Well, I agree with your edited version as well. I'm on company property, working with company resources. They have a right to monitor my compliance. I don't see a consitutional issue.
Most people simply don't understand that there is virtually no right to privacy outside your home. Whenever you enter a public space, or a privately owned space like a mall, office, or store, you should expect to be under surveillance. There are not, nor have their been, laws preventing this.
It's only because the technology for surveillance has become so much cheaper in recent years that it has become practical on a massive scale.
I don't think there is any privacy issue in a school context. A student should expect to be under constant surveillance while at school, and careful monitoring of students, their activities, and school resources will result in safer schools and better education.
However, please note that this policy doesn't invade the personal privacy of students: they aren't being required to submit to searches, give up personal expression, etc. This is merely a measure to monitor compliance with existing school policies.
My only concern would be if the tags were abused, or subverted by the students.
I read about the same technique being used in one of the "Spyro" games (on the Playstation?), where gameplay would degrade over time. This made it much harder to copy, because you needed to play it for a long time to tell if a copy was good or bad. In this case, the developers implemented the technique themselves.
Eventually, this protection was broken, but the article (in Game Developer Magazine) indicated that it delayed the release of perfect copies for a few weeks, which was a big chunk of the games' profit.
My company uses SmartFilter. One day, it started blocking access to Site Finder. The reason code it returned indicated that sitefinder.verisign.com had been classified as "Criminal Skills". That sure seems appropriate to me.
My personal solution was to add it to my junkbuster config, so it would never show, and never register as a hit on their web page.
I agree. I think that the law should be respected, or changed. The same applies to copying software or music.
I simply refuse to sign up for the NYT web site. Every time a link to a NYT shows up in/. I get frustrated. I'd prefer it if/. simply didn't link to "registration required" sites. That's just my preference, however. Everyone has their own morals and must act accordingly. I just wish more people would ignore these "registration required" sites.
P.S. The other explanation for the userid/pw is demographics and advertising. Assuming you fill out the demographic stuff correctly, they get to target advertising more "effectively". Also, they can wave the userid/pw lists at advertisers and say "We want to charge you $$$ because of all of these people who come to our site".
I have to disagree with this statement. I found Visual Age for Java to be the absolute best IDE for Java. I used to hate all IDEs but VAJ turned me around to what a properly integrated tool can do.
VAJ had capabilities that other IDEs couldn't even touch. Granted, it had a steep learning curve, but when you got used to it, it was incredible. IBM made a big mistake by abandoning VAJ for Eclipse.
I tried Fallout and Fallout 2, and hated them as well. I've been really puzzled by this. These games were all hailed as the "saviors" of the role-playing genre on the computer. They got rave reviews, and have a huge following. And I hated them. I also disliked "Neverwinter Nights". I did like "Morrowwind" quite a bit more. Maybe the first-person perspective works better for me.
I've never understoond this. I thought the Baldur's Gate line was one of the worst game franchises ever. It's like they took all of the bad things about D&D and maginfied them immensely, sucked all of the fun out of it, then wrapped it in a terrible computer game interface. I've never even gotten to the city of Baldur's Gate in several attempts to play the games.
I would never recommend Baldur's Gate to anyone, much less a non-gamer.
The question shouldn't be "When should a consultant question decisions", it should be "When should a consultant stop questioning a decision".
It's your duty to a customer to fight questionable technical decisions. However, once all the data has been examined, if the customer still insists on a poor course of action, you're left with 3 options:
1. Yes Sir! 2. I quit! 3. Do it the right way and don't tell anyone (if possible).
The important thing, though, it to make sure the customer has all the pertinent data for a correct decision. I've had problems in the past where consultants simply said "Yes, sir" to a technically poor request (from a manager, not me!), and caused a lot of damage to a system under construction. Had they explained the situation, we might have made a better choice.
Gosh, how many times are we going to see this "story" today? I know it April 1st, but "repetition != funny". Don't the guys that run/. site even read it?
This is really disheartening to read. I hoped that law abiding segment was the majority. I really don't understand people who break the law in this way.
I'm actually in both groups, in a way. I don't download music (or movies) illegally, but if I could download them legally, it would be to preview for later purchase.
I don't think the music companies are making the right decisions, but they are within the law. If you don't like the law, change it, rather than ignore it.
Why do you want to interview a criminal?
on
Ask Kevin Mitnick
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· Score: 1
I've been pretty disappointed in the general Slashdot reaction to Kevin Mitnick. He's a cracker, and a poor one. I don't wish him any particular harm, but he doesn't deserve to be lionized or rewarded for his exploits. I certainly don't think he has anything relevent to say.
Slahsdot needs a "Kevin Mitnick" category, so I can filter out stuff that involves him.
Go ahead and call this a troll, but it's how I feel.
