When you work in a building with 10,000 other people, stuff disappears. Happens ALL THE TIME and more-or-less impossible to track. If I had an RFID tag on my laptop and someone walks out with it, I could match the time the RFID went out the door with the time on the security camera covering said door...and bingo.
Your argument makes sense on the surface, but what doesn't make sense is the amount of money they're putting into a sales model that's 50 years old. If they had half a brain, they'd play a snipit on the radio (15 secs is bound to be much cheaper than 3 minutes) and entice the listener to visit their web site and download the whole song for 50 cents... or three for a dollar.
Yup... I work at one of the largest banks in the US. We have change black-outs at the end of the month. I had to delay a change from last Thursday to last night because of this. It's also a huge no-no to make a change over a holiday weekend although I guess Canada doesn't observe memorial day. However I'm not a mainframe guy, which goes by different rules. I think there are some changes on main-frames that (for whatever reason) must happen at the turn of the month.
My boss chewed me out once for "wasting an entire day" creating some scripts that would backup all the scripts on one of the servers. About a month later there was a major failure and the SAs weren't able to restore from the back-up tapes. I was gloating for a while after that. It certainly saved me from rewriting all my ksh and sql scripts over again.
"Welcome to McDonalds, can I take your order?"
"Yes, I'd like a Big Mac, large fry, small diet coke, and filler-up with McDiesel."
"Would you like to Biggie-size that to include an oil change?"
I had the same experience. I use a linksys router but a DLink card. But I've heard from other geeks that enabling security doesn't slow them down. What's the deal? Should it have that much of an impact? Is this a cross-vendor problem or is wireless security really that slow?
Sounds like MAC filtering is the way to go to prevent access (except passive snooping.)
In one of James Burke's documentaries he talked about Britian basically "inventing" the fabric dying process (maybe in the early 1800s) but British industry never did anything with it. The Germans jumped on it and cornered the dying/fabric market, which bootstrapped their economy into the powerhouse it became until their defeat in WWI. So it does seem the UK has a track record here...
I think you have the logic backwards. They care who is using their browser so MUCH that they were willing to give it away. They care so MUCH that they included the browser with the OS. The more people who use their browser, the more people they can influence/control how they browse the web.
I use to run a pro-sound company and we would usually have blown drivers laying around. If I wanted to show someone how a driver works, I would take a blown driver, cut the surround and spider, take it apart, point to the different parts (cone, magnet, coil) and explain the theory. Then I'd take a good speaker and give a demonstration, starting with the fact that a constant current (i.e. DC) creates a magnetic field that pushes the cone in or out depending on the polarity. This is easily done with a 9v battery. (BE CAREFUL! If you do this with some cheap-o home or car speaker you could blow it!) When you apply the 9v battery to the driver, you can see the cone move up or down and it's easy to visualize the magnetic field being generated by the coil pushing or pulling on the magnet. Next I take a cheap sine wave generator (you can get kits that cost $10) and set the frequency to maybe 5Hz (you can find cheap multi-meters that measure Hz). The point here isn't to listen (you can't) but to see the cone moving in and out. This helps the student see that the signal going to a speaker is alternating current (AC) and it quickly moves the speaker back and forth. Higher frequencies move the cone so little or so fast that it's difficult for the student to understand what's happening. So starting with a low frequency and then turning up the frequency helps the student see exactly why the speaker is making sound. The bigger the speaker the better this demonstration works. I usually had 15" drivers to mess with and you can really see the cone move at frequencies below 20. Have fun.
I'd say the BBB is the first thing to try. It will work but don't expect quick results. Usually takes about 4-8 weeks depending.
I had a pager company send me a bill for a pager 2 YEARS after I closed the account. When I closed the account they specifically told me to keep the pager. Then after returning the pager they kept sending me bills and finally went to a collections agency despite my receipt stating I had returned the stupid thing. After filing a complaint with the BBB they finally cleared my account.
Unless you're actually expected to provide entire MIS solutions, like my MIS group was responsible for, in which case it's handy to know database design and programming (SQL), write custom web pages to get user data for more specific queries (asp, vb, html, javascript, ADO), or you're expected to generate flat files out of a database in nightly jobs on a unix box (kron script, perl, java, awk/sed, SQL*Plus, PL/SQL).
