the problem is two fold the way I see it. 1) The market wants tradesman programmers. Something like a carpenter who can just come in and build what the blue prints from the architect say to build. That's really what's happening to the market. It is cleaving into "practical" computing and "academic" computing.
The other thing is, it is getting harder and harder to produce truly ground breaking work in CS. Seminal works like the Public Key Private Key exchange and RSA haven't occurred in recent memory (I am sure the ever diligent slashdot crowd could correct me). So, this brings me to a sibling field: Electrical Engineering.
When I was working on my MS in CS, a huge portion of the work published and the very professors in the CS department were EEs! Even the field of CS where electronics benefits best (say, optimized wiring algorithms) is still done under the "CS" realm. And then, there is one of the massive trade publication that kinda speaks to this: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). How many of the papers published in their are about the latest in analog circuit design? Sure, there is plenty in there dealing with EE work specifically, but not much.
And, finally, 30-40 percent of the people who write code along side of me are EEs.
My last employer took my accrued vacation (almost 2 weeks) saying I didn't give them a full 2 weeks notice (I tried for 3 days to get in touch with my manager). Another friend gave them 3 weeks notice and only had 2 days of vacation. He got his confiscated too. I am not too worried though -- I left the company because they decided they were going to move away from software contracting to... home theater installation (insert Dr. Evil laugh here).
I can't speak for all project everywhere, but I write a lot of Java code and have a lot of recruiters calling me. And you know what, the technology they ask for is like a who's-who of Open Source in Java.
Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Jboss, Ant, Tomcat, Lucene, MySql, Linux
All open source. And if you have those skills, employers will beat a path to your door.
I think the real reason these products are of such a good quality is that there is honest and very critical review of the source and design. There is also motivation to just throw it out when it makes sense. Let's face it, in corporate development there is no real forum to critique someone elses code. Infact, doing so usually makes you a new enemy and gets you a 1-on-1 with your manager for "interpersonal" skills.
The Washington Post just posted an op-ed yesterday by Scott Rosenberg. The article is interesting in and of itself but look at the comments. Those are equally illuminating.
Very simple.
Apple is contractually bound to segment the market by region -- this is for reasons of legality (Nazi music in France?) and marketing. By creating these artificial barriers the recording industry can charge 1 price for the music in India ($.05) and another in the US ($.99). The reason is a classic marketing tier. Americans can and are willing to pay $.99 and an Indian would never. If someone will pay more, why not charge more? On the other hand, you don't want to have American's buying the same songs for $.05. This is the Starbucks model, the DVD region encoding model, etc.
IS a country with leadership that can and will take the time to focus on DOMESTIC issues. As for how this one stacks against the rest, it's a low priority. Not that it shouldn't be addressed -- it's one of my pet peeves. However, you can't address ANY domestic issues when all your money, mental energy, time and focus is going into a war in a far-off land. Look how much domestically has been addressed since 9/11 -- change to prescription drugs in Medicare and widely considered a debacle.
Yep, and when you realize that you have sabotaged your career by tying it to dinosaur technology you can't blame anyone but yourself. COBOL was great for it's time -- of that I have no doubt. But, the reason the only guys you can get to work on an old OS/390 system isn't necessarily because they like OS/390, but they never changed with the times and diversified and that's all they are qualified to do.
I don't know anyone who even knows anyone, who is written NEW COBOL code. So, maybe your thing is supporting someones 30 year old COBOL system -- a job fit for someone waiting to retire from the age of 25 forward.
I am not sure if it's actually written into law, but routinely that very concept is brought up in court and the grounds that the patent holder has failed to enforce his rights and has thus forfeit them. I mean, it's not like bluetooth on a cell phone is a secret. It's advertised and sold on almost every phone by almost every provider.
Is someone to donate hosting, and find a little cash. Really, Wikipedia's only cost is hosting -- bandwidth and boxes. google could donate hosting service for them and just write it off. a few bucks to keep a core team operating it would be all you need for cash. Then, even if wiki never gets another fund, it can live forever beign hosted. Look at all the dead projects on sourceforge.
Here is a simple demonstration that can give concrete examples of how IP address does NOT equal person.
1) Buy a broadband router (LinkSys or whatever).
