but you can get a decent home firewall for a couple of hundred.
You can get Cable/DSL "routers" for less than $100. They're not full blown firewalls, but they can provide NAT and at least removed the machine from being directly connected to the internet.
Taken individually, they're not that bad. Taken as a whole though it becomes a monster.
We've got a couple of applications that use either a password+key or a password+biometric device - hopefully that will catch on a bit and allow for easier password maintenance (easier == more secure because the users will take it more seriously).
I think that the IT examination processes would also be improved if they actually had IT type people doing the examinations. Right now (at least with the Fed) the IT examiners are your garden variety examiners that have had some IT exam training. (I got a bit disillisioned with them during the Y2K runup)
Agreed there, but the other issue that I have at work is the sheer number of passwords that are required for my users. Then you have people use the same password over multiple platforms and applications.
Sometimes the password edict is not from the company, but from the regulators. In the banking world, the IT examiners are not (necessarily, but who's kidding - they're really not) IT people. They've got a script that they follow in looking for "IT risks" and if you have weak password policies (not forcing changes every 30 days and lockouts and other stuff) you get knocked for it.
Those gadgets are a nice idea, but I'm not sure that they would fly (yet) with the administrators.
It's amazing how many stars that there are if you get away from city lights.
I live in a (very) small town and can see stars at night. My folks live 1 mile away (outside of town), and it's astounding how many more stars can be seen there than at my house.
That's good until the machine gets completely blitzed. I was just working on a machine that took a big enough surge to kill not only the motherboard and power supply, but the hard drive (wouldn't spin) and the CDROM and CDRW drives. If I had an onboard RAID or mirror setup, I think that both drives would have been screwed.
For this person, a tape backup is overkill - so I'm getting a little USB hard drive backpack for backup. It's not getting the data offsite, but it's at least getting it out of the box.
Interest rates have been held low for too long and we're starting to see inflationary pressures. Count on them going up - the only question is how fast!
Even here in the US farmers have the opportunity to purchase and plant non-GMO seeds. The reason that these seeds are used in the first place is to increase yields and increase pest tolerance (both good things).
So when are some of our state attorney generals going to get off their butts, review their respective computer use laws, and apply the law against these felons?
If history can be our guide (at least in Iowa), the AG will go after them only after a bunch of other states are already doing it, or if it will garner some publicity. I think that our AG belongs to the "suit of the month" club.
If you're talking about retention of graduates - its tough in Iowa. For the last 20 years we've been educating our kids and shipping them out of state to fuel the economies elsewhere.
My comment was in reference to the state getting older (in his case ND, in my case Iowa). I think that Iowa is the "second oldest state" in the union behind Florida (maybe the third during the winter months when all the old people go to Arizona). Both ND and IA need something to start retaining those kids that we educate to help our state instead of others.
Reading through this subject, there are a good number of people who have moved from small towns and rural areas that would go back given the chance. Right now that chance doesn't really exist, but if a rural outsourcing trend picks up it would create those kind of jobs in rural areas.
As a side note, much of southern and western MN is a farming area - and is more like IA and ND in those areas. The twin cities probably distort the overall picture for the state. You'd probably see the same for Missouri and Kansas if you removed Kansas City and St. Louis from consideration.
Rural towns are fighting to survive right now, and if we can lure one of these outfits - even a small one employing only 10 or so people - it would be a great shot in the arm for our local economy.
As a side note - if you know of any company wishing to set up an outsourcing shop in real rural America, shoot me an e-mail and I'll get you in touch with our economic development outfit - we want you!
That's sort of what I was talking about. I once heard on the radio that Iowa teachers taking credit for good students was like Iowa farmers taking credit for good crops - the real credit lies in the soil from which the students/crops spring.
I walk two blocks and do ok. Even if I did need to drive to a neighboring community, time is not an issue - I could hold a job 60 miles away and the commute would be 1 hour (hardly what I would call a murderous drive). As far as jobs go - I'd like to see a rural outsourcing outfit move a even a small office into out community.
You are right that if an outfit put in even a 100 person call center, it would overwhelm our (small town) infrastructure. On the other hand, an outfit bringing in only 10 positions would be a great for our local economy and would make a great deal of difference to our community.
As far as land values go - we've got two components to that. Housing values are currently rather low, but land values for good farmland are high (1970's high) - it would take quite an expansion in the area to bump the values beyond the agricultural component.
But if you get into real rural areas, you'll see the cost of housing drop another 50%. I'll bet that I pay less for a mortgage in a year than someone in a city like New York or San Fransisco will pay for rent in two months.
