(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;
I would say a computer infected with a virus is going to be damaged, and files lost. A computer repair tech investigates to find the cause of the damage, therefore the law applies. The general public didn't know this computer was infected with a virus, therefore it is computer based data not available to the public. Once the tech finds the virus, he had just found computer based data not available to the public. Once again the law applies.
Here's the scenario:
Joe GeekSquad is working for Mr. Lawyer who has an infected machine. Mr. Lawyer knows nothing about computers but he does know the law. (Typical) Joe GeekSquad deletes the virus, and because those guys are useless, ends up deleting an important system file instead of replacing it with a clean copy. The computer no longer boots up. The owner asks if Joe GeekSquad has a PI licence. When Joe GeekSquad fails to produce one the police are called, and Joe GeekSquad goes to jail.
Anybody here think slashdot should be protecting it's brand here? Isn't this similar to using google as a verb? I think this is the only place one should be allowed to use that term. Microsoft most definitely shouldn't be allowed.
Attorneys for telecommunications companies say the litigation is needed because municipalities with the ability to borrow money cheaply -- and not hobbled by the need to return a profit -- have unfair competitive advantages.
If this is their argument it's pretty lame considering the massive subsidies for infrastructure telcos get from the government.
I can't really trust those network monitoring sites. They aren't accurate. All they can tell is that the site is down "from their location". I work for a webhosting company, and I've run into numerous cases where a customer is screaming that his website is down because they network monitoring site sent him a report saying so. The truth of the matter was the site was up the entire time (even the customer could get to the site when I had them actually try). If a node goes down anywhere between the monitoring site and the user's website, they get a false positive.
On top of that, you have to wonder if any of these monitoring sites are also deliberately sending false reports. Back when I was working for an ISP, I remember there was some kind of network monitoring software that came out, and a number of people were installing on their computers. It would start warning customers that their "network connection was saturated - blah blah blah" and customers would call in blaming us. Within a few days I started seeing reviews on the net about the product, and some research showed that it was deliberately generating false reports for anybody that wasn't with a certain large coaster shipping ISP. Apparently the software company was a shareholder. I can't remember what the name of the product was however, this was back in the old dialup days.
I did the math on this. If your upstream is 1Mbps, and you ran a non-stop upload for the entire day using all your available bandwidth, the maximum you could upload is roughly 10Gb/day. So unless upstream speeds exceed 3Mbps, you couldn't possibly exceed your cap. Of course, I have no idea what upstream speeds in Japan are like with most broadband providers. Anybody got some numbers?
It should be programmed to give a poor score for using a vibrato. I don't know about you but I can't stand it when I go to a ball game and have to tolerate a 40 minute version of the national anthem because the singer vibratos every line of the song for a full minute.
eg: "The land of the FRE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E............."
This law will most certainly get misused to let the pervs go free. Imagine Joe Blow the computer tech stumbles across kiddie porn while working on a PC. He calls the police. Case goes to court. Joe Blow doesn't have a PI licence. The evidence gets thrown out - illegal search, and Joe Blow goes to jail/pays a huge fine.
I have to agree. I beleive that people who do computer repair should have something like an A+ certificaiton. A PI licence makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I think what needs to be done now is to get all the script kiddies to hammer the crap out of every computer they can find in texas, especially ones in government offices. Once they are all infected with viruses, people will have to hire private investigators to do the repairs. Since the PI's don't have a clue about computer repair, and it's not really their core business, this law will have to change. Fast.
They sold it? Not bloody likely. Web hosting companies hate spam just like the rest of us, it causes a lot of problems for them. What likely happened is you didn't subscribe to WHOIS privacy. Guess what - your admin email address is in your WHOIS info, publicly available.
No, it's not china I'm talking about - its multinational companies. If an ISP in China asks a big telco like AT&T to provide them with connectivity, then AT&T will do it in a heartbeat, and no government is going to stop it.
But while we're on the subject - if the chinese government had control over the internet then I wouldn't be able to say something like this:
"THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT SUCKS GOATSE BALLS!!!"
The biggest problem with this thinking is that governments don't have any control over the internet anymore, telco's do. Various governments have proven time and time again that they don't want to have anything to do with regulating the internet whatsoever, probably because it's a big cost and they'll get a huge backlash from voters who will have more freedoms stripped away from them. Not only that but the telcos will start whining.
