Unfortunately the laws don't work very well with small companies. I filed a complaint against a Sydney real estate agency who sent multiple unsolicited text messages to my mobile phone. They just ignored my requests to 1. stop and 2. tell me where they got my number from.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner will only launch investigations against larger companies (IIRC they need to have an annual turnover >$500K) and they told me as much when I complained. So that leaves a fair bit of room for unscrupulous companies to flaunt the law without fear of reprisal.
Interesting. I also had Kaspersky (in the form of AOL Active Virus Shield) freak out when I tried to install the.NET 2.0 runtime the other day. It insisted it was a virus and there was no shutting it up so I said goodbye to Kaspersky and hello to AVG. Much better.
Word of warning to anyone planning to jump in on Nov 30, make sure you can get Vista drivers for *everything* you want to use.
I played around with Vista RC1 a bit last week on a spare machine. For the most part, I was actually pretty impressed with the ease of install. Inevitably there were a couple of devices (onboard audio and USB wireless) that it didn't support. However, it seems that the driver model has changed pretty significantly from XP/2000 as these didn't work at all.
So the release date isn't Nov 30, it's when your last hardware vendor releases their Vista drivers.
As for tech, quit cock-teasing us and put together a phone with wireless internet, camera, mp3 player, video player, video recorder, gps, and 3d gaming.
Or Sun could just use virtual conferencing software like Breeze that's written explicitly for that purpose in the first place and runs on Flash which is somewhat more widely distributed than the "get a" Life client.
Then again, maybe in Second Life Sun's a successful company.
For the most part I agree with you. Anyone who thinks there's a viable military option against North Korea simply hasn't done their research.
Where Bush & Co definately blundered was their typical sledge hammer diplomacy. Labelling NK part of the "Axis of Evil" and saying they "wouldn't accept a nuclear North Korea" was like hitting an ant's nest with a stick. In the end though, this is much more Asia's problem than America's.
NK are like a spoilt child who wants concessions for bad behaviour. Effective sanctions with rewards for reform are probably the best option. With luck, given the unusual amount of international consensus against the nuclear test, we might actually get them.
Here's the problem. Nobody likes to see asshats like 'lil Kim, Saddam and Mugabe thumbing their noses at the world, starving their people and living like kings. But if we've learned anything at all from Iraq it's that forcing regime change results in a much greater mess than containing annoying dictators.
As horrible as it is for the NK people, all you can really do to these countries is contain and wait. You wait for the old guard to die and the reformers to come in - which is exactly what happenned in the USSR and China. They've both got a long way to go, but at least they're not an international threat anymore.
To that list I'd also add the 800 pound gorilla that the network app pundits always conveniently ignore - Network reliability.
Between a pc with ADSL and any net app you've got: - A Telco managing the copper phone network - An ISP operating the DSLAM at the exchange - Any number of backhaul operators - A hosting ISP for the service you're connecting to - The company hosting the app itself
Every one of these entities can be a separate company! Who takes responsibility when you can't connect or your latency goes out the window? Typically none of them. Why on Earth would I trust five separate company's who provide no level of service guarantee over a local app on my own machine?
Now having said all that I can see a lot of benefits in network applications. Particularly some of the more complex corporate apps that require a ton of configuration and management. But I think there's a lot more sense in hybrid apps that can function independently of the network when needed.
Same for airplanes. A modern Boeing airliner is far more complex than GNOME but jets don't fall from the sky on a daily basis.
A little off topic, but planes are a good example of how something can be technically fault free but still suck - even fatally. Take fuel tank selector valves. It's extremely unlikely that a valve will fail, but that's not the point. A pilot shouldn't have to monitor which tank fuel's coming from and switch tanks mid flight. Fuel should just be drawn evenly from all available tanks whilst keeping the plane in balance. Some planes do this, but an amazing number don't. In all probability, it was a counter intuative fuel tank selector that killed John Denver.