Well, you get the idea. I've worked in several programming areas (I'm a telephony programmer now...) and the most coding I ever did was in the MIS group.
-Steve --My dog ate my sig.
That may be the case for Tech call centers or out-sourced call centers but not ALL call centers. I work in a very large call center in a major financial corporation. We have top notch customer service. Yes, they look at average call time but not at the individual level. They grade the reps by how much time they spend on the phone, not the number of calls or the average length of those calls.
My job as a programmer is to use technology to bring the AHT (average handling time) down as much as possible any way we can.
Right now I'm working on a project that would lower the AHT for 5% of the calls by 3-5 seconds. That may seem miniscule but at our call volume, that could save half a million dollars a year. Unfortunatly I don't get a cut but I'm also not going to get laid-off anytime soon.
----
Thank you for holding, My sig will be with you in a moment...
I agree...some people listen to some of his solo lines and think "that sounds sloppy." True. But they kept it because it had feeling. If there's any doubt about his ability to play FLAWLESSLY, just listen to Bron-Yr-Aur, which is played in an ALTERNATE TUNING!!! I tried to learn it once.... I gave up. Too hard. (...and I use to be able to play most Van Halen stuff.) Jimmy Page is an amazing guitar player.
-Steve
-----
This Sig best viewed in a drunken stupor.
Back in 1988 I pulled the guts out of a sabine tuner and built it into my Ibanez guitar. I had the Sharp/Flat/In-Tune LEDs on the front of the pick plate and the rest of the 12 leds on the back of the guitar.
A guy I knew who was more of an engineer than I suggested hooking up a small moter(s) to the fine tune of the floating bridge to have to sharp/flat signals turn the little screws and automatically put it in tune.
I'm surprised it took this long to come out with an autotune guitar.
Just make sure the auto-tune doesn't kick in when you hit the whammy bar!
-Steve
------
This sig best viewd in a drunken stupor
I'm a programmer in a call center in a bank.
You're correct. It's much easier to collect information and start the identity theft process. Getting someone's credit card out of a mail box can be very difficult.
However, a change of address is a "red flag" transaction in a call center. The phone reps have to ask additional verification questions and are trained to spot "trouble" with the person on the phone. It's not unusual for them to call the phone number on the account (gosh...why does my bank need my phone number...duh!) and ask if the address change is correct. My point...giving your personal information to a bank is a GOOD thing. Giving your SSN or date of birth to a guy selling magazines door to door....idiotic.
They don't authenticate in ANY way that I'm aware of.
What bank are you with?
I'm a programmer in a call center for a major financial institution. Any credit card activation must come from your HOME PHONE or else you have to talk to a rep and provide THREE pieces of information (date or birth, mothers maiden name, etc. etc.) ALL the big banks work this way.
The issue here is how to draw the lines between convenience, security, and privacy. Banks are probably the most secure place to put your personal information. I'm not saying they won't use the personal information for in-house marketing, but they're sure as HELL not going to sell it or release it. They have to collect SSN, date of birth, etc. I do a lot of database programming and we have an internal group that audits the information in them. If we have too much sensitive information compiled in one place (other than mainframe...) or our boxes have security holes, our application gets shut down until it's fixed. Oh and then there's the OCC which also does audits on banks to make sure all their systems and software and processes are up to snuff to make sure information is secure.
Yes, we record conversations but not every one. If you call about your personall account, there's very little chance it's being recorded. (BTW, the phone rep WONT know if it's being recorded...random quality checks...). The calls that are ALWAYS recorded are for commercial and corporate accounts. ALWAYS! Why? Because the law says we have to for business accounts. All banks do. The recordings are digital, on a computer, in a secure server room. I helped install the hardware and I don't even have access to listen to them.
So to wrap up my long-winded point.... when it comes to privacy and your personal information, banks are the least of your worries.
Slashdot Mirror
When you work in a building with 10,000 other people, stuff disappears. Happens ALL THE TIME and more-or-less impossible to track. If I had an RFID tag on my laptop and someone walks out with it, I could match the time the RFID went out the door with the time on the security camera covering said door...and bingo.