2) Take the router and plug it into the network in the courthouse. Every modern courthouse has an internet connection. (The clerk next to the judge likely has a PC with a connection)
3) Take your laptop and wirelessly connect to the router.
4) Goto: www.whatismyip.com to show everyone what your (public) IP address is.
5) Now, goto http://www.dnsstuff.com/ and lookup that IP. Since it's a govt issued IP it will likely say that under the whois.
6) Now, using whatever p2p app they say was used, go find that same music (or similarly infringing material) and download it. Right in front of the judge. When it's complete offer the judge your services in defense of copyright infringement.
1 caveat: they might be "blocking" that app from the courthouse; not likely though. The idea is just to show the judge, before his very eyes, that you can infringe copyright in that very courtroom and FRAME him for it!
Now offer to the judge that, especially since they claim the hard drive they received is not the one they expected, it is entirely possible that someone stole your client's (specifically omit wireless) connection, just like you did today in the courthouse. Maybe when the RIAA comes looking, this time they will come looking for the judges PC and not yours.
Wireless routers, for simplicity of setup, NEVER secure the wireless connection. No WEP key is required and there is no MAC filtering. This is default, out-of-the-box behavior straight from bestbuy. It's TRIVIAL to borrow someone else's connection and cause trouble. It isn't even always MALICIOUS! Your neighbor could accidentally connect to the wrong router (Many brands comes out of the box with an identical network name). Seeing is believing -- show them how easy it is.
Not the point. Sure, you're protected from fraud, but then if fraud is discovered they have to close the account which is a pain in the ass if you have recurring payments or pending payments. One-shot numbers prevent the hassle of having to essential switch to a whole new account.
Microsoft, counter to Steve Balmer's bluster, actually KILLS innovation in the market! After reading all the comments on this, it occurred to me that was the common theme -- and I must agree. They use their financial and market dominance to utterly crush any and all innovation; even internally!
I am a software engineer and I work with other "engineers" and I can tell you that this is the scenario we get put under all the time. For the good engineers it is never warranted, for the crap ones, it always is. Unfortunately we have no metric in this bussiness to weed-out the wheat from the chaffe. And, before you get to high-and-mighty about rocket scientists, don't forget that little fiasco with Lockheed measuring in inches and not centimeters and thus having a satellite blow.
The biggest reason for software failure is institutional: In this bussiness, there is a binary measure of quality; Works/doesn't work. The threshold for "works" is abysmally low. But anyone who writes code can tell you that how it's written will make all the difference. Unfortunately, there is NO way to sort out the wheat from the chaffe. Seriously, a recruiter looks at your resume, compares it to 300 other applicants with 5-7 years experience with "J2EE" (they have no idea what it means, just that they need to find people with it) and says I can afford to pay X. There is no way to distinguish the candidates by quality.
This industry desperately needs a quality rubric and one that is followed. Perhaps if vendors were made liable for their product they would have incentive to improve.
I completely second this. I was a student teacher for just less than a year and I can tell you all of what Dave says it true in just my short time. I got to school at 7am and generally didn't leave until 5pm. Then I would spend half a day Saturday grading papers. And although it's not "required" it's expected that you will join all sorts of teacher/kid/parent clubs.
But let's not forget that for your money you are: 1) Always in a fishbowl -- wait until you get hammered with your friends in a bar only to see the parents of some of your kids. 2) Go to the mall with your pals/gf/whoever and engage in a swear-a-thon only to get called on the carpet for it on Monday because some parent overheard you while they were out with their kids/your students. Everything you do and say is watched and listened to at every moment even when you don't 'work'. Misspell something and be ridiculed. And, my personal favorite: You get to live the childish highschool social competitions all over again -- now it's from the other side of the desk.
You are caught half-way between administrators anxious to look good and parents who swear their little susie could not possibly have done XXX. On top of that, you are criminally responsible for reporting all signs of child abuse, which of course the parent will NEVER become belligerent with you when social services pays them a visit, and you have to live daily with the guilt of lettings great kids go home to shitty parents and there isn't much you can do.
