Be careful with meaning of "open source"
on
Open Source Spying
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· Score: 2, Informative
First of all, Slashdotters need to understand that the term "open source" can be used differently in other contexts. In the intelligence community it has a specific meaning that has nothing to do with software - it refers to intelligence information available through publicly available sources (e.g., the news media, jihadist web sites, web blogs).
Don't read too much into the title of the article - I doubt even the author knows for sure which meaning of "open source" was intended.
Where I live (telecom corridor 2 miles outside Dallas) Comcast has a virtual monopoly on residential broadband. SBC doesn't offer DSL and there is no wireless or broadband over power line service.
There may be a *threat* of competition, but that doesn't amount to a hill of beans to people in my neighborhood - we're still forced to use Comcast or dial-up. It might as well be a monopoly.
We're clearly not in a rural area. Many people in the US are in the same situation, or worse.
Exactly. That's why I wouldn't consider VOIP on my Comcast service. Mine goes down for 1-3 hours during work hours typically at least once per week. When I call Comcast their response is "oh, I see you're in an outage area now."
How many people would put up with that on a weekly basis from their phone company?
I agree. Can you say people skills?
In my experience attitudes like the OPs do nothing but foster the (sometimes true) opinion among management that techies are generally difficult to work with. I've seen this all too often working on both sides of the fence (techie and management).
The OP should do him/herself and all techies a favor by cooling off and having a rational conversation with the boss.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all, Slashdotters need to understand that the term "open source" can be used differently in other contexts. In the intelligence community it has a specific meaning that has nothing to do with software - it refers to intelligence information available through publicly available sources (e.g., the news media, jihadist web sites, web blogs). Don't read too much into the title of the article - I doubt even the author knows for sure which meaning of "open source" was intended.
There may be a *threat* of competition, but that doesn't amount to a hill of beans to people in my neighborhood - we're still forced to use Comcast or dial-up. It might as well be a monopoly.
We're clearly not in a rural area. Many people in the US are in the same situation, or worse.
How many people would put up with that on a weekly basis from their phone company?
I agree. Can you say people skills? In my experience attitudes like the OPs do nothing but foster the (sometimes true) opinion among management that techies are generally difficult to work with. I've seen this all too often working on both sides of the fence (techie and management). The OP should do him/herself and all techies a favor by cooling off and having a rational conversation with the boss.