The repercussions of violating privacy are much higher for Google than they are for other companies. Therefore logic dictates that Google will do more to prevent these violations.
If the typical company lets your private data get out (and as I'm sure you know, many have) they still have products to sell. Google's product *is* that data. They have nothing else. If the data gets away from them *or* if they lose the confidence of the public to keep it safe, Google is out of business, the end for them.
Do you want your data held by a company that specializes in making consumer electronics, or a company that specializes in *data*?
you say: Google is nowhere near as protective of my privacy as Apple
i say: Google has more reason to protect your privacy than basically any other company, including Apple....and you think that we are saying the same thing. hrmmmm.
...assumed Google was nowhere near as protective of my privacy as Apple...
Why on earth would you think that?
Google's entire business model is based on the data they collect. It is their most precious resource. Anything that reduces their ability to collect this data is a direct threat to their existence. This is not at all true of Apple.
Google has more reason to protect your privacy than basically any other company.
Consumer grade tech is much cheaper and far more readily available... While the devices may break more often, replacements and spare parts are easily acquired when necessary.
We're talking about field equipment used by law enforcement here. An officer in pursuit of a suspect, responding to an emergency, etc is not going to just pop into the local best buy and replace critical equipment.
The cheaper cost and more rapid replacement also makes it easier to upgrade to newer devices in the future, rather than being stuck with ancient legacy devices that cannot easily adapt to changing needs and end up being resented by the people who use them.
I'm not sure what the origin of this straw man is, but the officers I work with are quite happy with the devices currently in use. They have access to a wide variety of county and state services, with new capabilities being added quite often. For instance, they recently added the ability to do an on scene photo line up that allows victims to identify suspects only moments after they have been apprehended (and without having to confront the suspect personally, a major roadblock to getting charges brought against criminals involved in gang related activity). Trust me, the officers do *not* resent being given tools that help them get these guys off the street.
Also, employees are far more likely to already be familiar with consumer devices, and thus require less training on their use.
Training is part of an officer's life and it goes far beyond what someone would pick up just using something around the house anyway. This is why they are given quite a bit of driving instruction despite most likely being familiar with how to operate an automobile in a civilian capacity. They learn how to operate their weapons, communications and computing equipment in a way that is very different than someone would use a device in their home. This will be true regardless of whether their equipment is a consumer grade device or a professional tool.
And while some of these specialised devices may be "highly refined", this is often not the case... Many may do their existing job well, but are difficult to adapt for changing requirements and will serve new purposes very badly or not at all. Similarly because such devices are highly specialized there are very few suppliers of them and the market is very hard to break into, so you often end up with devices suffering from many serious flaws and no willingness from the manufacturers to fix them because they have you locked in anyway.
Vendor lock in is obviously not a concern here, as they have selected Apple devices.
Consider the parallel with desktop computers... Mainframes and highend unix systems with dumb terminals were reliable, powerful, easy to centrally manage and yet they got replaced by cheap individual non redundant desktop computers running extremely fragile and easily damaged software...
In cases where lives depend on computing, you will absolutely will not find consumer grade PCs used for critical roles. You will however find quite a few mainframes and high end unix systems.
Valid point. I helped the local public safety and pd departments deploy "MDT"s nearly 10 years ago. Some of the original equipment is still in use and AFAIK nearly all of it was retired in upgrades, not because of failure. They are rugged, actually somewhat indestructible. They have hardware and software interfaces tailored to the unique demands of an officer in the field and are well proven.
Using flashy consumer grade tech toys in the field sounds like an uninformed executive's special recipe for failure. It's very hard to imagine what possible advantage a general purpose, light duty device would have over the highly refined and specialized solutions that are available (and have been in use since long before the current tech fads).
"...make your own (including source code)... We're hoping to make Pinoccio the perfect platform for Software Developers to learn how to hack on DIY hardware"
So you are using Apple's closed and tightly controlled ecosystem in your "DIY" open source project?
How does this make any sense? Isn't the Apple platform specifically designed to *prevent* experimentation by hackers? After all, controlling and censoring software is pretty much their main thing. Why would anyone use Apple products in an open project?
Sending a kid to a CS-101 type introductory class will very likely bore him to tears and possibly give him a lasting negative impression of programming.