I really think they overdid the whole "old west" thing. It just never seemed to make sense to me that almost every planet exists in Earth 1800's squalor.
I'll also come forward as one of the people that didn't like the dialogue. The attempt to distance the language from current english just didn't work for me.
There were a few great touches, like what happened to the first "big" villian, but overall I think it's a failure. They tried to be cover to genres, and didn't do a good enough job on either one.
Let's hope that the show gets a minor retooling (and tones down the "old west" elements), and comes back.
Note to Fox: Remeber the first season of ST:TNG? <shudder>
Cowboys in space? Ridiculous. What's next? Super powered teenage girls fighting the undead?
Actually, I was feeling pretty disappointed until that bit at the end when the captain is trying to return the money. That scene made me feel that there's hope for this series!
What's sad? This was constructed for a legitimate educational use. The sad thing is that a work of art like this is stuck in a storeroom somewhere, instead of being used and appreciated by another school, or a Science Museum somewhere.
Just to clarify, Equifax sold just the small part of its business that was concerned with certificate management to GeoTrust. Equifax is still an independent company with lots of other businesses. (Yes, I work for Equifax).
Mitnick should not be classified as "one of the better crackers in recent memory". He was actually pretty incompetent. Cracking is just 1/2 of the equation. Not getting caught is the other 1/2. A "better cracker" would not have been noticed, and would not have been caught.
I'll say it again: He's the computer equivalent to the shaking junkie who sticks a gun in the face of a 7-Eleven clerk to get money for a fix, then waves to the security camera on the way out. He left a trail a mile wide, and couldn't stop his illegal activities even when he knew the authorities were after him.
I thnik Slashdot needs a "Kevin Mitnick" category so I can exclude stories about him.
Calling that piece "an interesting analysis" was off the mark. It seems to be a pure opinion piece, and by a Time Warner competitor. There wasn't even a hint of journalistic neutrality. This kind of junk doesn't deserve to be recognized, let alone thought of as news.
It's not a matter of what constitutes Autdesk's target market. It's a matter of legality, of right and wrong. Does the license state state specifcally that you can use it for "dicking around" and training? No. If they offer a demo or limited edition, you're fine to use that. But to take a pirated copy, under any circumstances, is theft.
You had an option other than pirating, missing mortgage payments, and subsisting on rice and beans: Don't use the software!
You have deprived them of something...their rights. The owner of the software has stated: "You cannot use this unless you pay". No one is forcing you to use it (we're not talking about Microsoft here). It's your choice. By taking the software without paying, you are stealing. It doesn't matter if the goods in question are intangible.
They however, make the ridiculous claim that they are somehow entitled to some of my money based on baseless assumptions regarding my intent.
They are entitled to your money because you use the software. It's that simple.
I don't pirate software or music. I have licenses for shareware that I use regularly, including Winzip, AtomTime, and the games from Mountain King Software. My (reluctantly used) upgrade copy of Win98SE is fully legal, because I purchased every upgrade along the way, starting from a full IBM DOS 6.0.
I also purchased every game that Loki ever released, and have bought copies of RedHat, Caldera, and Cygwin (when it was sold in stores) to use on machines at work.
I was raised to be honest. You don't take what you don't pay for. If I don't like the price for something, I don't buy it. I want to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but I'm not about to pay $55 for a game, so I'll wait until the price drops. If it takes a year, so what? That's about how long I waited until Icewind Dalebecame reasonably priced.
As far as I'm concerned software pirates are in the same class of people who shoplift, leave restaurants without paying, or drive off from a gas station without paying.
I'm curious about the people who don't pay for software. What's the rationale? I can you justify that kind of behavior?
IBM's VisualAge for Java
on
Java IDEs?
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· Score: 1
"tech-smart but world dumb"? Quite the opposite.
on
Pride Before The Fall
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· Score: 1
The phrase "tech-smart but world dumb" is sometimes used to describe even brilliant programmers and computing executives. It captures Gates perfectly. In fact, he embodies it.
Huh? I don't follow this at all. Gates is quite the opposite. The Microsoft tradition has been one of second and third rate products, crammed down the throats of computer users. Microsoft has never successfully innovated. It takes them release after release, year after year to get things anywhere near useful. The "embrace and extend". I have never seen any evidence of Gates being "tech smart". His grasp of technology is poor. His grasp of business is tremendous. I can't think of a single Microsoft product that wasn't purchased from another company and re-branded (Flight Simulator, Mechwarrior 4, C++, IE), or a blatant ripoff of another product (DOS, Windows, Word, Excel).
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I agree with your edited version as well. I'm on company property, working with company resources. They have a right to monitor my compliance. I don't see a consitutional issue.
Most people simply don't understand that there is virtually no right to privacy outside your home. Whenever you enter a public space, or a privately owned space like a mall, office, or store, you should expect to be under surveillance. There are not, nor have their been, laws preventing this.
