Dunno. Sponge Bob and Catdog are two of my kid's (age 4) favorite shows. There are infinitly worse shows on TV that these two (most of daytime TV, I supposes). At least Catdog teachs something about friendship and loyalty in a way that kids can understand.
He likes Star Trek too, but never got into DS9. And, he loves to watch Will Smith dodge that "green %$&*" fired at him by the "bad aliens".
Well, according to the Star Tech technical manual (yeah..I've got one), all computer consoles consist of touch screen panel illuminated/powered by one of those plasma channels (sorta like a high energy conduit).
The concept behind the panels includes a fully customizable set of controls and very high resolution display - all inside a thin plate of some material that has the appearance of a "Miracle Thaw" (and behaves like one when not powered up).
Actually, in the original series, they address this problem by stating that "quadrant" sounded cool. They never thought people would take it literally.
And, if anyone's counting, I think superstring theory is based on twenty three dimensions that collapsed into four.
I agree, there are a few good ST:V and DS9 episodes. Most of the good ST:V ones involved Kess (older episodes). They're even allowing Ens. Kim to grow up a bit.
What irks me the most about ST:V is that Janeway makes so many unrealistic decisions. No one with any common sense would make the decisions she does with regards to her crew. She just doesn't have "command presense".
But, regardless, I still watch it just to get my ST fix of futuristic optimism.
As a former Naval officer, I found the differences between ST:NG and ST:V staggering. The "professionalism" supposedly shown by Janeway left much to be desired. If they are going to continue with the ST series, get a bridge crew worthy of the name. And, for Pete's sake, get someone like Patrick Stewart for the job of ships captain. I found him more a ship's captain (and a far better actor) than any of the others.
Maybe it's just me...if that's the case, then I've been hacked (I'm sure I upset one or two people the other day). Or, maybe it's just that my DNS server hasn't caught up yet.
Anyway, attempts to access/. results in a redirection. Okay. No problem. But, when I try to log in to post, I am given an html page with single line of text that reads "You really want to be on now." And then MS IE5 brings up a dialog box that reads...
"The page cannot be refreshed without resending the information. Click Retry to send the information again or click Cancel to return to the page you were trying to view."
Clicking Retry or Cancel just puts me into an endless loop. Only way out is to terminate IE.
Under Netscape, I see the text and am then redirected to/.
At first I thought it was funny since the article about the Windows backdoor was published this morning. But, IE won't let me get past it. Now, it's not funny (Hence, I'm using my Linux box now).
Either this is a crack or another exposed bug in M$ IE.
I'll by that. Perhaps the subject header was misleading. As I tried to point out, cracking is a crime. However, it's a crime against the state.
Murder and rape are horrible crimes as well. The damage they do in irrepairable. But, by and large, they affect a smaller segment of the population that those against the state. This, doesn't mean that they should be trivialized.
All crime, whether it be murder, rape or cracking errode the common beliefs that people have established to form a working society. All crimes should be punished. Period.
I was trying to get across the message thatwas cracking is criminal because of the effects on large numbers of people. The same rule can be applied to any case where the public impact is great (or potentially so). They need to be dealt with in a swift and concise manner so as not to establish a precedence of nonchalence.
There is no "fabric of society". America has become a land of sociopaths who only care when it inconveniences them.
Cracking is wrong, fine. But killing and stealing are quite different. Protecting the Status-quo is the problem. Money protects its own interests (docile, subservient, workers). Anyone who is not their lapdog is a meat by-product.
Uh huh. Read your own words again. It appears that you may be part of the problem. You are right, the problem is that we are all to self absorbed to worry about each other. Why is that?
To many people are taking the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" just a bit too far. If I remember correctly, this is from our Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution of the United States.. I also believe there is a phrase in there "to form a more perfect union"...is there not?
You say that cracking is wrong. But killing and stealing are different? How? Are they not all crimes in our society? By saying cracking is just wrong and not criminal, you are setting precedent.
Next, we'll say burglary isn't a crime, they were just passing through your house to get to the other back yard and picked up a few trinkets on the way.
When I was a kid, burglary was a felony that would get you twenty years. Now, that same crime will net you six months to two years in most cases. So, we've gone from a twenty years to less two for the same crime in less than a generation. What's next? Six months for murder? A slap on the wrist for rape? Hmmmm.