Teachers are given exclusive care (and responsibility) of societies most prized posession. On an immediate scale you risk jail time and lawsuits -- always a background hum -- and in the long run, your risk failing your community, country and humanity by not using everything in your power to better those kids -- despite having them for a limited time for 1 year.
the future of the world rides on what we teach kids today. And if you think it's easy consider this: I got my undergrad in Elementary Education and given the above experiences (yes, they either happened to me or people I knew) I found that I was much more comfortable and capable with computers and got a MS in CS -- I make double what a comparable teacher would make. Sure, believe teachers are over paid for their work -- until you see them working some menial job in their "spare" time to make ends meet. You fuck your kids up at home with lack-of-love, drugs of all kinds (even prescription ones), and who knows what else, drop them off at school, and expect them to be the next president or Larry Ellison.
More A's more Pay is some bean counter looking for ROI on teaching.
I have had my share of problems with PayPal. I bought a video card from a guy on eBay ($400) and paid immediately. Of course Paypal wants you to use your bank account to pay so they barely give any indication they are doing so. to change it to credit card is a per-transaction pain in the ass, but it's possible. So, I bought the card, but it turns out the guy must have been phished because within days he went from 99.7% feedback on 400+ auctions to 80% and all negative comments were with a week.
Contacted eBay and paypal. eBay never got back to me, and Paypal finally did and essentially said: 'Yup, you're right, you did get screwed, but per the user agreement you accepted we don't owe you shit'. I submitted a report to the Virginia Attorney General, the FBI, the Michigan Attorney General (the guys PP bank account was there) and got no response from any of them.
Now, I could get all pissy and never use paypal again but good luck doing business on ebay. So, now I am ever vigilant to change it to credit card and twice this has helped me recover funds.
Paypal is great until there is a problem. All of them are great until their is a problem.
Let me start by saying: I am working on the NIST PKCS11 implementation (it will be public domain). THE PD12 is meant to unify identification and processing of government employees. So that you don't end up with several badges with different pictures and fingers prints, from numerous agencies. It's a simplification process and one that's long overdue.
I am no bush fan, but people are barking up the wrong tree here. As far as national id cards go, it's just a matter of time. I see resonance here that might label me a troll but I will say it just the same:
The slashdot crowd loves to howl about how the RIAA/MPAA is clinging to old and dying bussiness models when they should embrace new ones and stop fighting the inevitable. I completely agree. I also see that the slashdot crowd has a tendency to cling to the more anonymous days before national id's and smart cards. Come to grips with the fact that it will become harder and harder to fake your identity (as it should be) and learn to embrace it. Did anyone ever think that smart cards could come damn close to wiping out identity theft (if used correctly)? Why should I have to get a different drivers license for a new state? Did I forget how to drive? Am I a different person now that I moved? A national id can put an end to the hodge-podge nature of governing in this enormous country.
Now, I have always said that "Everyone has something to hide" and I still hold to that for those who say they don't. Don't forget though: Your smart card can encrypt everything you do online and depending on the encryption used, can't be cracked in our lifetime. It is for this very reason that the NSA and FBI desperately attempted (and still do) to prevent the export of RSA encryption abroad -- classifying it as a munition on the same scale as a nuclear weapon. Slashdot is definately a democratic leaning site: It was Bill Clinton who wanted a "clipper chip" back door (read the book Crypto). And, if you want a secret identity, your smart card can support multiple identities. You can have an alternative that only you and your friends in a web-of-trust know about and accept. In real-life I am XXX but on slashdot I am sideswipe76.
Freedom of speech has never meant freedom from all consequences of that speech. Look at Martin Luther King -- the man excercised his freedom of speech and brought revolution to the US against the wishes of many of those high-up in government. He also paid with his life not to the government but to James Earl Ray.
PD12 is about getting all federal agencies down to 1 process of identification -- a unified system -- so that you don't have 7 cards for 4 agencies, with 3 pictures and 5 different finger prints taken by different agencies. I am strongly anti-bush, but you are just way barking up the wrong tree. I actually work on the project for NIST.
Actually, you encrypt with THEIR public key and not your signature. Your signature is a Private Key operation. The PIV Card is a huge improvement over the CAC cards.
UWB is actually meant to eventually take over for your monitor cabling too. As for interference, it operates across a very wide spectrum (hence the UWB) using spread-spectrum technology, and the distance is due to very low power allowance it has been given to comply with FCC limits. The purpose really is to replace everything but the electrical chords.