The big telcos love globalization. A country like China needs more bandwidth? Sure, we'll lay down the fiber but it's going to cost you. While the telcos rake in the cash, the spam starts flowing faster. Sooner or later they'll be asking for more bandwidth to send more spam and sure enough the telcos are going to agree because it's a huge profit. The only way you will stop spam is to stop the spammers at the source. Force them to provide valid contact information so that when we receive spam messages, we can find the spammers, line them up against a wall and blow their freaking heads off. That might just be enough of a deterrant.
Whatever you do, safety should be a prime concern I'm sure. You probably don't want some heathkit burning down your house cause it was wired incorrectly. Use GFI plugs - LOTS of em, make sure the electrical is all properly grounded, have fire extinguishers handy, first aid kit, a phone to call 911 from, and maybe a halon for when they misbehave...
The sad thing is, something like this should have been invented a long time ago. We've had the technology and the ability to do it for years, and at the very least Star Wars or the Bionic Man/Woman should have inspired someone to build this. I'd be willing to bet someone has designed and built a prosthetic arm like this a long time ago, but insurance companies have probably worked very hard to keep it from ever getting to market or any publicity.
I read the article. He's absolutely correct, and this would also solve the problems ISP's have with bittorrent. Instead of throttling bandwidth to all their customers and screwing them over, manage the traffic properly. It might slow down bittorrent downloads slightly, but not enough to seriously affect it. In the end however it doesn't make business sense for a monopolistic company like Bell to cater to it's customer's needs. They would rather force their customers to dump bittorrent and use their new video download service instead.
Considering how often Prince has an identity crisis, this wouldn't suprise me.
I'm a symbol dammit!!! I'm a symbol for Radiohead!!! That's just ignorance!!! I don't bleach my skin I have a skin condition!!! That's just ignorance!!!
Sorry.... got my rants mixed up. Hard to tell those two morons apart sometimes.
Not one. I worked in their tech support for nearly 5 years and never once got a complaint about congestion. Plenty of complaints about slow speeds - but those issues were always due to poor sync - crappy 100 year old phone lines rusted to the point where you had to keep getting them to repeat themselves over the static. If a customer called to have line work done, if the problem was outside the demarc - they were promptly told no. Inside the house they would do because they get to hose the customer for a few hundred more dollars - for each visit (minimum 3 because they won't fix it right the first time.) Usually the technician would show up at the customer's house, call in to their dispatch that the customer wasn't home (although they never bothered to check) and leave a bill in the mailbox. If the customer didn't pay it they'd simply get their services cut off.
I took no time whatsoever to submit my comments. Be sure to tell Internet Pat what a wanker he is. I can't remember his last name, but he's the VP of marketing for Sympatico there. He's probably also responsible for those annoying cartoon beavers plastered all over the newspaper ads and television. I wish they would get rid of that ad campaign. Beavers are supposed to be symbolic for hard working Canadians. Nowadays most of their workforce lives in India.
Sorry, I'm just a little jaded. I used to work for a Sympatico call center here in Canada doing technical support. We were repeatedly getting wage cuts, benefits removed, workloads increased, sales targets increased (yes, I did say technical support), and jobs being sent overseas. We had over 300 employees. I left when it got down to about 30. When my cellphone contract ends next year I'm switching to Rogers - that will be the last Bell service I'll ever have.
No, that would be the companies paying the advertizers. The advertizers only concern is to annoy the shit out of as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. They don't make their money from the viewers, they make it from the company paying for the ad. Personally, I think it would be better if companies selling their products would cut out the middle man, and pay the viewers for seeing their ads.
I work for a web hosting provider. We do provide SSL certs which can be purchased on an annual basis and are easy enough to install. (Basically you subscribe to it and it's installed automagically for you). However, if you buy your own SSL cert things get more complicated - at least for us 1st level support types. We have to install the cert manually which can be a massive undertaking - especially if the customer doesn't understand how it works. This usually results in numerous emails back and forth with the customer because they don't provide the "EXACT" information they used to register the cert. Since certs are purchased annually, and some customers have a habit of jumping from one hosting provider to another every couple of months, this can add to the complication. My advice would be to find a web hosting provider that caters to your needs and stick with them. Purchase your SSL cert from them for minimal headache. You may end up paying a little more because you are going through a reseller instead of purchasing directly from the issuer but it's definately worth it.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you blind or just plain retarded!
(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;
I would say a computer infected with a virus is going to be damaged, and files lost. A computer repair tech investigates to find the cause of the damage, therefore the law applies. The general public didn't know this computer was infected with a virus, therefore it is computer based data not available to the public. Once the tech finds the virus, he had just found computer based data not available to the public. Once again the law applies.