By not giving a damn about the society you are contributing to its futher degradation nevertheless and regardless of whether that society is built upon bedrock of common beliefs or a foundation of lies. Like it or not, you are a member of that society. It is what you are.
Congratulations! You have become a contributing member of the status quo.
There are still those in this country that believe in the so called "American Dream". At some point you have to trust in those around you to do the right thing. That's why we have government and laws (no matter how innane some of them might be). They are (in principle anyway), designed to protect the society as a whole and dictate acceptable behavior for all members of that society. For those who deviate outside the acceptable behavior, there are "corrective" actions that can be applied.
If you don't like the way things are working, then take the time out and do something constructive about it rather than whining about how it's not fair or how messed up it is. If you don't like the laws, then lobby to get them changed. Aspire to political office and show the world you really do give a damn and change the law (unlike the majority of the politicians in office). Fight for what you believe in by working to change the system rather than going outside and destroying it. (I am not an advocate for revolution but rather evolution).
Sit on your ass and you're no better than the "meat by-product" that you call everyone else.
Let me understand -- you are saying that causing 20K of credit card damage, plus the inconvenience of correcting credit histories, is a worse crime than a child or person being physically and mentally assulted? Because more people are affected? I doubt many would agree with you.
No. That is not what I am saying. What I said is that crimes against the population on the whole are dealt with more stearnly because they affect the general masses and, as such, errode the fabric of society.
I did not and will not downplay the viciousness of murder or rape, they are horrible crimes. But, these crimes are against individuals and not the community at large. Why do you think that an embezzler gets 20 years while your typical rapist seems to get 7? Why do you think counterfeiters get 20 to life? These are crimes committed against the "state".
$20K worth of damage? I think not. He stole 20,000+ credit card numbers. Let's see...most credit cards carry, say a $5K limit. That means, potentially, he could have done over $100M worth of immediate damage PLUS the effects of ruining a credit rating and the ability to steal an identity. Most people don't know their credit rating or have not requested a copy to even know if they have been compromised.
I have friends who have had their identity "stolen" by credit card theives. Every couple of months, they have to PROVE they didn't by $5K worth of goods. And, while they are waiting for their credit history to clear, they can't do much of anything. They have three kids. Yeah..victimless crime.
Perhaps, (and I'm not wishing it) if such a crime is committed against you, you would realize the significance of it. Imagine not being able to pay your bills because your accounts are frozen. You are late for work and can't pay for gas. You're hungry and can't buy any food because your accounts are frozen (hence no ATM). All this because some little punk thinks its okay to hack into somebody elses computer system for fun or profit. Get the picture?
This does not mean that murder or rape are any less significant or horrendous. I firmly believe such perpetrators should suffer a fate as worse (if not more) than what they caused their victims. It's just these crimes are perceived differently by the lawmakers in this country.
These are the types of crimes that Mitnick was accused of having committed. This little punk, Davis, while only defacing the Army's website committed a similar crime in that he is erroding the foundations of privacy and security people are starting to formulate regarding the internet.
Billions (if not trillions) of dollars (or equivalent) flow through the internet everyday. How can people trust their finances or privacy on the internet if we have to worry about some little script kiddie?
What could potentially happen is that all those companies that fund the internet backbone say enough is enough. What then? Or, they start charging such horrendous fees for access and monitor every packet that is sent? In this litegous society, that is what could eventually happen (severe..but a possibility).
Someone mentioned about my comment or grafitti and how I said it errodes peoples perceptions of a community. Sadly, it does. It was not meant to be a racist statement but some have taken it that way. Think about it. If you knew your site was probably going to be targetted and you're not a security expert with the skills to stop it, would YOU put up a site and have to deal it and the potential PR issues that stem from it (Especially a business).
Cracking is fundamentally wrong and is a criminal act simply because of its impact on so many people. Please recognize it as such.
No. Cracking is considered a serious crime because of the nature of the crime. It has more ability to affect the general population (i.e let's steal 20K worth of credit card numbers and ruin those peoples credit histories).
Cracking exposes vulnerabilies in systems that people trust implicitly. These systems are often the basis for our way of life. This creates chaos. Murder, rape and other violent crimes affect relatively few (but those it does imparts immeasurable impact). Thus, while they are terrible (I say burn the buggers), most of us still feel safe.
