That is a pretty weaselly way of saying it. The School's system can't track a student off campus, but anyone else's can. Any security concerns clearly are not going to be limited to worrying about school staff tracking a student. Any arguments that would indicate the school wasn't lying also indicate that the school does not understand the security ramifications of what they are implementing and thus their program is a danger to the students.
If the school does not understand that the RFID can be used to be used to identify students off campus, then they do not understand the security risks (no matter how small it may be) associated with the devices that they are demanding students carry with them. Thus the tags should not be allowed.
The problem is that a four year degree is no longer a sign that the graduate can read and write. Most people graduate High School with about a 7th grade education. It is becoming increasingly common that many 4 year degrees are only an indication of an 8th grade education.
Given the amount of evidence that those public officers actively worked to cover up the rape (thus becoming accomplices) , your trust seems to be placed badly.
I agree that we should get bills online, but not by email. I specifically don't get any of my bills by email because it is a totally unreliable way to receive anything. For billing to work online, a system that is either pull, or white listed has to be implemented. It could easily be done with existing email tools, but not with bills going into the same mailbox as spammers who are crafting emails to look exactly like legitimate bills.
An easy way for companies to make the system more secure is to run their own mail server with a mailbox for every user. They generally already have a login username and password for each customer, so just use the existing account information to give access to a mailbox. Don't allow outgoing mail, only allow incoming mail from their billing system and they are done. Any decent mail client allows for multiple accounts. This would mean that your bills could be pulled down automatically so you wouldn't need to remember to keep going back and checking to see if the bill has been generated. It would mean that you would be notified by your mail application when the bill arrived. And, it would mean that you would know that the bill came from who you expected it to come from.
Alternatively, a standard for connecting and pulling down the data directly could be done, but that seems like a lot more work for limited benefit.
1. Do current Mindstorm devices (servos, sensors) work with it? Or am I going to have to buy all new ones?
That's what I want to know. I had the original Mindstorm, and when the v2 came out, it was incompatible to the first one. The other issue is will they start keeping their software up to date? The software for even v2 only runs on XP. This is way to expensive of a toy to have it go obsolete because of an OS upgrade.
How about people like me that enjoy having lunch every day with my son? Who likes being able to take off for a 10am matinee with him, and then make up for that time at 10pm when inspiration hits and I get even more done? Who enjoys just hearing my son playing in the other room? Who took a two month road trip around the country... working from the back seat of the minivan while my wife drove, and then stopped and enjoyed all of the various attractions when we got to them? Most people can't just take 2.5 months off of work and go on a road trip. Because I had a manager that was skilled in the trade of management, and I mingled my work and home life, I was able to take a trip with my family that is out of reach of most Americans without taking any more of a financial hit than most people take during a weekend trip to Disneyland.
The problem is that we now have a culture that does not respect management as a real and independent skill set. Because of this, people who have no skill in management are consistently hired to do that job. This leads to massive incompetence in management. (particularly middle and lower management)
This then leads to management making decisions that lead to creating more work so that they can rationalize their existence while simultaneously being less productive. It is the equivalent of using KLOCs as a metric for software development. More work doesn't mean more productive. Often it is exactly the opposite. Unskilled management does not understand this.
We also suffer from vandalism. So far, it has been confined to physical vandalism of equipment. Some day, some bright boy is going to figure out that he can plug in a WIFI, and use his smart phone to introduce anything he likes to the computerized equipment. The older equipment may not recognize a WIFI device, but the newer machines certainly do.
You have fallen for the "Smartphones are scary" line. If someone can plug a wifi router into the network, they can plug a thumb sized computer into the network. No smartphone necessary. The only way that a smartphone would make this a bigger threat is that the thumb sized computer could be tethered to a smartphone, giving remote access to the vandal from home.
If you are working for the DoD, fine. For the person working in a real estate office, no it isn't. There is no security, and banning cell phones is just being a petty tyrant. The same 99% of other jobs. Heck, I have known accounting firms that literally outsource work to India. Security is always shades of gray. Going nuclear on smartphones because they are new and scary while outsourcing data entry to inmates in a prison is not being "secure".
That is the part that the "work is for work" people seem to miss. There are jobs that are punch in at exactly 8 and punch out at exactly 5. For those, I can acknowledge that a "Time to lean, time to clean" mentality could be fair (not necessarily the most productive, but fair). For any job that you might be asked to stay 15 minutes late for a meeting, called in on a day off, or in any way deal with the job during off hours, saying that "work time is for work, no exceptions" is an acknowledgement, and act of exploiting those in a vulnerable position.
