Driving home after two beers or smoking the wrong plant is a more serious crime than planning on sticking a microchip under someone's skin for the explicit purpose of tracking them.
Weird priorities.
If you begin comparing crimes, their offense to society or individuals, and then the manner in which those convicted are prosecuted and punished, you're headed down a very long, confusing road. Who should be punished more severely, a rapist or a murderer? OK, what if instead of a murder, it was white collar crime, embezzling $5 million USD. Okay, what about 500 million. OK, what about retirement accounts of millions across the nation? OK, but what if the rapist actually [unimaginable details]...
...This is to say nothing about actual cost of living, or the actual working conditions...
And there is where you hit the nail on the head. Because if you are also to scale down to equivalent number of hours worked per week, I think you'd find it's far less than 30%.
Even more likely: Had security been adequate to keep out a determined nine-year-old, it also would have completely stymied the teachers and administrators.
I would guess that stupid security is sufficient. I know of an instance back in 1990 (*cough* ahem, excuse me) where students had access to computers in a library. Those computers also had enrollment/administration software installed on them. The username guessed was "teacher", and the password guessed was "westhigh" (for [cityname] West High School). It seems the student only guessed perhaps a half dozen times before access was granted.
I guess someone's gotta do something. I still vividly remember the last time I saw Orlando traffic back in '92. Acknowledging, of course, that Orlando isn't necc. representative of the entire state, but...
If you're female there is no reason to go into IT... nursing pays better, comes with better benefits, better hours, way less stress, no bullying from male coworkers, no worries about your job going offshore to Inida (sic), more respect from the general community, just a better future period.
Yeah, but the challenge is that in some areas, it's nigh to impossible to get into a nursing program unless your grades are in the top 7% of the applicants that year (or some incredible number). My sister has been trying to get into a nursing program in Oregon for quite some time. Perhaps if the teaching positions for nursing paid more, there would be a greater number of instructors, resulting in higher enrollment capabilities, and so on (trickle down).
Of course I'm not an expert in this field (I'm an IT guy, too) and perhaps my sister's experience is unique, but that's not the impression I've been getting.
If the twins have not been living near-identical lives (sharing cars, apartments, etc), they probably have distinct bacterial colonies, and bacterial forensics (an emerging science) could be the key.
This method cannot conclusively place an individual at the scene of the crime, but if combined with DNA evidence, I think you'd have a pretty air-tight case.
I think ponytails these days are FAR more rare than multiple piercings or tattoos. There's only one guy I can think of in our offices (of several hundred) who has a ponytail. But he's the one known for visiting the salad bar after NOT washing his hands in the restroom. Ick.
But I'm sure you (and your other ponytail-loving friends) are far more sanitary-minded.
There's lies, damned lies, statistics... and people who really don't know math.
That reminds me. I was at a very fine Java conference over the weekend in February. The session speaker talked about "hacking your brain" and mentioned lots of pop-psych stuff. He asked if we'd heard of the Lake Wobegon Effect. Then he asked how many of us in the room thought we were above-average drivers. Knowing where this was leading, I went ahead and raised my hand, as did about 80% of the room.
Knowing something about me from a previous comment, the speaker asks me, "You're a math guy. So, is it really possible that everyone who raised their hand is an above-average driver?" I hesitated for a moment, trying to decide whether to embarrass him with the truth, or remain silent. He seized the silence and answered himself, "No, of course not."
I exchanged bemused glances with the attendee next to me who clearly caught me smirking. Yet this speaker is an adjunct at a University in Minnesota with a Comp Sci background. How quickly even the most intelligent forget or mis-remember.
[homework for the confused: suppose ten people take a test. nine score 90%. one scores 60%. what percent of the ten people scored above average?]
Frank,
Maybe over in Portland (your neck of the woods) you've had roundabouts for many years. But many places in Wisconsin have only begun putting in roundabouts in the last 10 years or so, and sparingly at that. Maybe you're a brilliant driver, and maybe I'm a bad one. But when I took driving instruction here, there were no roundabouts. They weren't discussed in class, we didn't test-drive on them, etc. So what I'm saying is that even the best driver, when confronted with a roundabout, may be unsure of the correct procedure.
I've thought of the roundabout as a big circular intersection. As such, I thought perhaps I should signal my intent to turn prior to entering the roundabout. I now see from this presentation at http://www.dot.state.wi.us/safety/motorist/roaddesign/roundabouts/av/roundabout.swf that intent is established first by choosing your entrance lane and that you ought to use your turn signal prior to exiting the roundabout.
If you use them every day, I suppose it seems absurd that someone wouldn't know how. But let's be fair.
Many computer nerds like to tout themselves as geniuses who have flexible minds. But the truth is that we're all afraid of change.