Can't say that's the case when I have to wonder who might be stealing my credit card and making my life a living hell as I try to resolve it.
People liken the crime of cracking to grafitti. Grafitti has been shown to degrade property values in an area. This makes it difficult for people to leave the area without taking a significant hit in the pocketbook. It leaves people with an impression that the area isn't safe or becoming. Only when the communities come together and clean up their neighboorhoods (not always possible), do they regain their sense of pride and safety. So, in my mind, grafitists should be severely punished as well.
Okay..so according to your beliefs, stealing as a is okay as long as it's just a hobby and the individual has a legitimate job. Yeah...that sounds right to me. Idiot. Where do you people come from?
He might have stolen 20 000 credit card numbers, but never used a single one of them to buy stuff!
Then, what was the point of stealing 20K of credit card numbers? Did he plan on printing them out and using them as wallpaper? Sounds like he intended to pass them to friends for fun or profit in an act called fencing of stolen goods(Another criminal act).
What gives anyone the right to gain unauthorized access to someone elses home or computer? This isn't just about some script kiddie. It's about lawlessness and anarchy. How many of you actually think it's okay to run a stop sign because "nobody's coming" (oops..didn't see that jogger) or drive through a residential neighboorhood at 11 PM with your windows open blasting 1000 watts of pure bass for all to hear? Same thing. Lawlessness.
Is it okay for someone to check to see if your front door is unlocked and just walk in, look around, and do whatever they want?
People scream about privacy and how the gov't is allowed to invade ours. How is what this punk did any different? Don't people have a resonable right to privacy and intrusion? At least the gov't has the law on their side and have to account for their actions.
Burn the little punk. Let him become the girlfriend of a 300lb cellmate named Bubba.
Agreed. While I admire personal conviction, it amazes me that there are so many sysadmins on this list willing to risk their jobs and professional reputations by being dishonest.
As a sysadmin, your position involves a certain degree of trust. By lying about the scan or notifying the employees of the scan in advance without the permission of management you are demonstrating that you are untrustworthy. I, and most executives, would personally would fire you on the spot for such behavior (remember, employment is AT WILL of the employer).
While I am an advocate of personal privacy, corporate e-mail and PC's are just that, corporate property. Unless your company has a written policy stating otherwise, consider the information stored on company owned PCs or gathered via corporate resources (i.e. network) corporate property.
We have a policy where I work that personal e-mail will not be scanned and is considered private except in the rare situation that we need to gain access to mail for professional reasons (i.e. you're hospitalized or dead or on extended vacation and can't be reached and a very important contract resides on your machine).
But, we also have don't permit our employees to access pornographic materials (i.e. websites). If caught, you will be disciplined and possibly released.
If, as sysadmin, you feel the need to notify the employees, get the permission of those requesting the scan first (and HR..notify HR first!). CYA and be professional about it. Then, send out a notice outlining the company policy once a month. If people want to risk the chance of getting caught, then so be it. But, they were warned.
What was the final outcome of the aolsearch.com dispute? AOL scarfed the domain from someone who was using the site. Will they be forced to give it back to her (with restitution, I hope)?
Actually, I believe Delphi is Borland/Inprise's biggest seller and not C++Builder. As an attendee at this years Borland/Inprise conference, there were several courses involving Linux and Borland tools. In each, the attendence (and interest) was high.
As towards the slant of the survey towards Delphi? It was clear that the survey was answered primarily by Delphi developers (myself being one of them). The survey was readily available to all of us via Delphi oriented websites as well as here on/. Most of us would love to leave Windoze behind if we could our favorite tools with us. Delphi users obviously want Delphi on Linux.
Sometimes I get the impression that there are some in Linux community are more interested in preserving their way of life rather than accepting those who work differently or use other operating systems in pursuit of putting food on the table. In some ways, I admire the spirit of the GPL and Open Source. I, myself, am a proponent of both under the right set of circumstances.
Perhaps it was this zenophobic (or is it corporophobic) attitude that kept most Linux developers from expressing their view in the survey. Judging by the sheer number of Linux users/developers in the world, the turnout should have been substantially higher. Right? Or, did the survey reflect the true feeling of the entire community and a majority of Linux developers also use Delphi? Based upon some of the other posts, the evidence clearly indicates this is not the case.