It's only because the technology for surveillance has become so much cheaper in recent years that it has become practical on a massive scale.
I don't think there is any privacy issue in a school context. A student should expect to be under constant surveillance while at school, and careful monitoring of students, their activities, and school resources will result in safer schools and better education.
However, please note that this policy doesn't invade the personal privacy of students: they aren't being required to submit to searches, give up personal expression, etc. This is merely a measure to monitor compliance with existing school policies.
My only concern would be if the tags were abused, or subverted by the students.
I read about the same technique being used in one of the "Spyro" games (on the Playstation?), where gameplay would degrade over time. This made it much harder to copy, because you needed to play it for a long time to tell if a copy was good or bad. In this case, the developers implemented the technique themselves.
Eventually, this protection was broken, but the article (in Game Developer Magazine) indicated that it delayed the release of perfect copies for a few weeks, which was a big chunk of the games' profit.
My company uses SmartFilter. One day, it started blocking access to Site Finder. The reason code it returned indicated that sitefinder.verisign.com had been classified as "Criminal Skills". That sure seems appropriate to me.
My personal solution was to add it to my junkbuster config, so it would never show, and never register as a hit on their web page.
I agree. I think that the law should be respected, or changed. The same applies to copying software or music.
/. I get frustrated. I'd prefer it if /. simply didn't link to "registration required" sites. That's just my preference, however. Everyone has their own morals and must act accordingly. I just wish more people would ignore these "registration required" sites.
I simply refuse to sign up for the NYT web site. Every time a link to a NYT shows up in
P.S. The other explanation for the userid/pw is demographics and advertising. Assuming you fill out the demographic stuff correctly, they get to target advertising more "effectively". Also, they can wave the userid/pw lists at advertisers and say "We want to charge you $$$ because of all of these people who come to our site".
I have to disagree with this statement. I found Visual Age for Java to be the absolute best IDE for Java. I used to hate all IDEs but VAJ turned me around to what a properly integrated tool can do.
VAJ had capabilities that other IDEs couldn't even touch. Granted, it had a steep learning curve, but when you got used to it, it was incredible. IBM made a big mistake by abandoning VAJ for Eclipse.
I couldn't even view their site: I surf with JunkBuster masking my browser type, and they wouldn't even let me in the front door.
If they're so incompetent that they can't design a decent, standards compatible web site, then what will they be able to teach about games?
I tried Fallout and Fallout 2, and hated them as well. I've been really puzzled by this. These games were all hailed as the "saviors" of the role-playing genre on the computer. They got rave reviews, and have a huge following. And I hated them. I also disliked "Neverwinter Nights". I did like "Morrowwind" quite a bit more. Maybe the first-person perspective works better for me.
I've never understoond this. I thought the Baldur's Gate line was one of the worst game franchises ever. It's like they took all of the bad things about D&D and maginfied them immensely, sucked all of the fun out of it, then wrapped it in a terrible computer game interface. I've never even gotten to the city of Baldur's Gate in several attempts to play the games.
I would never recommend Baldur's Gate to anyone, much less a non-gamer.
The question shouldn't be "When should a consultant question decisions", it should be "When should a consultant stop questioning a decision".
It's your duty to a customer to fight questionable technical decisions. However, once all the data has been examined, if the customer still insists on a poor course of action, you're left with 3 options:
1. Yes Sir!
2. I quit!
3. Do it the right way and don't tell anyone (if possible).
The important thing, though, it to make sure the customer has all the pertinent data for a correct decision. I've had problems in the past where consultants simply said "Yes, sir" to a technically poor request (from a manager, not me!), and caused a lot of damage to a system under construction. Had they explained the situation, we might have made a better choice.
I figured it out. The "joke" is that they'll post this one story EVERY TIME someone submits it. Diabolical!
Gosh, how many times are we going to see this "story" today? I know it April 1st, but "repetition != funny". Don't the guys that run /. site even read it?
This is really disheartening to read. I hoped that law abiding segment was the majority. I really don't understand people who break the law in this way.
I'm actually in both groups, in a way. I don't download music (or movies) illegally, but if I could download them legally, it would be to preview for later purchase.
I don't think the music companies are making the right decisions, but they are within the law. If you don't like the law, change it, rather than ignore it.
I've been pretty disappointed in the general Slashdot reaction to Kevin Mitnick. He's a cracker, and a poor one. I don't wish him any particular harm, but he doesn't deserve to be lionized or rewarded for his exploits. I certainly don't think he has anything relevent to say.
Slahsdot needs a "Kevin Mitnick" category, so I can filter out stuff that involves him.
Go ahead and call this a troll, but it's how I feel.
I really think they overdid the whole "old west" thing. It just never seemed to make sense to me that almost every planet exists in Earth 1800's squalor.