It's times like these that I like to remember Walter Sobchak: "Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?"
In all honesty, I think a change is driving so many of us batshit crazy because (as other posters have noted) we've been taught (and marketed to) that 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte. We fuckin' laugh at people who actually say "kibibyte" out loud. Nobody actually talks about / uses the (ki|me|gi)bibyte words, honestly. When HDD manufacturers would fudge with their numbers when reporting capacity (back when this was a much bigger deal) by stating that 1 megabyte was 1000 kilobytes, we got pretty pissed off, didn't we? Additionally, consider the threads that get started whenever someone complains about the changing of the English language, how it is used in common speech vs the proper/original meaning (see "begs the question" or "decimate" discussion threads).
See, we're the same people who are irritated when we find out that Puff Daddy has decided he's now Puffy. No, wait. Make that P. Diddy. Naw, just Diddy. (seriously, wtf?) We've been talking about the same fucking thing for so long and using a name which so few people had problems with, and now you wanna change it? *sigh*
How about some crusaders who mount spam campaigns that, when clicked, scare the holy living hell out of the recipient?... Of course no money would be stolen but it would at least give a few idiots the scare of their lives and get them to stop clicking on spam.
Well, "the boy who cried wolf" comes to mind. I think some users who experience this hypothetical situation might think "ah, not harmful spam. Just some jerk with another false alarm."
A few suggestions from my experience as a technician:
Keep vulnerable programs off of your base image. We saw infections go down dramatically after removing Java and replacing Adobe Acrobat Reader with something else.
I'm right there with you on the Acrobat Reader bit -- I had a laptop that I witnessed get 0wn3d in a matter of seconds when acrobat plugin crashed while browsing, and it spiraled out of control until I just unplugged the ether and turned it off. But can you explain the vulnerability of Java? That's rather broad categorization, it seems. What kinds of common Java problems have you seen?
I live in Belgium, where we have health insurance and auto insurance and bicycles and none of the problems you imply. My parents live in Spain and also none f those issues. My sister in Germany? No problems there.
Yes, but on the other hand, you and your family then spend an inordinate sum on train fares whenever you wish to get together for holidays.
I think it's been clear that the obstacles to widespread adoption of email encryption are 1) ease of use, and 2) critical mass.
Yes, yes. For you and me, using encryption is not terribly difficult. We might even be able to teach our close (non-geek) friends how to use it. But you're also implicitly taking on an educational challenge. How will you convince this friend of the merits of using encryption? My guess is that for most people I would want to teach, I'd waved off and dismissed because they don't know anybody else who uses it, and they'd ultimately state, "I've got nothing to hide". Tired argument, sure. But there it is, again and again. The how and why of encryption is the biggest hurdle for the non-techie.
We can't even get them to use decent passwords. People are lazy. Even (especially?) geeks. Unless usage of encryption can be nearly transparent and effortless, it won't be readily adopted, I'm afraid.
Strong password requirements are a big part of the problem.
I've known people to use a kind of "formula" to create/remember passwords. It works such that you don't need to strictly memorize your password, but you only need to remember how to derive it. First, I come up with some basic, moderate-strength password, like 4Fa2@xx8?L. But instead of the "xx", I replace it with the two letters in the site's domain name before the TLD, so for slashdot, maybe my password would be 4Fa2@ot8?L.
This is a very simple example, but you can imagine new ways of creating a formula (say, count the number of vowels in the domain, etc) to create your own scheme.
Yes, it's true, this isn't an incredibly strong method, strictly speaking. If someone catches one PW and can figure out your scheme, you're cooked. On the other hand, the result is that you're probably going to have a different password on every site you use, it's a strong password, and you don't have to use any tools to manage your PWs, just memorize the scheme.
I admit I don't have a similar solution for places that require password changes every 90 days, such as my employer. There, I try each time to come up with a password based on an easily-remembered phrase, like "gilligans3hourtour" or "drdanieljacksondiedagain". Yeah, I tend to get funny looks when I type in 20+ character passwords. heh.
Then there is the problem of Italian influence, and the known fact that Italo-islamic spies have placed cable splitters in all the main telecom hubs of the U.S. and Mexico
This is SERIOUS SHIT, if it is true !!
Can anyone confirm the above claim, please ??
Minus the profanity, this pretty much typifies one of every three emails I get from my grandmother.
Slashdot Mirror
Driving home after two beers or smoking the wrong plant is a more serious crime than planning on sticking a microchip under someone's skin for the explicit purpose of tracking them.
Weird priorities.
If you begin comparing crimes, their offense to society or individuals, and then the manner in which those convicted are prosecuted and punished, you're headed down a very long, confusing road. Who should be punished more severely, a rapist or a murderer? OK, what if instead of a murder, it was white collar crime, embezzling $5 million USD. Okay, what about 500 million. OK, what about retirement accounts of millions across the nation? OK, but what if the rapist actually [unimaginable details]...