There are plenty of people who despise what copyright has become here in the US and elsewhere. The EFF files pointless lawsuits against the DOD in the name of people like slashdotters. We, those of us who whish to rollback copyright, will continue to lose this battle if all we do is sit here and talk smack.
The EFF can better serve itself and it's community using more awareness campaigns -- showing the average mac user why iTunes is bad, in simple terms. Not going after a govt institution backed by an administration hell-bent on secrecy.
And finally, some slashdotters need to pony-up and run for office!! Slashdotters are armed with enormous technological understanding -- something modern politicians have not even begun to harness. What about running your campaign page from myspace? Get community involvement YouTube style and have supporters submit ads for your campaign and dig up dirt on the other guy. Use the P2P-bittorent-hivemind-google approach to drum-up support with minimal cash. If a candidate could motivate the geek crowd to his/her cause dusty old men like Ted Stevens would be sent packin' back to the tundra so he can look at his "bridge to nowhere"
Now, you say, if it's so easy, why don't you do it?! I am not old enough yet to run for either the Senate or HOR. When I can, you can bet I will. I am tired of the "all-talk no-action" I see here.
To the utter disdain of companies like Comcast and many telecom people in China, no one has truly figured out how to discern that there is actually skype traffic on their network much less block it -- this goes for everyone from a nosey IT admin, the govt, or an unfriendly ISP. On the otherhand, Comcast has put the kabosh on SIP from Vonage because it is easy to identify.
Skype should continue to improve on the efficiency and stealth of their protocol and improve the features of their client. Sadly, I think with eBay now owning Skype they may have lost that innovative spark.
WOAH! Hold on now, he rebufed the bill not because he doesn't feel the idea is right, just that it has no bussiness in a defense appropriations bill.
And, it's gonna take more than a last minute show of independence to convince me he is worthy of his seat. Let's not kid ourselves -- he and the other 2 "independents" buckled after only a week; Hardly a show of iron will.
Slashdot Mirror
the problem is two fold the way I see it. 1) The market wants tradesman programmers. Something like a carpenter who can just come in and build what the blue prints from the architect say to build. That's really what's happening to the market. It is cleaving into "practical" computing and "academic" computing. The other thing is, it is getting harder and harder to produce truly ground breaking work in CS. Seminal works like the Public Key Private Key exchange and RSA haven't occurred in recent memory (I am sure the ever diligent slashdot crowd could correct me). So, this brings me to a sibling field: Electrical Engineering. When I was working on my MS in CS, a huge portion of the work published and the very professors in the CS department were EEs! Even the field of CS where electronics benefits best (say, optimized wiring algorithms) is still done under the "CS" realm. And then, there is one of the massive trade publication that kinda speaks to this: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). How many of the papers published in their are about the latest in analog circuit design? Sure, there is plenty in there dealing with EE work specifically, but not much. And, finally, 30-40 percent of the people who write code along side of me are EEs.
My last employer took my accrued vacation (almost 2 weeks) saying I didn't give them a full 2 weeks notice (I tried for 3 days to get in touch with my manager). Another friend gave them 3 weeks notice and only had 2 days of vacation. He got his confiscated too. I am not too worried though -- I left the company because they decided they were going to move away from software contracting to ... home theater installation (insert Dr. Evil laugh here).
I can't speak for all project everywhere, but I write a lot of Java code and have a lot of recruiters calling me. And you know what, the technology they ask for is like a who's-who of Open Source in Java. Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Jboss, Ant, Tomcat, Lucene, MySql, Linux All open source. And if you have those skills, employers will beat a path to your door. I think the real reason these products are of such a good quality is that there is honest and very critical review of the source and design. There is also motivation to just throw it out when it makes sense. Let's face it, in corporate development there is no real forum to critique someone elses code. Infact, doing so usually makes you a new enemy and gets you a 1-on-1 with your manager for "interpersonal" skills. The Washington Post just posted an op-ed yesterday by Scott Rosenberg. The article is interesting in and of itself but look at the comments. Those are equally illuminating.