So making software (or any human-machine interface) fault free isn't enough. It has to be intuative, and it should take care of some things automatically when it make sense to do so. That's hard to do right.
This is always the approach I take. I've been an independent consultant for 4 years. Most of the consulting contracts I have handed to me have something outrageous in them. eg 3 hours termination notice for a 12 month contract. They just try it on.
Never ever fall for the line "It's just a standard contract". There's no such thing. Make sure you have a lawyer to help you, but the vast majority of the time you can generally just pull the silly stuff out and the client won't put up a fight.
IIRC the Lowe's case was still an attack against the server. The attackers gained access because the wireless network wasn't secured, but that's quite distinct from intercepting cc details during transmission from one machine to another.
Has there ever been a documented case of people having their credit card details stolen by eavsdropping over an unsecured transmission? Not keyboard sniffing the user's machine or hacking the receiving servers database. An actual, verified case of cc number theft.
I'm not asking because it can't be done. Obviously unsecured wireless networks are very easy to monitor. But the issue here is I'm constantly amazed at the focus people have on the security of transmission, rather than spyware on their machines or the potential security of end servers which seem to me to be a lot more vulnerable and ripe for attack on the kind of scale that's actually useful to criminals.
Often the same people will happily hand over their credit cards to be taken out the bank of a resturaunt, fax or phone cc details through to businesses or throw out printed receipts with their full details (and signature).
These guys are still working on it. Their "stratellite" airships are designed to operate at much higher altitudes where they won't be bothered by annoying things like the weather.
They've had a couple of promising tests so far, but looks like they still have a way to go. Wouldn't be surprised if they're having a look at the paint on antennas too.
On another note, Micrososft is working with them very closely to convert their server farm from Cold Fusion to ASP.Net 2.0.
This is an interesting one. MySpace is written in ColdFusion but actually runs on the.NET version of BlueDragon. BlueDragon is a.NET (or Java) application that runs ColdFusion code as an alternative to Adobe's ColdFusion server.
So what we have currently is a situation where:
1. Adobe can't really claim that MySpace is running ColdFusion because it's running in.NET on a competitor's server not theirs and
2. Microsoft isn't really crowing about MySpace running.NET because it's written in a competitor's language. Not surprising that they're 'working closely' to fix that!
I'd be interested to see a few benchmarks on this one. eg. Photoshop transforms on Windows under Parallels vs the same on OS X Power PC binaries under Rosetta
My best guess would be that the Windows version would be faster because despite the virtualisation layer, it's still an x86 binary. Might make for some painful choices until Adobe can complete their glacial move to universal binaries.
Unfortunately the site doesn't have anywhere near the detail of the Channel 4 doco. However, you can see from the timeline that the NK33s were built in 1973 and put into storage in 1974.
When they were discovered by the US rocket scientists in 1993 they were more efficient than any US designed rocket at the time. So we really are talking 20 years. Would love to see the video again if it's out there.
One thing I've learned over the past few years as a consultant to many companies is that those who think they're at the top of their game stop questioning how they can do things better.
...we need to get a working biosphere on Earth. The last one ran dangerously low on O2 and that problem needs to be understood, fixed and thoroughly tested before we even think about setting up a colony on the moon.
In some ways it'd be a good test to have a biosphere at the bottom of the ocean. You'd have the same combination of a harsh external environment and pressure differential (albeit reversed) as you would in space. You could be entirely reliant on a local source of power such as a deep sea thermal vent but emergency assistance would be much easier
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately the laws don't work very well with small companies. I filed a complaint against a Sydney real estate agency who sent multiple unsolicited text messages to my mobile phone. They just ignored my requests to 1. stop and 2. tell me where they got my number from.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner will only launch investigations against larger companies (IIRC they need to have an annual turnover >$500K) and they told me as much when I complained. So that leaves a fair bit of room for unscrupulous companies to flaunt the law without fear of reprisal.