...This is to say nothing about actual cost of living, or the actual working conditions...
And there is where you hit the nail on the head. Because if you are also to scale down to equivalent number of hours worked per week, I think you'd find it's far less than 30%.
So you're eager to tangle with both HR and the CEO? Around here that's a sign that you hate your job.
Then again, it could be that the cause and effect are just the opposite of what you're suggesting. They import lots of loonies.
Even more likely: Had security been adequate to keep out a determined nine-year-old, it also would have completely stymied the teachers and administrators.
I would guess that stupid security is sufficient. I know of an instance back in 1990 (*cough* ahem, excuse me) where students had access to computers in a library. Those computers also had enrollment/administration software installed on them. The username guessed was "teacher", and the password guessed was "westhigh" (for [cityname] West High School). It seems the student only guessed perhaps a half dozen times before access was granted.
Darmok and Jelad... when the walls fell.
I guess someone's gotta do something. I still vividly remember the last time I saw Orlando traffic back in '92. Acknowledging, of course, that Orlando isn't necc. representative of the entire state, but...
Bus Principal is only employed after it actually happens. We had this very same discussion years ago, then one day, one of the techs woke up dead.
Tell me, does this result in zombie processes?
If you're female there is no reason to go into IT... nursing pays better, comes with better benefits, better hours, way less stress, no bullying from male coworkers, no worries about your job going offshore to Inida (sic), more respect from the general community, just a better future period.
Yeah, but the challenge is that in some areas, it's nigh to impossible to get into a nursing program unless your grades are in the top 7% of the applicants that year (or some incredible number). My sister has been trying to get into a nursing program in Oregon for quite some time. Perhaps if the teaching positions for nursing paid more, there would be a greater number of instructors, resulting in higher enrollment capabilities, and so on (trickle down).
Of course I'm not an expert in this field (I'm an IT guy, too) and perhaps my sister's experience is unique, but that's not the impression I've been getting.
If the twins have not been living near-identical lives (sharing cars, apartments, etc), they probably have distinct bacterial colonies, and bacterial forensics (an emerging science) could be the key.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201003193
This method cannot conclusively place an individual at the scene of the crime, but if combined with DNA evidence, I think you'd have a pretty air-tight case.
I think ponytails these days are FAR more rare than multiple piercings or tattoos. There's only one guy I can think of in our offices (of several hundred) who has a ponytail. But he's the one known for visiting the salad bar after NOT washing his hands in the restroom. Ick.
But I'm sure you (and your other ponytail-loving friends) are far more sanitary-minded.
I thought that having excessive piercings (plus mohawks, tattoos) was the way to tell the world, "I don't ever want to be someone's boss."
There's lies, damned lies, statistics... and people who really don't know math.
That reminds me. I was at a very fine Java conference over the weekend in February. The session speaker talked about "hacking your brain" and mentioned lots of pop-psych stuff. He asked if we'd heard of the Lake Wobegon Effect. Then he asked how many of us in the room thought we were above-average drivers. Knowing where this was leading, I went ahead and raised my hand, as did about 80% of the room.
Knowing something about me from a previous comment, the speaker asks me, "You're a math guy. So, is it really possible that everyone who raised their hand is an above-average driver?" I hesitated for a moment, trying to decide whether to embarrass him with the truth, or remain silent. He seized the silence and answered himself, "No, of course not."
I exchanged bemused glances with the attendee next to me who clearly caught me smirking. Yet this speaker is an adjunct at a University in Minnesota with a Comp Sci background. How quickly even the most intelligent forget or mis-remember.
[homework for the confused: suppose ten people take a test. nine score 90%. one scores 60%. what percent of the ten people scored above average?]
Frank,
Maybe over in Portland (your neck of the woods) you've had roundabouts for many years. But many places in Wisconsin have only begun putting in roundabouts in the last 10 years or so, and sparingly at that. Maybe you're a brilliant driver, and maybe I'm a bad one. But when I took driving instruction here, there were no roundabouts. They weren't discussed in class, we didn't test-drive on them, etc. So what I'm saying is that even the best driver, when confronted with a roundabout, may be unsure of the correct procedure.
I've thought of the roundabout as a big circular intersection. As such, I thought perhaps I should signal my intent to turn prior to entering the roundabout. I now see from this presentation at http://www.dot.state.wi.us/safety/motorist/roaddesign/roundabouts/av/roundabout.swf that intent is established first by choosing your entrance lane and that you ought to use your turn signal prior to exiting the roundabout.
If you use them every day, I suppose it seems absurd that someone wouldn't know how. But let's be fair.
until we get them fitted with shock collars idiots will always do idiotic things
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Many computer nerds like to tout themselves as geniuses who have flexible minds. But the truth is that we're all afraid of change.