Very simple. Apple is contractually bound to segment the market by region -- this is for reasons of legality (Nazi music in France?) and marketing. By creating these artificial barriers the recording industry can charge 1 price for the music in India ($.05) and another in the US ($.99). The reason is a classic marketing tier. Americans can and are willing to pay $.99 and an Indian would never. If someone will pay more, why not charge more? On the other hand, you don't want to have American's buying the same songs for $.05. This is the Starbucks model, the DVD region encoding model, etc.
IS a country with leadership that can and will take the time to focus on DOMESTIC issues. As for how this one stacks against the rest, it's a low priority. Not that it shouldn't be addressed -- it's one of my pet peeves. However, you can't address ANY domestic issues when all your money, mental energy, time and focus is going into a war in a far-off land. Look how much domestically has been addressed since 9/11 -- change to prescription drugs in Medicare and widely considered a debacle.
Yep, and when you realize that you have sabotaged your career by tying it to dinosaur technology you can't blame anyone but yourself. COBOL was great for it's time -- of that I have no doubt. But, the reason the only guys you can get to work on an old OS/390 system isn't necessarily because they like OS/390, but they never changed with the times and diversified and that's all they are qualified to do. I don't know anyone who even knows anyone, who is written NEW COBOL code. So, maybe your thing is supporting someones 30 year old COBOL system -- a job fit for someone waiting to retire from the age of 25 forward.
recently a large chunk of metallic rock crashed into a house in NJ and embedded itself into the wall. Coincidence? I think not.
I am not sure if it's actually written into law, but routinely that very concept is brought up in court and the grounds that the patent holder has failed to enforce his rights and has thus forfeit them. I mean, it's not like bluetooth on a cell phone is a secret. It's advertised and sold on almost every phone by almost every provider.
Is someone to donate hosting, and find a little cash. Really, Wikipedia's only cost is hosting -- bandwidth and boxes. google could donate hosting service for them and just write it off. a few bucks to keep a core team operating it would be all you need for cash. Then, even if wiki never gets another fund, it can live forever beign hosted. Look at all the dead projects on sourceforge.
Here is a simple demonstration that can give concrete examples of how IP address does NOT equal person.
1) Buy a broadband router (LinkSys or whatever).
2) Take the router and plug it into the network in the courthouse. Every modern courthouse has an internet connection. (The clerk next to the judge likely has a PC with a connection)
3) Take your laptop and wirelessly connect to the router.
4) Goto: www.whatismyip.com to show everyone what your (public) IP address is.
5) Now, goto http://www.dnsstuff.com/ and lookup that IP. Since it's a govt issued IP it will likely say that under the whois.
6) Now, using whatever p2p app they say was used, go find that same music (or similarly infringing material) and download it. Right in front of the judge. When it's complete offer the judge your services in defense of copyright infringement.
1 caveat: they might be "blocking" that app from the courthouse; not likely though. The idea is just to show the judge, before his very eyes, that you can infringe copyright in that very courtroom and FRAME him for it!
Now offer to the judge that, especially since they claim the hard drive they received is not the one they expected, it is entirely possible that someone stole your client's (specifically omit wireless) connection, just like you did today in the courthouse. Maybe when the RIAA comes looking, this time they will come looking for the judges PC and not yours.
Wireless routers, for simplicity of setup, NEVER secure the wireless connection. No WEP key is required and there is no MAC filtering. This is default, out-of-the-box behavior straight from bestbuy. It's TRIVIAL to borrow someone else's connection and cause trouble. It isn't even always MALICIOUS! Your neighbor could accidentally connect to the wrong router (Many brands comes out of the box with an identical network name). Seeing is believing -- show them how easy it is.
Not the point. Sure, you're protected from fraud, but then if fraud is discovered they have to close the account which is a pain in the ass if you have recurring payments or pending payments. One-shot numbers prevent the hassle of having to essential switch to a whole new account.
Microsoft, counter to Steve Balmer's bluster, actually KILLS innovation in the market! After reading all the comments on this, it occurred to me that was the common theme -- and I must agree. They use their financial and market dominance to utterly crush any and all innovation; even internally!
Don't think for a minute some crazy Politician won't try and have a law like that passed. Think of the children!