Here's the scenario:
Joe GeekSquad is working for Mr. Lawyer who has an infected machine. Mr. Lawyer knows nothing about computers but he does know the law. (Typical) Joe GeekSquad deletes the virus, and because those guys are useless, ends up deleting an important system file instead of replacing it with a clean copy. The computer no longer boots up. The owner asks if Joe GeekSquad has a PI licence. When Joe GeekSquad fails to produce one the police are called, and Joe GeekSquad goes to jail.
including one that was (literally) Slashdotted
Anybody here think slashdot should be protecting it's brand here? Isn't this similar to using google as a verb? I think this is the only place one should be allowed to use that term. Microsoft most definitely shouldn't be allowed.
New strategy: Let the wookie win.
Attorneys for telecommunications companies say the litigation is needed because municipalities with the ability to borrow money cheaply -- and not hobbled by the need to return a profit -- have unfair competitive advantages.
If this is their argument it's pretty lame considering the massive subsidies for infrastructure telcos get from the government.
47% are still using Mosaic????
I can't really trust those network monitoring sites. They aren't accurate. All they can tell is that the site is down "from their location". I work for a webhosting company, and I've run into numerous cases where a customer is screaming that his website is down because they network monitoring site sent him a report saying so. The truth of the matter was the site was up the entire time (even the customer could get to the site when I had them actually try). If a node goes down anywhere between the monitoring site and the user's website, they get a false positive. On top of that, you have to wonder if any of these monitoring sites are also deliberately sending false reports. Back when I was working for an ISP, I remember there was some kind of network monitoring software that came out, and a number of people were installing on their computers. It would start warning customers that their "network connection was saturated - blah blah blah" and customers would call in blaming us. Within a few days I started seeing reviews on the net about the product, and some research showed that it was deliberately generating false reports for anybody that wasn't with a certain large coaster shipping ISP. Apparently the software company was a shareholder. I can't remember what the name of the product was however, this was back in the old dialup days.
I did the math on this. If your upstream is 1Mbps, and you ran a non-stop upload for the entire day using all your available bandwidth, the maximum you could upload is roughly 10Gb/day. So unless upstream speeds exceed 3Mbps, you couldn't possibly exceed your cap. Of course, I have no idea what upstream speeds in Japan are like with most broadband providers. Anybody got some numbers?
It should be programmed to give a poor score for using a vibrato. I don't know about you but I can't stand it when I go to a ball game and have to tolerate a 40 minute version of the national anthem because the singer vibratos every line of the song for a full minute.
eg: "The land of the FRE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E............."
Personally I consider it a mockery of the anthem.
This law will most certainly get misused to let the pervs go free. Imagine Joe Blow the computer tech stumbles across kiddie porn while working on a PC. He calls the police. Case goes to court. Joe Blow doesn't have a PI licence. The evidence gets thrown out - illegal search, and Joe Blow goes to jail/pays a huge fine.
I have to agree. I beleive that people who do computer repair should have something like an A+ certificaiton. A PI licence makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I think what needs to be done now is to get all the script kiddies to hammer the crap out of every computer they can find in texas, especially ones in government offices. Once they are all infected with viruses, people will have to hire private investigators to do the repairs. Since the PI's don't have a clue about computer repair, and it's not really their core business, this law will have to change. Fast.
They sold it? Not bloody likely. Web hosting companies hate spam just like the rest of us, it causes a lot of problems for them. What likely happened is you didn't subscribe to WHOIS privacy. Guess what - your admin email address is in your WHOIS info, publicly available.
No, it's not china I'm talking about - its multinational companies. If an ISP in China asks a big telco like AT&T to provide them with connectivity, then AT&T will do it in a heartbeat, and no government is going to stop it. But while we're on the subject - if the chinese government had control over the internet then I wouldn't be able to say something like this: "THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT SUCKS GOATSE BALLS!!!"
The biggest problem with this thinking is that governments don't have any control over the internet anymore, telco's do. Various governments have proven time and time again that they don't want to have anything to do with regulating the internet whatsoever, probably because it's a big cost and they'll get a huge backlash from voters who will have more freedoms stripped away from them. Not only that but the telcos will start whining. The big telcos love globalization. A country like China needs more bandwidth? Sure, we'll lay down the fiber but it's going to cost you. While the telcos rake in the cash, the spam starts flowing faster. Sooner or later they'll be asking for more bandwidth to send more spam and sure enough the telcos are going to agree because it's a huge profit. The only way you will stop spam is to stop the spammers at the source. Force them to provide valid contact information so that when we receive spam messages, we can find the spammers, line them up against a wall and blow their freaking heads off. That might just be enough of a deterrant.