Why not help him pick a reasonable goal (somewhere in between "make a web page" and "write a new operating system) and then just let him code. Programming well isn't something you learn in a classroom, its learned by coding poorly a whole lot, and then learning how to do it better, and then learning how to do it even better, again a whole lot. At some point in that process a classroom might be involved and might even help, but not at the beginning.
1 - The market was quite different 13 years ago 2 - 50 is quite different than the OP's age. He is proposing this change around 62. Thats 12 less years of work in the eyes of any potential employer. 3 - The exception proves the rule, you're very special, and so on...
Of all the careers you could pursue late in life, IT is probably going to be near the top of the "not gunna happen" pile. You'll be up against people fresh out of school who work cheap and people (only) half your age who have tons of experience. Where would you fit in? What makes you appealing to a potential employer given the choice of you or the other guy? I truly believe the best advice is to reconsider this idea altogether. Try management?
Let me start by fully admitting I am new to the device and may just not be finding things that do exist.
Things I used to do daily on my Android phone and haven't found an app for:
SSH client that works on WP8 RDP client that works on WP8 Google Talk client that actually works (found gchat but it disconnects a lot and never manages to bring in chat history so you just lose whatever messages happened while its d/c) IRC client that stays connected while using other apps.. It seems they *all* lose connection the minute you switch away. WiFi analyzer/basic networking troubleshooting tools Google Voice client, or any reasonable alternative client+service Audio book player (not just a music player, but a player that is designed for audiobooks.. Bookmarking, intelligent back/forward controls, speed adjustment etc) Several amateur radio related apps, psk31 rtty sstv websdr etc.. These are sort of a niche I guess but Android has lots of great tools for hams. Games in the style of kairosoft.. Building/strategy type. Basically haven't found a good time waster.
Maybe I am just looking in the wrong places.. Maybe these things will come. There are many things I do like about wp8 so I hope so.
"At times like these, I'm happy to have a Windows Phone."
Ok... but what about all the rest of the time? I was given an HTC 8x at work and asked to research the platform.. trying to use it as a daily driver and its just so frustrating coming from Android. You never realize how important a thriving app ecosystem is until you try to live with WP. I can deal with the wonky notifications and the limited "live tiles" vs widgets.. I guess. But looking through the app store is just depressing.
"I think it is ridiculous to test OO languages for performance, as they never directly talks with the hardware."
I think this probably says a lot about why you are having such poor results. In this particular case I don't think you would find things any better with C# or any other platform, as the problem is clearly not the language.
"At least with all the other platforms you know where you stand."
Yes, but where you stand with platforms like Apple is considerably worse than anything Google has done so far, and basically already as bad as anything Google could possibly do going forward.
"With Android it seems you never know when Google will up and change anything."
Which is different from Apple, RIM, etc how exactly?
I'm not saying Google's system is great, but to call it the "least attractive" platform for being a little bit like the locked down corporation controlled platforms that are the alternative is just silly. It's less attractive, but still miles ahead of the other choices.
its pretty much as dumb as they get, just hit the ufo cats and they make noise and fly around. done as a learning experiment. kids do seem to love it though.
It seems like you are missing the OP's point. Good programmers code all the time *regardless* of whether the nature of their job lends time to it. They *do* jump into it in their off-time.
The fact that you haven't is a strong indicator that programming is not for you.
The Latin adverb sic ("thus"; in full: sic erat scriptum, "thus it had been written") added immediately after a quoted word or phrase (or a longer piece of text), indicates that the quotation has been transcribed exactly as found in the original source, complete with any erroneous spelling or other nonstandard presentation.
if you live where there are few people, you must either pay a premium for dedicated services or go without. this isn't new. unless I've missed something, the telcos have no obligation to lose money servicing a handful of remote locations.
if you chose to live in the middle of nothing, you probably are not surprised by the lack of off broadway shows, public transportation, and a wide variety of other things that require a certain population to turn a profit. why should telco services be any different.
Slashdot Mirror
Its fairly simple.
The repercussions of violating privacy are much higher for Google than they are for other companies. Therefore logic dictates that Google will do more to prevent these violations.
If the typical company lets your private data get out (and as I'm sure you know, many have) they still have products to sell. Google's product *is* that data. They have nothing else. If the data gets away from them *or* if they lose the confidence of the public to keep it safe, Google is out of business, the end for them.
Do you want your data held by a company that specializes in making consumer electronics, or a company that specializes in *data*?