I'll also come forward as one of the people that didn't like the dialogue. The attempt to distance the language from current english just didn't work for me.
There were a few great touches, like what happened to the first "big" villian, but overall I think it's a failure. They tried to be cover to genres, and didn't do a good enough job on either one.
Let's hope that the show gets a minor retooling (and tones down the "old west" elements), and comes back.
Note to Fox: Remeber the first season of ST:TNG? <shudder>
Cowboys in space? Ridiculous. What's next? Super powered teenage girls fighting the undead?
Actually, I was feeling pretty disappointed until that bit at the end when the captain is trying to return the money. That scene made me feel that there's hope for this series!
What's sad? This was constructed for a legitimate educational use. The sad thing is that a work of art like this is stuck in a storeroom somewhere, instead of being used and appreciated by another school, or a Science Museum somewhere.
Just to clarify, Equifax sold just the small part of its business that was concerned with certificate management to GeoTrust. Equifax is still an independent company with lots of other businesses. (Yes, I work for Equifax).
Mitnick should not be classified as "one of the better crackers in recent memory". He was actually pretty incompetent. Cracking is just 1/2 of the equation. Not getting caught is the other 1/2. A "better cracker" would not have been noticed, and would not have been caught.
I'll say it again: He's the computer equivalent to the shaking junkie who sticks a gun in the face of a 7-Eleven clerk to get money for a fix, then waves to the security camera on the way out. He left a trail a mile wide, and couldn't stop his illegal activities even when he knew the authorities were after him.
I thnik Slashdot needs a "Kevin Mitnick" category so I can exclude stories about him.
Calling that piece "an interesting analysis" was off the mark. It seems to be a pure opinion piece, and by a Time Warner competitor. There wasn't even a hint of journalistic neutrality. This kind of junk doesn't deserve to be recognized, let alone thought of as news.
It's not a matter of what constitutes Autdesk's target market. It's a matter of legality, of right and wrong. Does the license state state specifcally that you can use it for "dicking around" and training? No. If they offer a demo or limited edition, you're fine to use that. But to take a pirated copy, under any circumstances, is theft.
You had an option other than pirating, missing mortgage payments, and subsisting on rice and beans: Don't use the software!
They are entitled to your money because you use the software. It's that simple.
I don't pirate software or music. I have licenses for shareware that I use regularly, including Winzip, AtomTime, and the games from Mountain King Software. My (reluctantly used) upgrade copy of Win98SE is fully legal, because I purchased every upgrade along the way, starting from a full IBM DOS 6.0.
I also purchased every game that Loki ever released, and have bought copies of RedHat, Caldera, and Cygwin (when it was sold in stores) to use on machines at work.
I was raised to be honest. You don't take what you don't pay for. If I don't like the price for something, I don't buy it. I want to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but I'm not about to pay $55 for a game, so I'll wait until the price drops. If it takes a year, so what? That's about how long I waited until Icewind Dalebecame reasonably priced.
As far as I'm concerned software pirates are in the same class of people who shoplift, leave restaurants without paying, or drive off from a gas station without paying.
I'm curious about the people who don't pay for software. What's the rationale? I can you justify that kind of behavior?
We use VAJ© It's the best IDE around, because of it's unique view of Java© It's keeps a "repository" and "workspace" that holds all source and class files© It's a big database that indexes everything down to the method level© The enterprise edition has a built-in EJB development and testing environment that lets you run and test your webapp from the desktop©
The biggest advantage ¥to me is the ability to subsitute code in a running app© You can run a test, make a code change, and run the test again without restarting your environment© The IDE also has method-level version control, so if you make a change you don't like, you can back it out with a click of the mouse©
It's got a full set of "wizards" that can do everything from creating an EJB to creating a full Swing-based app skeleton with a few clicks©
Disadvantages:
The "repository" and "workspace" take a lot of getting used to© You can't just mess with the code on the disk, because it's not in a directory hierarchy©
IBM is very slow about moving the JVM forward with new releases ¥VAJ 3©5©2 is still at JDK 1©2©2©
Only one Linux version was released, 3©02 professional, a few years ago©
Finally, the Enterprise version is expensive!
The phrase "tech-smart but world dumb" is sometimes used to describe even brilliant programmers and computing executives. It captures Gates perfectly. In fact, he embodies it.
Huh? I don't follow this at all. Gates is quite the opposite. The Microsoft tradition has been one of second and third rate products, crammed down the throats of computer users. Microsoft has never successfully innovated. It takes them release after release, year after year to get things anywhere near useful. The "embrace and extend". I have never seen any evidence of Gates being "tech smart". His grasp of technology is poor. His grasp of business is tremendous. I can't think of a single Microsoft product that wasn't purchased from another company and re-branded (Flight Simulator, Mechwarrior 4, C++, IE), or a blatant ripoff of another product (DOS, Windows, Word, Excel).