Your argument makes sense on the surface, but what doesn't make sense is the amount of money they're putting into a sales model that's 50 years old. If they had half a brain, they'd play a snipit on the radio (15 secs is bound to be much cheaper than 3 minutes) and entice the listener to visit their web site and download the whole song for 50 cents... or three for a dollar.
Yup... I work at one of the largest banks in the US. We have change black-outs at the end of the month. I had to delay a change from last Thursday to last night because of this. It's also a huge no-no to make a change over a holiday weekend although I guess Canada doesn't observe memorial day. However I'm not a mainframe guy, which goes by different rules. I think there are some changes on main-frames that (for whatever reason) must happen at the turn of the month.
Even things that you have to have in order to live are toxic!
My boss chewed me out once for "wasting an entire day" creating some scripts that would backup all the scripts on one of the servers. About a month later there was a major failure and the SAs weren't able to restore from the back-up tapes. I was gloating for a while after that. It certainly saved me from rewriting all my ksh and sql scripts over again.
"Welcome to McDonalds, can I take your order?"
"Yes, I'd like a Big Mac, large fry, small diet coke, and filler-up with McDiesel."
"Would you like to Biggie-size that to include an oil change?"
I had the same experience. I use a linksys router but a DLink card. But I've heard from other geeks that enabling security doesn't slow them down. What's the deal? Should it have that much of an impact? Is this a cross-vendor problem or is wireless security really that slow? Sounds like MAC filtering is the way to go to prevent access (except passive snooping.)
In one of James Burke's documentaries he talked about Britian basically "inventing" the fabric dying process (maybe in the early 1800s) but British industry never did anything with it. The Germans jumped on it and cornered the dying/fabric market, which bootstrapped their economy into the powerhouse it became until their defeat in WWI.
So it does seem the UK has a track record here...
I think you have the logic backwards. They care who is using their browser so MUCH that they were willing to give it away. They care so MUCH that they included the browser with the OS.
The more people who use their browser, the more people they can influence/control how they browse the web.
I for one welcome our new molecular nanotechnology overlords.... OK... go ahead and mod me down... I deserve it.
I use to run a pro-sound company and we would usually have blown drivers laying around. If I wanted to show someone how a driver works, I would take a blown driver, cut the surround and spider, take it apart, point to the different parts (cone, magnet, coil) and explain the theory. Then I'd take a good speaker and give a demonstration, starting with the fact that a constant current (i.e. DC) creates a magnetic field that pushes the cone in or out depending on the polarity. This is easily done with a 9v battery. (BE CAREFUL! If you do this with some cheap-o home or car speaker you could blow it!) When you apply the 9v battery to the driver, you can see the cone move up or down and it's easy to visualize the magnetic field being generated by the coil pushing or pulling on the magnet.
Next I take a cheap sine wave generator (you can get kits that cost $10) and set the frequency to maybe 5Hz (you can find cheap multi-meters that measure Hz). The point here isn't to listen (you can't) but to see the cone moving in and out. This helps the student see that the signal going to a speaker is alternating current (AC) and it quickly moves the speaker back and forth. Higher frequencies move the cone so little or so fast that it's difficult for the student to understand what's happening. So starting with a low frequency and then turning up the frequency helps the student see exactly why the speaker is making sound. The bigger the speaker the better this demonstration works. I usually had 15" drivers to mess with and you can really see the cone move at frequencies below 20.
Have fun.
WHA?!? You think you're some kind of Jedi???
Six Thousand Years?!?!?
Neal Stephenson, eat your heart out.
I'd say the BBB is the first thing to try. It will work but don't expect quick results. Usually takes about 4-8 weeks depending.
I had a pager company send me a bill for a pager 2 YEARS after I closed the account. When I closed the account they specifically told me to keep the pager. Then after returning the pager they kept sending me bills and finally went to a collections agency despite my receipt stating I had returned the stupid thing. After filing a complaint with the BBB they finally cleared my account.
Unless you're actually expected to provide entire MIS solutions, like my MIS group was responsible for, in which case it's handy to know database design and programming (SQL), write custom web pages to get user data for more specific queries (asp, vb, html, javascript, ADO), or you're expected to generate flat files out of a database in nightly jobs on a unix box (kron script, perl, java, awk/sed, SQL*Plus, PL/SQL).