Is your question meant to be moronic?
you say: Google is nowhere near as protective of my privacy as Apple
i say: Google has more reason to protect your privacy than basically any other company, including Apple ....and you think that we are saying the same thing. hrmmmm.
...assumed Google was nowhere near as protective of my privacy as Apple...
Why on earth would you think that?
Google's entire business model is based on the data they collect. It is their most precious resource. Anything that reduces their ability to collect this data is a direct threat to their existence. This is not at all true of Apple.
Google has more reason to protect your privacy than basically any other company.
There are also no PCI slots and a serious lack of available 5.25 in drive bays. WTF microsoft?!?
Consumer grade tech is much cheaper and far more readily available... While the devices may break more often, replacements and spare parts are easily acquired when necessary.
We're talking about field equipment used by law enforcement here. An officer in pursuit of a suspect, responding to an emergency, etc is not going to just pop into the local best buy and replace critical equipment.
The cheaper cost and more rapid replacement also makes it easier to upgrade to newer devices in the future, rather than being stuck with ancient legacy devices that cannot easily adapt to changing needs and end up being resented by the people who use them.
I'm not sure what the origin of this straw man is, but the officers I work with are quite happy with the devices currently in use. They have access to a wide variety of county and state services, with new capabilities being added quite often. For instance, they recently added the ability to do an on scene photo line up that allows victims to identify suspects only moments after they have been apprehended (and without having to confront the suspect personally, a major roadblock to getting charges brought against criminals involved in gang related activity). Trust me, the officers do *not* resent being given tools that help them get these guys off the street.
Also, employees are far more likely to already be familiar with consumer devices, and thus require less training on their use.
Training is part of an officer's life and it goes far beyond what someone would pick up just using something around the house anyway. This is why they are given quite a bit of driving instruction despite most likely being familiar with how to operate an automobile in a civilian capacity. They learn how to operate their weapons, communications and computing equipment in a way that is very different than someone would use a device in their home. This will be true regardless of whether their equipment is a consumer grade device or a professional tool.
And while some of these specialised devices may be "highly refined", this is often not the case... Many may do their existing job well, but are difficult to adapt for changing requirements and will serve new purposes very badly or not at all. Similarly because such devices are highly specialized there are very few suppliers of them and the market is very hard to break into, so you often end up with devices suffering from many serious flaws and no willingness from the manufacturers to fix them because they have you locked in anyway.
Vendor lock in is obviously not a concern here, as they have selected Apple devices.
Consider the parallel with desktop computers... Mainframes and highend unix systems with dumb terminals were reliable, powerful, easy to centrally manage and yet they got replaced by cheap individual non redundant desktop computers running extremely fragile and easily damaged software...
In cases where lives depend on computing, you will absolutely will not find consumer grade PCs used for critical roles. You will however find quite a few mainframes and high end unix systems.
Valid point. I helped the local public safety and pd departments deploy "MDT"s nearly 10 years ago. Some of the original equipment is still in use and AFAIK nearly all of it was retired in upgrades, not because of failure. They are rugged, actually somewhat indestructible. They have hardware and software interfaces tailored to the unique demands of an officer in the field and are well proven.
Using flashy consumer grade tech toys in the field sounds like an uninformed executive's special recipe for failure. It's very hard to imagine what possible advantage a general purpose, light duty device would have over the highly refined and specialized solutions that are available (and have been in use since long before the current tech fads).
So they will "save millions of dollars" by spending how much exactly? I'm sure it adds up if you use the new math.
"We used the iPhone.."
"...make your own (including source code)... We're hoping to make Pinoccio the perfect platform for Software Developers to learn how to hack on DIY hardware"
So you are using Apple's closed and tightly controlled ecosystem in your "DIY" open source project?
How does this make any sense? Isn't the Apple platform specifically designed to *prevent* experimentation by hackers? After all, controlling and censoring software is pretty much their main thing. Why would anyone use Apple products in an open project?
Sending a kid to a CS-101 type introductory class will very likely bore him to tears and possibly give him a lasting negative impression of programming.
Why not help him pick a reasonable goal (somewhere in between "make a web page" and "write a new operating system) and then just let him code. Programming well isn't something you learn in a classroom, its learned by coding poorly a whole lot, and then learning how to do it better, and then learning how to do it even better, again a whole lot. At some point in that process a classroom might be involved and might even help, but not at the beginning.