I am a software engineer and I work with other "engineers" and I can tell you that this is the scenario we get put under all the time. For the good engineers it is never warranted, for the crap ones, it always is. Unfortunately we have no metric in this bussiness to weed-out the wheat from the chaffe. And, before you get to high-and-mighty about rocket scientists, don't forget that little fiasco with Lockheed measuring in inches and not centimeters and thus having a satellite blow.
The biggest reason for software failure is institutional: In this bussiness, there is a binary measure of quality; Works/doesn't work. The threshold for "works" is abysmally low. But anyone who writes code can tell you that how it's written will make all the difference. Unfortunately, there is NO way to sort out the wheat from the chaffe. Seriously, a recruiter looks at your resume, compares it to 300 other applicants with 5-7 years experience with "J2EE" (they have no idea what it means, just that they need to find people with it) and says I can afford to pay X. There is no way to distinguish the candidates by quality. This industry desperately needs a quality rubric and one that is followed. Perhaps if vendors were made liable for their product they would have incentive to improve.
I completely second this. I was a student teacher for just less than a year and I can tell you all of what Dave says it true in just my short time. I got to school at 7am and generally didn't leave until 5pm. Then I would spend half a day Saturday grading papers. And although it's not "required" it's expected that you will join all sorts of teacher/kid/parent clubs. But let's not forget that for your money you are: 1) Always in a fishbowl -- wait until you get hammered with your friends in a bar only to see the parents of some of your kids. 2) Go to the mall with your pals/gf/whoever and engage in a swear-a-thon only to get called on the carpet for it on Monday because some parent overheard you while they were out with their kids/your students. Everything you do and say is watched and listened to at every moment even when you don't 'work'. Misspell something and be ridiculed. And, my personal favorite: You get to live the childish highschool social competitions all over again -- now it's from the other side of the desk. You are caught half-way between administrators anxious to look good and parents who swear their little susie could not possibly have done XXX. On top of that, you are criminally responsible for reporting all signs of child abuse, which of course the parent will NEVER become belligerent with you when social services pays them a visit, and you have to live daily with the guilt of lettings great kids go home to shitty parents and there isn't much you can do. Teachers are given exclusive care (and responsibility) of societies most prized posession. On an immediate scale you risk jail time and lawsuits -- always a background hum -- and in the long run, your risk failing your community, country and humanity by not using everything in your power to better those kids -- despite having them for a limited time for 1 year. the future of the world rides on what we teach kids today. And if you think it's easy consider this: I got my undergrad in Elementary Education and given the above experiences (yes, they either happened to me or people I knew) I found that I was much more comfortable and capable with computers and got a MS in CS -- I make double what a comparable teacher would make. Sure, believe teachers are over paid for their work -- until you see them working some menial job in their "spare" time to make ends meet. You fuck your kids up at home with lack-of-love, drugs of all kinds (even prescription ones), and who knows what else, drop them off at school, and expect them to be the next president or Larry Ellison. More A's more Pay is some bean counter looking for ROI on teaching.
I have had my share of problems with PayPal. I bought a video card from a guy on eBay ($400) and paid immediately. Of course Paypal wants you to use your bank account to pay so they barely give any indication they are doing so. to change it to credit card is a per-transaction pain in the ass, but it's possible. So, I bought the card, but it turns out the guy must have been phished because within days he went from 99.7% feedback on 400+ auctions to 80% and all negative comments were with a week. Contacted eBay and paypal. eBay never got back to me, and Paypal finally did and essentially said: 'Yup, you're right, you did get screwed, but per the user agreement you accepted we don't owe you shit'. I submitted a report to the Virginia Attorney General, the FBI, the Michigan Attorney General (the guys PP bank account was there) and got no response from any of them. Now, I could get all pissy and never use paypal again but good luck doing business on ebay. So, now I am ever vigilant to change it to credit card and twice this has helped me recover funds. Paypal is great until there is a problem. All of them are great until their is a problem.