As for a native code compiler for Java on Linux...Borland demonstrated their own JIT compiler in addition to a Pure Java version of JBuilder(called Primetime). The only thing keeping Primetime from being just that is the Blackdown Java VM has issues that need to be resolved. FWIW, Primetime ran beautifully using Sun's own VMs.
In any event, Linux is in a position to be more than just another O/S. There are plenty of Windoze developers, like myself, who are ready to defect to Linux (rather than as a sideline venturists or hobbyists). But, the high productivity tools need to be there and a proven track record in corporate settings must be established or Linux (and other alternative OS's) will be remain a counter-culture phenomenon.
Granted, there are some who would prefer this fate and have Linux fade back into obscurit. That fate, in my book, would surely be a shame as Linux is meant to be shared. It truly is like a gift from the Gods.
The survey was available to ANYONE who wanted to take it (it was mentioned on/.). So, I wouldn't necessarily say it was an "Inprise survey". But, the predominant respondents appear to be Windows developers. I would have preferred that a more statistical analysis be done on the data to see what it is that people really want. The repondents were, for the most part, Windows developers. I would have liked to see the data adjust to compenstate for this fact.
What is little known is that Delphi is THE #1 selling RAD development tool for Windows (or so I've read and told). Fact is that Delphi does enable developers to build applications at a rate generally higher than C++. And, it is inherently more robust than VB. The popularity of Linux among Windows developers is growing because Linux is a) stable and b) free c) it's not M$ and finally d) it's a new market to explore for both commercial and open source or GPL's apps.
It's only natural that these same developers want their tools on Linux. And, it's no suprise that these same developers have no clue what toolkits are used by KDE & Gnome. Finally, I am suprised at the number of KDE users since Red Hat makes it so easy to install Gnome.
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Dunno. Sponge Bob and Catdog are two of my kid's (age 4) favorite shows. There are infinitly worse shows on TV that these two (most of daytime TV, I supposes). At least Catdog teachs something about friendship and loyalty in a way that kids can understand.
He likes Star Trek too, but never got into DS9. And, he loves to watch Will Smith dodge that "green %$&*" fired at him by the "bad aliens".
Well, according to the Star Tech technical manual (yeah..I've got one), all computer consoles consist of touch screen panel illuminated/powered by one of those plasma channels (sorta like a high energy conduit).
The concept behind the panels includes a fully customizable set of controls and very high resolution display - all inside a thin plate of some material that has the appearance of a "Miracle Thaw" (and behaves like one when not powered up).
Especially if you watch too much TV.
Actually, in the original series, they address this problem by stating that "quadrant" sounded cool. They never thought people would take it literally.
And, if anyone's counting, I think superstring theory is based on twenty three dimensions that collapsed into four.
I agree, there are a few good ST:V and DS9 episodes. Most of the good ST:V ones involved Kess (older episodes). They're even allowing Ens. Kim to grow up a bit.
What irks me the most about ST:V is that Janeway makes so many unrealistic decisions. No one with any common sense would make the decisions she does with regards to her crew. She just doesn't have "command presense".
But, regardless, I still watch it just to get my ST fix of futuristic optimism.
As a former Naval officer, I found the differences between ST:NG and ST:V staggering.
The "professionalism" supposedly shown by Janeway left much to be desired. If they are going to continue with the ST series, get a bridge crew worthy of the name. And, for Pete's sake, get someone like Patrick Stewart for the job of ships captain. I found him more a ship's captain (and a far better actor) than any of the others.
Logged out and then back in again. On logging in, I get the error.
/., I'm in just fine.
If I then shutdown IE, restart, and go back to
Nope. Problem still exists. But, at least if I terminate IE, I am logged in the next time around.
Hear ya! Looks like they fixed the problem but I'll test a little more.
Were you able to post messages or were you hosed? In any event, it's comforting to know that others have seen this. And, you're right....IE5 sucks.
Maybe it's just me...if that's the case, then I've been hacked (I'm sure I upset one or two people the other day). Or, maybe it's just that my DNS server hasn't caught up yet.
/. results in a redirection. Okay. No problem. But, when I try to log in to post, I am given an html page with single line of text that reads "You really want to be on now." And then MS IE5 brings up a dialog box that reads...