The upper midwest has a lot to offer young people - everything except jobs. If this kind of thing can gain a foothold, and we can offer these kind of jobs, then we can take back our states from the elderly.
Just as a side note, Fargo seems to have a pretty good business climate. The banking software that we use was and is developed there.
Slashdot Mirror
Real x-ray specs :)
You can get Cable/DSL "routers" for less than $100. They're not full blown firewalls, but they can provide NAT and at least removed the machine from being directly connected to the internet.
We've got a couple of applications that use either a password+key or a password+biometric device - hopefully that will catch on a bit and allow for easier password maintenance (easier == more secure because the users will take it more seriously).
I think that the IT examination processes would also be improved if they actually had IT type people doing the examinations. Right now (at least with the Fed) the IT examiners are your garden variety examiners that have had some IT exam training. (I got a bit disillisioned with them during the Y2K runup)
Agreed there, but the other issue that I have at work is the sheer number of passwords that are required for my users. Then you have people use the same password over multiple platforms and applications.
Those gadgets are a nice idea, but I'm not sure that they would fly (yet) with the administrators.
I live in a (very) small town and can see stars at night. My folks live 1 mile away (outside of town), and it's astounding how many more stars can be seen there than at my house.
removing 261 gallons of brine would have caused!
We should call it Bob!
Notice how many of the problems are related to laptops - and lusers not taking anything that can remotely be considered due care of them.
For this person, a tape backup is overkill - so I'm getting a little USB hard drive backpack for backup. It's not getting the data offsite, but it's at least getting it out of the box.
Interest rates have been held low for too long and we're starting to see inflationary pressures. Count on them going up - the only question is how fast!
EA Sports - Extreme Curling!
Even here in the US farmers have the opportunity to purchase and plant non-GMO seeds. The reason that these seeds are used in the first place is to increase yields and increase pest tolerance (both good things).
If history can be our guide (at least in Iowa), the AG will go after them only after a bunch of other states are already doing it, or if it will garner some publicity. I think that our AG belongs to the "suit of the month" club.
Didn't the CIA do something like that in Gulf War I against the Iraqi's?
Security vulnerabilities in a 250MB update? Never would have guessed!
If you're talking about retention of graduates - its tough in Iowa. For the last 20 years we've been educating our kids and shipping them out of state to fuel the economies elsewhere.
My comment was in reference to the state getting older (in his case ND, in my case Iowa). I think that Iowa is the "second oldest state" in the union behind Florida (maybe the third during the winter months when all the old people go to Arizona). Both ND and IA need something to start retaining those kids that we educate to help our state instead of others.
Reading through this subject, there are a good number of people who have moved from small towns and rural areas that would go back given the chance. Right now that chance doesn't really exist, but if a rural outsourcing trend picks up it would create those kind of jobs in rural areas.
As a side note, much of southern and western MN is a farming area - and is more like IA and ND in those areas. The twin cities probably distort the overall picture for the state. You'd probably see the same for Missouri and Kansas if you removed Kansas City and St. Louis from consideration.
Rural towns are fighting to survive right now, and if we can lure one of these outfits - even a small one employing only 10 or so people - it would be a great shot in the arm for our local economy.
As a side note - if you know of any company wishing to set up an outsourcing shop in real rural America, shoot me an e-mail and I'll get you in touch with our economic development outfit - we want you!
That's sort of what I was talking about. I once heard on the radio that Iowa teachers taking credit for good students was like Iowa farmers taking credit for good crops - the real credit lies in the soil from which the students/crops spring.
You are right that if an outfit put in even a 100 person call center, it would overwhelm our (small town) infrastructure. On the other hand, an outfit bringing in only 10 positions would be a great for our local economy and would make a great deal of difference to our community.
As far as land values go - we've got two components to that. Housing values are currently rather low, but land values for good farmland are high (1970's high) - it would take quite an expansion in the area to bump the values beyond the agricultural component.
If you want to join a union, more power to you. It is not right to force you to join one, though.
But if you get into real rural areas, you'll see the cost of housing drop another 50%. I'll bet that I pay less for a mortgage in a year than someone in a city like New York or San Fransisco will pay for rent in two months.
The upper midwest has a lot to offer young people - everything except jobs. If this kind of thing can gain a foothold, and we can offer these kind of jobs, then we can take back our states from the elderly.
Just as a side note, Fargo seems to have a pretty good business climate. The banking software that we use was and is developed there.
So, as long as you have a Hopi customer specifying a program to a Hopi programmer, you're in good shape!
If we did - you'd know it and there wouldn't be any argument whether or not we were trying to do so.
To each his own. I like walking to work and being able to see stars at night.