Well, you get the idea. I've worked in several programming areas (I'm a telephony programmer now...) and the most coding I ever did was in the MIS group.
-Steve
--My dog ate my sig.
That may be the case for Tech call centers or out-sourced call centers but not ALL call centers. I work in a very large call center in a major financial corporation. We have top notch customer service. Yes, they look at average call time but not at the individual level. They grade the reps by how much time they spend on the phone, not the number of calls or the average length of those calls.
My job as a programmer is to use technology to bring the AHT (average handling time) down as much as possible any way we can.
Right now I'm working on a project that would lower the AHT for 5% of the calls by 3-5 seconds. That may seem miniscule but at our call volume, that could save half a million dollars a year. Unfortunatly I don't get a cut but I'm also not going to get laid-off anytime soon.
----
Thank you for holding, My sig will be with you in a moment...
I agree...some people listen to some of his solo lines and think "that sounds sloppy." True. But they kept it because it had feeling. If there's any doubt about his ability to play FLAWLESSLY, just listen to Bron-Yr-Aur, which is played in an ALTERNATE TUNING!!! I tried to learn it once.... I gave up. Too hard. (...and I use to be able to play most Van Halen stuff.)
Jimmy Page is an amazing guitar player.
-Steve
-----
This Sig best viewed in a drunken stupor.
12 full steps = 1,000,000 cents = $10,000 = cost of rehab.....
Back in 1988 I pulled the guts out of a sabine tuner and built it into my Ibanez guitar. I had the Sharp/Flat/In-Tune LEDs on the front of the pick plate and the rest of the 12 leds on the back of the guitar.
A guy I knew who was more of an engineer than I suggested hooking up a small moter(s) to the fine tune of the floating bridge to have to sharp/flat signals turn the little screws and automatically put it in tune.
I'm surprised it took this long to come out with an autotune guitar.
Just make sure the auto-tune doesn't kick in when you hit the whammy bar!
-Steve
------
This sig best viewd in a drunken stupor
I'm a programmer in a call center in a bank.
You're correct. It's much easier to collect information and start the identity theft process. Getting someone's credit card out of a mail box can be very difficult.
However, a change of address is a "red flag" transaction in a call center. The phone reps have to ask additional verification questions and are trained to spot "trouble" with the person on the phone. It's not unusual for them to call the phone number on the account (gosh...why does my bank need my phone number...duh!) and ask if the address change is correct.
My point...giving your personal information to a bank is a GOOD thing. Giving your SSN or date of birth to a guy selling magazines door to door....idiotic.
I'm a programmer in a call center for a major financial institution. Any credit card activation must come from your HOME PHONE or else you have to talk to a rep and provide THREE pieces of information (date or birth, mothers maiden name, etc. etc.) ALL the big banks work this way.
The issue here is how to draw the lines between convenience, security, and privacy. Banks are probably the most secure place to put your personal information. I'm not saying they won't use the personal information for in-house marketing, but they're sure as HELL not going to sell it or release it. They have to collect SSN, date of birth, etc.
I do a lot of database programming and we have an internal group that audits the information in them. If we have too much sensitive information compiled in one place (other than mainframe...) or our boxes have security holes, our application gets shut down until it's fixed. Oh and then there's the OCC which also does audits on banks to make sure all their systems and software and processes are up to snuff to make sure information is secure.
Yes, we record conversations but not every one. If you call about your personall account, there's very little chance it's being recorded. (BTW, the phone rep WONT know if it's being recorded...random quality checks...). The calls that are ALWAYS recorded are for commercial and corporate accounts. ALWAYS! Why? Because the law says we have to for business accounts. All banks do. The recordings are digital, on a computer, in a secure server room. I helped install the hardware and I don't even have access to listen to them.
So to wrap up my long-winded point.... when it comes to privacy and your personal information, banks are the least of your worries.
This could lead to all kinds of new rides:
It's Bills world after all.
Pirates of Carri^H^H^H^H^H Silicon Valley.
Blue Screen of Death - The Ride!!
I wonder if Epcot would get a Blue Screen of Death ride?