1 - The market was quite different 13 years ago
2 - 50 is quite different than the OP's age. He is proposing this change around 62. Thats 12 less years of work in the eyes of any potential employer.
3 - The exception proves the rule, you're very special, and so on...
Of all the careers you could pursue late in life, IT is probably going to be near the top of the "not gunna happen" pile.
You'll be up against people fresh out of school who work cheap and people (only) half your age who have tons of experience.
Where would you fit in? What makes you appealing to a potential employer given the choice of you or the other guy?
I truly believe the best advice is to reconsider this idea altogether. Try management?
Let me start by fully admitting I am new to the device and may just not be finding things that do exist.
Things I used to do daily on my Android phone and haven't found an app for:
SSH client that works on WP8
RDP client that works on WP8
Google Talk client that actually works (found gchat but it disconnects a lot and never manages to bring in chat history so you just lose whatever messages happened while its d/c)
IRC client that stays connected while using other apps.. It seems they *all* lose connection the minute you switch away.
WiFi analyzer/basic networking troubleshooting tools
Google Voice client, or any reasonable alternative client+service
Audio book player (not just a music player, but a player that is designed for audiobooks.. Bookmarking, intelligent back/forward controls, speed adjustment etc)
Several amateur radio related apps, psk31 rtty sstv websdr etc.. These are sort of a niche I guess but Android has lots of great tools for hams.
Games in the style of kairosoft.. Building/strategy type. Basically haven't found a good time waster.
Maybe I am just looking in the wrong places.. Maybe these things will come. There are many things I do like about wp8 so I hope so.
"At times like these, I'm happy to have a Windows Phone."
Ok... but what about all the rest of the time? I was given an HTC 8x at work and asked to research the platform.. trying to use it as a daily driver and its just so frustrating coming from Android. You never realize how important a thriving app ecosystem is until you try to live with WP. I can deal with the wonky notifications and the limited "live tiles" vs widgets.. I guess. But looking through the app store is just depressing.
"I think it is ridiculous to test OO languages for performance, as they never directly talks with the hardware."
I think this probably says a lot about why you are having such poor results. In this particular case I don't think you would find things any better with C# or any other platform, as the problem is clearly not the language.
teach a man to fish and he'll just ask you how to do something else
"Despite common stereotypes, programming is not out of reach for the average person"
I think this just shows how little Wiggins knows about the average person.
"can point on a screen, the pointing will trigger some sort of action on screen, maybe a sound, and they will be amused."
Pretty much sums up 95% of tablet usage across *all* ages of users.
"At least with all the other platforms you know where you stand."
Yes, but where you stand with platforms like Apple is considerably worse than anything Google has done so far, and basically already as bad as anything Google could possibly do going forward.
"With Android it seems you never know when Google will up and change anything."
Which is different from Apple, RIM, etc how exactly?
I'm not saying Google's system is great, but to call it the "least attractive" platform for being a little bit like the locked down corporation controlled platforms that are the alternative is just silly. It's less attractive, but still miles ahead of the other choices.
http://aaronwolfe.com/a
its pretty much as dumb as they get, just hit the ufo cats and they make noise and fly around. done as a learning experiment.
kids do seem to love it though.
It seems like you are missing the OP's point. Good programmers code all the time *regardless* of whether the nature of their job lends time to it. They *do* jump into it in their off-time.
The fact that you haven't is a strong indicator that programming is not for you.
Actually, it is very much an appropriate use of "sic". The only problem here is that sic doesn't mean quite what you think it does.
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic
The Latin adverb sic ("thus"; in full: sic erat scriptum, "thus it had been written") added immediately after a quoted word or phrase (or a longer piece of text), indicates that the quotation has been transcribed exactly as found in the original source, complete with any erroneous spelling or other nonstandard presentation.
ignorant troll
if you live where there are few people, you must either pay a premium for dedicated services or go without.
this isn't new. unless I've missed something, the telcos have no obligation to lose money servicing a handful of remote locations.
if you chose to live in the middle of nothing, you probably are not surprised by the lack of off broadway shows, public transportation, and a wide variety of other things that require a certain population to turn a profit. why should telco services be any different.
ah. suppose nothing can be done about that then.
cheers.
Why so angry? I've noticed there are some who react this way, never understood it but would like to.