/.
Anyway, attempts to access
"The page cannot be refreshed without resending the information. Click Retry to send the information again or click Cancel to return to the page you were trying to view."
Clicking Retry or Cancel just puts me into an endless loop. Only way out is to terminate IE.
Under Netscape, I see the text and am then redirected to
At first I thought it was funny since the article about the Windows backdoor was published this morning. But, IE won't let me get past it. Now, it's not funny (Hence, I'm using my Linux box now).
Either this is a crack or another exposed bug in M$ IE.
I'll by that. Perhaps the subject header was misleading. As I tried to point out, cracking is a crime. However, it's a crime against the state.
Murder and rape are horrible crimes as well. The damage they do in irrepairable. But, by and large, they affect a smaller segment of the population that those against the state. This, doesn't mean that they should be trivialized.
All crime, whether it be murder, rape or cracking errode the common beliefs that people have established to form a working society. All crimes should be punished. Period.
I was trying to get across the message thatwas cracking is criminal because of the effects on large numbers of people. The same rule can be applied to any case where the public impact is great (or potentially so). They need to be dealt with in a swift and concise manner so as not to establish a precedence of nonchalence.
Thoughts?
Well said.
There is no "fabric of society". America has become a land of sociopaths who only care when it inconveniences them.
Cracking is wrong, fine. But killing and stealing are quite different. Protecting the Status-quo is the problem. Money protects its own interests (docile, subservient, workers). Anyone who is not their lapdog is a meat by-product.
Uh huh. Read your own words again. It appears that you may be part of the problem. You are right, the problem is that we are all to self absorbed to worry about each other. Why is that?
To many people are taking the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" just a bit too far. If I remember correctly, this is from our Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution of the United States.. I also believe there is a phrase in there "to form a more perfect union"...is there not?
You say that cracking is wrong. But killing and stealing are different? How? Are they not all crimes in our society? By saying cracking is just wrong and not criminal, you are setting precedent.
Next, we'll say burglary isn't a crime, they were just passing through your house to get to the other back yard and picked up a few trinkets on the way.
When I was a kid, burglary was a felony that would get you twenty years. Now, that same crime will net you six months to two years in most cases. So, we've gone from a twenty years to less two for the same crime in less than a generation. What's next? Six months for murder? A slap on the wrist for rape? Hmmmm.
By not giving a damn about the society you are contributing to its futher degradation nevertheless and regardless of whether that society is built upon bedrock of common beliefs or a foundation of lies. Like it or not, you are a member of that society. It is what you are.
Congratulations! You have become a contributing member of the status quo.
There are still those in this country that believe in the so called "American Dream". At some point you have to trust in those around you to do the right thing. That's why we have government and laws (no matter how innane some of them might be). They are (in principle anyway), designed to protect the society as a whole and dictate acceptable behavior for all members of that society. For those who deviate outside the acceptable behavior, there are "corrective" actions that can be applied.
If you don't like the way things are working, then take the time out and do something constructive about it rather than whining about how it's not fair or how messed up it is. If you don't like the laws, then lobby to get them changed. Aspire to political office and show the world you really do give a damn and change the law (unlike the majority of the politicians in office). Fight for what you believe in by working to change the system rather than going outside and destroying it. (I am not an advocate for revolution but rather evolution).
Sit on your ass and you're no better than the "meat by-product" that you call everyone else.
How about four years in the Army for this one?
Let me understand -- you are saying that causing 20K of credit card damage, plus the inconvenience of correcting credit histories, is a worse crime than a child or person being physically and mentally assulted? Because more people are affected? I doubt many would agree with you.
No. That is not what I am saying. What I said is that crimes against the population on the whole are dealt with more stearnly because they affect the general masses and, as such, errode the fabric of society.
I did not and will not downplay the viciousness of murder or rape, they are horrible crimes. But, these crimes are against individuals and not the community at large. Why do you think that an embezzler gets 20 years while your typical rapist seems to get 7? Why do you think counterfeiters get 20 to life? These are crimes committed against the "state".
$20K worth of damage? I think not. He stole 20,000+ credit card numbers. Let's see...most credit cards carry, say a $5K limit. That means, potentially, he could have done over $100M worth of immediate damage PLUS the effects of ruining a credit rating and the ability to steal an identity. Most people don't know their credit rating or have not requested a copy to even know if they have been compromised.