I for one welcome our new... Connection reset by peer
Whatever you do, safety should be a prime concern I'm sure. You probably don't want some heathkit burning down your house cause it was wired incorrectly. Use GFI plugs - LOTS of em, make sure the electrical is all properly grounded, have fire extinguishers handy, first aid kit, a phone to call 911 from, and maybe a halon for when they misbehave...
The sad thing is, something like this should have been invented a long time ago. We've had the technology and the ability to do it for years, and at the very least Star Wars or the Bionic Man/Woman should have inspired someone to build this. I'd be willing to bet someone has designed and built a prosthetic arm like this a long time ago, but insurance companies have probably worked very hard to keep it from ever getting to market or any publicity.
I read the article. He's absolutely correct, and this would also solve the problems ISP's have with bittorrent. Instead of throttling bandwidth to all their customers and screwing them over, manage the traffic properly. It might slow down bittorrent downloads slightly, but not enough to seriously affect it. In the end however it doesn't make business sense for a monopolistic company like Bell to cater to it's customer's needs. They would rather force their customers to dump bittorrent and use their new video download service instead.
Considering how often Prince has an identity crisis, this wouldn't suprise me. I'm a symbol dammit!!! I'm a symbol for Radiohead!!! That's just ignorance!!! I don't bleach my skin I have a skin condition!!! That's just ignorance!!! Sorry.... got my rants mixed up. Hard to tell those two morons apart sometimes.
Not one. I worked in their tech support for nearly 5 years and never once got a complaint about congestion. Plenty of complaints about slow speeds - but those issues were always due to poor sync - crappy 100 year old phone lines rusted to the point where you had to keep getting them to repeat themselves over the static. If a customer called to have line work done, if the problem was outside the demarc - they were promptly told no. Inside the house they would do because they get to hose the customer for a few hundred more dollars - for each visit (minimum 3 because they won't fix it right the first time.) Usually the technician would show up at the customer's house, call in to their dispatch that the customer wasn't home (although they never bothered to check) and leave a bill in the mailbox. If the customer didn't pay it they'd simply get their services cut off.
It still does:
http://web.archive.org/web/19991012153204/http://goatse.cx/
Maybe they'll just haul the servers to another datacenter:
Dollys - $500, Truck rentals - $5000, Labour - $10000, Sending internets on trucks - Priceless
I took no time whatsoever to submit my comments. Be sure to tell Internet Pat what a wanker he is. I can't remember his last name, but he's the VP of marketing for Sympatico there. He's probably also responsible for those annoying cartoon beavers plastered all over the newspaper ads and television. I wish they would get rid of that ad campaign. Beavers are supposed to be symbolic for hard working Canadians. Nowadays most of their workforce lives in India.
Sorry, I'm just a little jaded. I used to work for a Sympatico call center here in Canada doing technical support. We were repeatedly getting wage cuts, benefits removed, workloads increased, sales targets increased (yes, I did say technical support), and jobs being sent overseas. We had over 300 employees. I left when it got down to about 30. When my cellphone contract ends next year I'm switching to Rogers - that will be the last Bell service I'll ever have.
No, that would be the companies paying the advertizers. The advertizers only concern is to annoy the shit out of as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. They don't make their money from the viewers, they make it from the company paying for the ad. Personally, I think it would be better if companies selling their products would cut out the middle man, and pay the viewers for seeing their ads.
And the requirements on Exchange (2Gb + 5MB/mailbox) are much better?
I work for a web hosting provider. We do provide SSL certs which can be purchased on an annual basis and are easy enough to install. (Basically you subscribe to it and it's installed automagically for you). However, if you buy your own SSL cert things get more complicated - at least for us 1st level support types. We have to install the cert manually which can be a massive undertaking - especially if the customer doesn't understand how it works. This usually results in numerous emails back and forth with the customer because they don't provide the "EXACT" information they used to register the cert. Since certs are purchased annually, and some customers have a habit of jumping from one hosting provider to another every couple of months, this can add to the complication. My advice would be to find a web hosting provider that caters to your needs and stick with them. Purchase your SSL cert from them for minimal headache. You may end up paying a little more because you are going through a reseller instead of purchasing directly from the issuer but it's definately worth it.