Interesting. I also had Kaspersky (in the form of AOL Active Virus Shield) freak out when I tried to install the .NET 2.0 runtime the other day. It insisted it was a virus and there was no shutting it up so I said goodbye to Kaspersky and hello to AVG. Much better.
I played around with Vista RC1 a bit last week on a spare machine. For the most part, I was actually pretty impressed with the ease of install. Inevitably there were a couple of devices (onboard audio and USB wireless) that it didn't support. However, it seems that the driver model has changed pretty significantly from XP/2000 as these didn't work at all.
So the release date isn't Nov 30, it's when your last hardware vendor releases their Vista drivers.
In Soviet Russia, stories write you!
As for tech, quit cock-teasing us and put together a phone with wireless internet, camera, mp3 player, video player, video recorder, gps, and 3d gaming.
HP's very close. No 3D gaming though.
Or Sun could just use virtual conferencing software like Breeze that's written explicitly for that purpose in the first place and runs on Flash which is somewhat more widely distributed than the "get a" Life client.
Then again, maybe in Second Life Sun's a successful company.
For the most part I agree with you. Anyone who thinks there's a viable military option against North Korea simply hasn't done their research.
Where Bush & Co definately blundered was their typical sledge hammer diplomacy. Labelling NK part of the "Axis of Evil" and saying they "wouldn't accept a nuclear North Korea" was like hitting an ant's nest with a stick. In the end though, this is much more Asia's problem than America's.
NK are like a spoilt child who wants concessions for bad behaviour. Effective sanctions with rewards for reform are probably the best option. With luck, given the unusual amount of international consensus against the nuclear test, we might actually get them.
Here's the problem. Nobody likes to see asshats like 'lil Kim, Saddam and Mugabe thumbing their noses at the world, starving their people and living like kings. But if we've learned anything at all from Iraq it's that forcing regime change results in a much greater mess than containing annoying dictators.
As horrible as it is for the NK people, all you can really do to these countries is contain and wait. You wait for the old guard to die and the reformers to come in - which is exactly what happenned in the USSR and China. They've both got a long way to go, but at least they're not an international threat anymore.
Someone log on to World of Warcraft and let the South Koreans know about this!
Amen brother.
To that list I'd also add the 800 pound gorilla that the network app pundits always conveniently ignore - Network reliability.
Between a pc with ADSL and any net app you've got:
- A Telco managing the copper phone network
- An ISP operating the DSLAM at the exchange
- Any number of backhaul operators
- A hosting ISP for the service you're connecting to
- The company hosting the app itself
Every one of these entities can be a separate company! Who takes responsibility when you can't connect or your latency goes out the window? Typically none of them. Why on Earth would I trust five separate company's who provide no level of service guarantee over a local app on my own machine?
Now having said all that I can see a lot of benefits in network applications. Particularly some of the more complex corporate apps that require a ton of configuration and management. But I think there's a lot more sense in hybrid apps that can function independently of the network when needed.
Same for airplanes. A modern Boeing airliner is far more complex than GNOME but jets don't fall from the sky on a daily basis.
A little off topic, but planes are a good example of how something can be technically fault free but still suck - even fatally. Take fuel tank selector valves. It's extremely unlikely that a valve will fail, but that's not the point. A pilot shouldn't have to monitor which tank fuel's coming from and switch tanks mid flight. Fuel should just be drawn evenly from all available tanks whilst keeping the plane in balance. Some planes do this, but an amazing number don't. In all probability, it was a counter intuative fuel tank selector that killed John Denver.
So making software (or any human-machine interface) fault free isn't enough. It has to be intuative, and it should take care of some things automatically when it make sense to do so. That's hard to do right.
This is always the approach I take. I've been an independent consultant for 4 years. Most of the consulting contracts I have handed to me have something outrageous in them. eg 3 hours termination notice for a 12 month contract. They just try it on.
