS to global warming -- you missed the point. I'm comparing the individual's responsibility to act despite his miniscule effect in either case. You expressed defeatism: "everyone else does it, so I don't matter". And that's just BS.
BTW, I'm not anti-proprietary software. And I wouldn't care about MS itself one way or the other, if Microsoft wasn't actively trying to destroy FOSS .
Knowing that they are, like knowing that my car is helping cause global warming, lets me be more responsible in my choices. I still drive, but I drive less. And you can do whatever you want to -- but you can't tell me your choice makes no difference.
You're saying "I'm just one person with so little impact, so what I do doesn't matter".
Then why ever vote? Why do anything to make your own personal energy use more efficient in the face of global warming? Why refuse to sit in the back of the bus? What you do as an individual does matter.
"What I do doesn't matter anyway" is just rationalizing away your freedom to choose. Usually to avoid the responsibility of that choice. We all do it sometimes, but it's always a cop-out.
The whole point is guaranteed compatibility (i.e. "hassle free"). We want Dell to use their might to improve the driver situation for Linux.
BTW, I totally understand that in the amazingly short time-frame Dell launched this, it's not realistic to expect that they could solve a problem that the Linux community has been just living with for years. Kudos to Dell for what they've accomplished so far.
But I still hope they find a sane way to offer a compatible modem.
I'd be just fine with a softmodem so long as Dell can provide a Linux driver for it. Of course that's the issue at hand.
And Dell does offer an internal modem in the FreeDOS version of the E520N.
Ah yes, the Saruman-in-the-tower-of-Eisengard argument. Always a winner.
Exactly, that's why Target ate K-mart's lunch and Wal-mart is worried about them too. It's not just the cleanliness, it's bringing a little design and pizazz into the cheap crap from China. Cheap but also kinda nice is Target's successful MO.
But Starbucks is meant to be more of a premium experience rather than a McDonalds experience. Espresso coffee houses have always had elite-ish associations, either the wealthy travelled-in-Europe kind or the over-educated hippy kind. Target, or any big-box chain, will always represent the opposite of that.
Whereas Dell has always covered the whole spectrum, selling plenty of $500 systems and flooding TV with those "Dude" ads. Selling their low-end stuff in Wal-Mart is totally consistent with that approach, to my sensibility. When I see a Panasonic TV in a store like Wal-Mart it doesn't change my opinion of Panasonic.