I have friends who have had their identity "stolen" by credit card theives. Every couple of months, they have to PROVE they didn't by $5K worth of goods. And, while they are waiting for their credit history to clear, they can't do much of anything. They have three kids. Yeah..victimless crime.
Perhaps, (and I'm not wishing it) if such a crime is committed against you, you would realize the significance of it. Imagine not being able to pay your bills because your accounts are frozen. You are late for work and can't pay for gas. You're hungry and can't buy any food because your accounts are frozen (hence no ATM). All this because some little punk thinks its okay to hack into somebody elses computer system for fun or profit. Get the picture?
This does not mean that murder or rape are any less significant or horrendous. I firmly believe such perpetrators should suffer a fate as worse (if not more) than what they caused their victims. It's just these crimes are perceived differently by the lawmakers in this country.
These are the types of crimes that Mitnick was accused of having committed. This little punk, Davis, while only defacing the Army's website committed a similar crime in that he is erroding the foundations of privacy and security people are starting to formulate regarding the internet.
Billions (if not trillions) of dollars (or equivalent) flow through the internet everyday. How can people trust their finances or privacy on the internet if we have to worry about some little script kiddie?
What could potentially happen is that all those companies that fund the internet backbone say enough is enough. What then? Or, they start charging such horrendous fees for access and monitor every packet that is sent? In this litegous society, that is what could eventually happen (severe..but a possibility).
Someone mentioned about my comment or grafitti and how I said it errodes peoples perceptions of a community. Sadly, it does. It was not meant to be a racist statement but some have taken it that way. Think about it. If you knew your site was probably going to be targetted and you're not a security expert with the skills to stop it, would YOU put up a site and have to deal it and the potential PR issues that stem from it (Especially a business).
Cracking is fundamentally wrong and is a criminal act simply because of its impact on so many people. Please recognize it as such.
No. Cracking is considered a serious crime because of the nature of the crime. It has more ability to affect the general population (i.e let's steal 20K worth of credit card numbers and ruin those peoples credit histories).
Cracking exposes vulnerabilies in systems that people trust implicitly. These systems are often the basis for our way of life. This creates chaos. Murder, rape and other violent crimes affect relatively few (but those it does imparts immeasurable impact). Thus, while they are terrible (I say burn the buggers), most of us still feel safe.
Can't say that's the case when I have to wonder who might be stealing my credit card and making my life a living hell as I try to resolve it.
People liken the crime of cracking to grafitti. Grafitti has been shown to degrade property values in an area. This makes it difficult for people to leave the area without taking a significant hit in the pocketbook. It leaves people with an impression that the area isn't safe or becoming. Only when the communities come together and clean up their neighboorhoods (not always possible), do they regain their sense of pride and safety. So, in my mind, grafitists should be severely punished as well.
Now THAT's funny (in a sick sort of way). You just made my day.
How 'bout we add him to the "Free Mumia...the cop killer" bumper sticker?
Okay..so according to your beliefs, stealing as a is okay as long as it's just a hobby and the individual has a legitimate job. Yeah...that sounds right to me. Idiot. Where do you people come from?
He might have stolen 20 000 credit card numbers, but never used a single one of them to buy stuff!
Then, what was the point of stealing 20K of credit card numbers? Did he plan on printing them out and using them as wallpaper? Sounds like he intended to pass them to friends for fun or profit in an act called fencing of stolen goods(Another criminal act).
What gives anyone the right to gain unauthorized access to someone elses home or computer? This isn't just about some script kiddie. It's about lawlessness and anarchy. How many of you actually think it's okay to run a stop sign because "nobody's coming" (oops..didn't see that jogger) or drive through a residential neighboorhood at 11 PM with your windows open blasting 1000 watts of pure bass for all to hear? Same thing. Lawlessness.
Is it okay for someone to check to see if your front door is unlocked and just walk in, look around, and do whatever they want?
People scream about privacy and how the gov't is allowed to invade ours. How is what this punk did any different? Don't people have a resonable right to privacy and intrusion? At least the gov't has the law on their side and have to account for their actions.
Burn the little punk. Let him become the girlfriend of a 300lb cellmate named Bubba.