Let me start by saying: I am working on the NIST PKCS11 implementation (it will be public domain). THE PD12 is meant to unify identification and processing of government employees. So that you don't end up with several badges with different pictures and fingers prints, from numerous agencies. It's a simplification process and one that's long overdue. I am no bush fan, but people are barking up the wrong tree here. As far as national id cards go, it's just a matter of time. I see resonance here that might label me a troll but I will say it just the same: The slashdot crowd loves to howl about how the RIAA/MPAA is clinging to old and dying bussiness models when they should embrace new ones and stop fighting the inevitable. I completely agree. I also see that the slashdot crowd has a tendency to cling to the more anonymous days before national id's and smart cards. Come to grips with the fact that it will become harder and harder to fake your identity (as it should be) and learn to embrace it. Did anyone ever think that smart cards could come damn close to wiping out identity theft (if used correctly)? Why should I have to get a different drivers license for a new state? Did I forget how to drive? Am I a different person now that I moved? A national id can put an end to the hodge-podge nature of governing in this enormous country. Now, I have always said that "Everyone has something to hide" and I still hold to that for those who say they don't. Don't forget though: Your smart card can encrypt everything you do online and depending on the encryption used, can't be cracked in our lifetime. It is for this very reason that the NSA and FBI desperately attempted (and still do) to prevent the export of RSA encryption abroad -- classifying it as a munition on the same scale as a nuclear weapon. Slashdot is definately a democratic leaning site: It was Bill Clinton who wanted a "clipper chip" back door (read the book Crypto). And, if you want a secret identity, your smart card can support multiple identities. You can have an alternative that only you and your friends in a web-of-trust know about and accept. In real-life I am XXX but on slashdot I am sideswipe76. Freedom of speech has never meant freedom from all consequences of that speech. Look at Martin Luther King -- the man excercised his freedom of speech and brought revolution to the US against the wishes of many of those high-up in government. He also paid with his life not to the government but to James Earl Ray.
PD12 is about getting all federal agencies down to 1 process of identification -- a unified system -- so that you don't have 7 cards for 4 agencies, with 3 pictures and 5 different finger prints taken by different agencies. I am strongly anti-bush, but you are just way barking up the wrong tree. I actually work on the project for NIST.
Actually, you encrypt with THEIR public key and not your signature. Your signature is a Private Key operation. The PIV Card is a huge improvement over the CAC cards.
UWB is actually meant to eventually take over for your monitor cabling too. As for interference, it operates across a very wide spectrum (hence the UWB) using spread-spectrum technology, and the distance is due to very low power allowance it has been given to comply with FCC limits. The purpose really is to replace everything but the electrical chords.
There are plenty of people who despise what copyright has become here in the US and elsewhere. The EFF files pointless lawsuits against the DOD in the name of people like slashdotters. We, those of us who whish to rollback copyright, will continue to lose this battle if all we do is sit here and talk smack. The EFF can better serve itself and it's community using more awareness campaigns -- showing the average mac user why iTunes is bad, in simple terms. Not going after a govt institution backed by an administration hell-bent on secrecy. And finally, some slashdotters need to pony-up and run for office!! Slashdotters are armed with enormous technological understanding -- something modern politicians have not even begun to harness. What about running your campaign page from myspace? Get community involvement YouTube style and have supporters submit ads for your campaign and dig up dirt on the other guy. Use the P2P-bittorent-hivemind-google approach to drum-up support with minimal cash. If a candidate could motivate the geek crowd to his/her cause dusty old men like Ted Stevens would be sent packin' back to the tundra so he can look at his "bridge to nowhere" Now, you say, if it's so easy, why don't you do it?! I am not old enough yet to run for either the Senate or HOR. When I can, you can bet I will. I am tired of the "all-talk no-action" I see here.
To the utter disdain of companies like Comcast and many telecom people in China, no one has truly figured out how to discern that there is actually skype traffic on their network much less block it -- this goes for everyone from a nosey IT admin, the govt, or an unfriendly ISP. On the otherhand, Comcast has put the kabosh on SIP from Vonage because it is easy to identify. Skype should continue to improve on the efficiency and stealth of their protocol and improve the features of their client. Sadly, I think with eBay now owning Skype they may have lost that innovative spark.
WOAH! Hold on now, he rebufed the bill not because he doesn't feel the idea is right, just that it has no bussiness in a defense appropriations bill. And, it's gonna take more than a last minute show of independence to convince me he is worthy of his seat. Let's not kid ourselves -- he and the other 2 "independents" buckled after only a week; Hardly a show of iron will.
Yeah, then follow it up with a motion for discovery.