It's times like these that I like to remember Walter Sobchak: "Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?"
In all honesty, I think a change is driving so many of us batshit crazy because (as other posters have noted) we've been taught (and marketed to) that 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte. We fuckin' laugh at people who actually say "kibibyte" out loud. Nobody actually talks about / uses the (ki|me|gi)bibyte words, honestly. When HDD manufacturers would fudge with their numbers when reporting capacity (back when this was a much bigger deal) by stating that 1 megabyte was 1000 kilobytes, we got pretty pissed off, didn't we? Additionally, consider the threads that get started whenever someone complains about the changing of the English language, how it is used in common speech vs the proper/original meaning (see "begs the question" or "decimate" discussion threads).
See, we're the same people who are irritated when we find out that Puff Daddy has decided he's now Puffy. No, wait. Make that P. Diddy. Naw, just Diddy. (seriously, wtf?) We've been talking about the same fucking thing for so long and using a name which so few people had problems with, and now you wanna change it? *sigh*
How about some crusaders who mount spam campaigns that, when clicked, scare the holy living hell out of the recipient? ... Of course no money would be stolen but it would at least give a few idiots the scare of their lives and get them to stop clicking on spam.
Well, "the boy who cried wolf" comes to mind. I think some users who experience this hypothetical situation might think "ah, not harmful spam. Just some jerk with another false alarm."
You mean like this? http://kottke.org/07/03/men-look-at-crotches
While that wouldn't bother me since I'm bi...
But don't you at least appreciate knowing what to expect? Hell, you should see my reaction taking a sip of Pepsi when I expect Mt Dew.
A few suggestions from my experience as a technician:
I'm right there with you on the Acrobat Reader bit -- I had a laptop that I witnessed get 0wn3d in a matter of seconds when acrobat plugin crashed while browsing, and it spiraled out of control until I just unplugged the ether and turned it off. But can you explain the vulnerability of Java? That's rather broad categorization, it seems. What kinds of common Java problems have you seen?
I live in Belgium, where we have health insurance and auto insurance and bicycles and none of the problems you imply. My parents live in Spain and also none f those issues. My sister in Germany? No problems there.
Yes, but on the other hand, you and your family then spend an inordinate sum on train fares whenever you wish to get together for holidays.
Erm, what were we talking about again?
Perhaps Google wants not to have billion-dollar lawsuits fabricated and leveled at them.
And remember, folks, lawsuits fabricated is an anagram of aw! fast is lubricated.
I think it's been clear that the obstacles to widespread adoption of email encryption are 1) ease of use, and 2) critical mass.
Yes, yes. For you and me, using encryption is not terribly difficult. We might even be able to teach our close (non-geek) friends how to use it. But you're also implicitly taking on an educational challenge. How will you convince this friend of the merits of using encryption? My guess is that for most people I would want to teach, I'd waved off and dismissed because they don't know anybody else who uses it, and they'd ultimately state, "I've got nothing to hide". Tired argument, sure. But there it is, again and again. The how and why of encryption is the biggest hurdle for the non-techie.
We can't even get them to use decent passwords. People are lazy. Even (especially?) geeks. Unless usage of encryption can be nearly transparent and effortless, it won't be readily adopted, I'm afraid.
Strong password requirements are a big part of the problem.
I've known people to use a kind of "formula" to create/remember passwords. It works such that you don't need to strictly memorize your password, but you only need to remember how to derive it. First, I come up with some basic, moderate-strength password, like 4Fa2@xx8?L. But instead of the "xx", I replace it with the two letters in the site's domain name before the TLD, so for slashdot, maybe my password would be 4Fa2@ot8?L.
This is a very simple example, but you can imagine new ways of creating a formula (say, count the number of vowels in the domain, etc) to create your own scheme.
Yes, it's true, this isn't an incredibly strong method, strictly speaking. If someone catches one PW and can figure out your scheme, you're cooked. On the other hand, the result is that you're probably going to have a different password on every site you use, it's a strong password, and you don't have to use any tools to manage your PWs, just memorize the scheme.
I admit I don't have a similar solution for places that require password changes every 90 days, such as my employer. There, I try each time to come up with a password based on an easily-remembered phrase, like "gilligans3hourtour" or "drdanieljacksondiedagain". Yeah, I tend to get funny looks when I type in 20+ character passwords. heh.
Then there is the problem of Italian influence, and the known fact that Italo-islamic spies have placed cable splitters in all the main telecom hubs of the U.S. and Mexico
This is SERIOUS SHIT, if it is true !!
Can anyone confirm the above claim, please ??
Minus the profanity, this pretty much typifies one of every three emails I get from my grandmother.