Agreed. While I admire personal conviction, it amazes me that there are so many sysadmins on this list willing to risk their jobs and professional reputations by being dishonest.
As a sysadmin, your position involves a certain degree of trust. By lying about the scan or notifying the employees of the scan in advance without the permission of management you are demonstrating that you are untrustworthy. I, and most executives, would personally would fire you on the spot for such behavior (remember, employment is AT WILL of the employer).
While I am an advocate of personal privacy, corporate e-mail and PC's are just that, corporate property. Unless your company has a written policy stating otherwise, consider the information stored on company owned PCs or gathered via corporate resources (i.e. network) corporate property.
We have a policy where I work that personal e-mail will not be scanned and is considered private except in the rare situation that we need to gain access to mail for professional reasons (i.e. you're hospitalized or dead or on extended vacation and can't be reached and a very important contract resides on your machine).
But, we also have don't permit our employees to access pornographic materials (i.e. websites). If caught, you will be disciplined and possibly released.
If, as sysadmin, you feel the need to notify the employees, get the permission of those requesting the scan first (and HR..notify HR first!). CYA and be professional about it. Then, send out a notice outlining the company policy once a month. If people want to risk the chance of getting caught, then so be it. But, they were warned.
What was the final outcome of the aolsearch.com dispute? AOL scarfed the domain from someone who was using the site. Will they be forced to give it back to her (with restitution, I hope)?
Actually, I believe Delphi is Borland/Inprise's biggest seller and not C++Builder. As an attendee at this years Borland/Inprise conference, there were several courses involving Linux and Borland tools. In each, the attendence (and interest) was high.
/. Most of us would love to leave Windoze behind if we could our favorite tools with us. Delphi users obviously want Delphi on Linux.
As towards the slant of the survey towards Delphi? It was clear that the survey was answered primarily by Delphi developers (myself being one of them). The survey was readily available to all of us via Delphi oriented websites as well as here on
Sometimes I get the impression that there are some in Linux community are more interested in preserving their way of life rather than accepting those who work differently or use other operating systems in pursuit of putting food on the table. In some ways, I admire the spirit of the GPL and Open Source. I, myself, am a proponent of both under the right set of circumstances.
Perhaps it was this zenophobic (or is it corporophobic) attitude that kept most Linux developers from expressing their view in the survey. Judging by the sheer number of Linux users/developers in the world, the turnout should have been substantially higher. Right? Or, did the survey reflect the true feeling of the entire community and a majority of Linux developers also use Delphi? Based upon some of the other posts, the evidence clearly indicates this is not the case.
As for a native code compiler for Java on Linux...Borland demonstrated their own JIT compiler in addition to a Pure Java version of JBuilder(called Primetime). The only thing keeping Primetime from being just that is the Blackdown Java VM has issues that need to be resolved. FWIW, Primetime ran beautifully using Sun's own VMs.
In any event, Linux is in a position to be more than just another O/S. There are plenty of Windoze developers, like myself, who are ready to defect to Linux (rather than as a sideline venturists or hobbyists). But, the high productivity tools need to be there and a proven track record in corporate settings must be established or Linux (and other alternative OS's) will be remain a counter-culture phenomenon.
Granted, there are some who would prefer this fate and have Linux fade back into obscurit.
That fate, in my book, would surely be a shame as Linux is meant to be shared. It truly is like a gift from the Gods.
The survey was available to ANYONE who wanted to take it (it was mentioned on /.). So, I wouldn't necessarily say it was an "Inprise survey". But, the predominant respondents appear to be Windows developers. I would have preferred that a more statistical analysis be done on the data to see what it is that people really want. The repondents were, for the most part, Windows developers. I would have liked to see the data adjust to compenstate for this fact.
What is little known is that Delphi is THE #1 selling RAD development tool for Windows (or so I've read and told). Fact is that Delphi does enable developers to build applications at a rate generally higher than C++. And, it is inherently more robust than VB. The popularity of Linux among Windows developers is growing because Linux is a) stable and b) free c) it's not M$ and finally d) it's a new market to explore for both commercial and open source or GPL's apps.
It's only natural that these same developers want their tools on Linux. And, it's no suprise that these same developers have no clue what toolkits are used by KDE & Gnome. Finally, I am suprised at the number of KDE users since Red Hat makes it so easy to install Gnome.