Never ever fall for the line "It's just a standard contract". There's no such thing. Make sure you have a lawyer to help you, but the vast majority of the time you can generally just pull the silly stuff out and the client won't put up a fight.
- Pregnancy testing
- General fertility testing to see when (or when NOT) to try for a baby
- Automated drug/alcohol testing for prison inmates
- Blood sugar testing for diabetics
Sure beats pissing in a cupIIRC the Lowe's case was still an attack against the server. The attackers gained access because the wireless network wasn't secured, but that's quite distinct from intercepting cc details during transmission from one machine to another.
Has there ever been a documented case of people having their credit card details stolen by eavsdropping over an unsecured transmission? Not keyboard sniffing the user's machine or hacking the receiving servers database. An actual, verified case of cc number theft.
I'm not asking because it can't be done. Obviously unsecured wireless networks are very easy to monitor. But the issue here is I'm constantly amazed at the focus people have on the security of transmission, rather than spyware on their machines or the potential security of end servers which seem to me to be a lot more vulnerable and ripe for attack on the kind of scale that's actually useful to criminals.
Often the same people will happily hand over their credit cards to be taken out the bank of a resturaunt, fax or phone cc details through to businesses or throw out printed receipts with their full details (and signature).
Why this obsession with HTTPS?
These guys are still working on it. Their "stratellite" airships are designed to operate at much higher altitudes where they won't be bothered by annoying things like the weather.
They've had a couple of promising tests so far, but looks like they still have a way to go. Wouldn't be surprised if they're having a look at the paint on antennas too.
Ok, seriously, how can you lose ~99% of the data from something that is such a HUGE part of history?
Last I heard they were being stored next to the Ark of the Covenant
On another note, Micrososft is working with them very closely to convert their server farm from Cold Fusion to ASP.Net 2.0.
.NET version of BlueDragon. BlueDragon is a .NET (or Java) application that runs ColdFusion code as an alternative to Adobe's ColdFusion server.
.NET on a competitor's server not theirs and .NET because it's written in a competitor's language. Not surprising that they're 'working closely' to fix that!
This is an interesting one. MySpace is written in ColdFusion but actually runs on the
So what we have currently is a situation where:
1. Adobe can't really claim that MySpace is running ColdFusion because it's running in
2. Microsoft isn't really crowing about MySpace running
I'd be interested to see a few benchmarks on this one. eg. Photoshop transforms on Windows under Parallels vs the same on OS X Power PC binaries under Rosetta
My best guess would be that the Windows version would be faster because despite the virtualisation layer, it's still an x86 binary. Might make for some painful choices until Adobe can complete their glacial move to universal binaries.
IANAL but restrictive trade practices like this are generally illegal in Australia. It will be interesting to see if eBay tries it on here.
Unfortunately the site doesn't have anywhere near the detail of the Channel 4 doco. However, you can see from the timeline that the NK33s were built in 1973 and put into storage in 1974.
When they were discovered by the US rocket scientists in 1993 they were more efficient than any US designed rocket at the time. So we really are talking 20 years. Would love to see the video again if it's out there.
jealous?
Actually no, your hubris just proved his point.
One thing I've learned over the past few years as a consultant to many companies is that those who think they're at the top of their game stop questioning how they can do things better.
Perhaps this is why rocket scientists from Raytheon were a little embarrassed to find 20 year old rocket engines in a Russian warehouse that were more efficient than their most modern designs.
...we need to get a working biosphere on Earth. The last one ran dangerously low on O2 and that problem needs to be understood, fixed and thoroughly tested before we even think about setting up a colony on the moon.
In some ways it'd be a good test to have a biosphere at the bottom of the ocean. You'd have the same combination of a harsh external environment and pressure differential (albeit reversed) as you would in space. You could be entirely reliant on a local source of power such as a deep sea thermal vent but emergency assistance would be much easier
Oh ok I'll take my tablets now...
I wonder what the return would be if we spent the same amount on drilling technology and geothermal power plants.
Here's a picture of the prototype...