For jobs that might actually ever be on call, it is over the top despicable.
While good engineering for some jobs would be useful, the bigger answer is that the whole security concern is dumb for most jobs. I understand that some jobs require high security, but most jobs very simply do not. Right off the bat, any job that allows the employee to work remotely, or take work home at any time clearly does not need super locked down, no camera, no data transfer security.
Even for jobs that don't ever happen off site, at most jobs, any data that was wanted could easily be hand copied, or photocopied and carried out in a purse, backpack, or briefcase. The discussion on whether smartphones should be banned from the premises should only even start if the company has already implemented physical security at the front door that searches every bag and briefcase that passes through.
In all but the rarest of cases, a ban on smartphones would be nothing but security theater. It is paranoia with delusional fantasies about how data can be prevented for being stolen.
Beats me. It is still a simpler answer than trying to figure out who did bad math. I'm not saying Occam's Razor isn't stupid. I'm just saying that according to Occam's Razor God crashed the multi-billion dollar craft.
Our land survey system needs to be massively revamped irrelevant of the units of measurement. We have massive amounts of stupid stuff like defining a property line by things like "The stump in the middle of the creek". No joke. I have seen tons of legal property descriptions with that kind of language.
As for the unites of measurement, much of our land is measured in freaking "Chains". That's right. Chains. How many of you know how big a "chain" is without looking it up?
We seriously need to a nationwide survey where we divide up the entire nation into metric units that are as small as necessary to reduce lawsuits, and do mass conversion.
Who expects a one cup unit of coffee when they order a "cup" of coffee. The word "cup" when used in "I just drank a cup of coffee." is referring to a drinking vessel. The word may have it's etymological roots in the measurement, but they have not been the same word for a very very long time.
Personally, when I have a "cup" of coffee, it is usually 2.5 cups in measurement.
No, it isn't. Lumber is the biggest example of a screwed up measurement system. It isn't even Imperial. A 2x4 isn't 2"x4". A 4x8 isn't 4"x8". If switching to metric would fix the screwed up measurements of lumber, that alone would make it worth while.
There is value in standards though. If the rest of the planet was using Imperial units, I would support any stragglers to convert to that. As it is, most of the world uses metric, so I support the move to metric.
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If they are not lying, then they are not educated enough to handle this kind of technology safely. Either way, there is a problem.
That is a pretty weaselly way of saying it. The School's system can't track a student off campus, but anyone else's can. Any security concerns clearly are not going to be limited to worrying about school staff tracking a student. Any arguments that would indicate the school wasn't lying also indicate that the school does not understand the security ramifications of what they are implementing and thus their program is a danger to the students.
If the school does not understand that the RFID can be used to be used to identify students off campus, then they do not understand the security risks (no matter how small it may be) associated with the devices that they are demanding students carry with them. Thus the tags should not be allowed.
The problem is that a four year degree is no longer a sign that the graduate can read and write. Most people graduate High School with about a 7th grade education. It is becoming increasingly common that many 4 year degrees are only an indication of an 8th grade education.
Given the amount of evidence that those public officers actively worked to cover up the rape (thus becoming accomplices) , your trust seems to be placed badly.
I agree that we should get bills online, but not by email. I specifically don't get any of my bills by email because it is a totally unreliable way to receive anything. For billing to work online, a system that is either pull, or white listed has to be implemented. It could easily be done with existing email tools, but not with bills going into the same mailbox as spammers who are crafting emails to look exactly like legitimate bills.
An easy way for companies to make the system more secure is to run their own mail server with a mailbox for every user. They generally already have a login username and password for each customer, so just use the existing account information to give access to a mailbox. Don't allow outgoing mail, only allow incoming mail from their billing system and they are done. Any decent mail client allows for multiple accounts. This would mean that your bills could be pulled down automatically so you wouldn't need to remember to keep going back and checking to see if the bill has been generated. It would mean that you would be notified by your mail application when the bill arrived. And, it would mean that you would know that the bill came from who you expected it to come from.
Alternatively, a standard for connecting and pulling down the data directly could be done, but that seems like a lot more work for limited benefit.
1. Do current Mindstorm devices (servos, sensors) work with it? Or am I going to have to buy all new ones?
That's what I want to know. I had the original Mindstorm, and when the v2 came out, it was incompatible to the first one. The other issue is will they start keeping their software up to date? The software for even v2 only runs on XP. This is way to expensive of a toy to have it go obsolete because of an OS upgrade.
Of course at that point, a $5 wrench works wonders.
How about people like me that enjoy having lunch every day with my son? Who likes being able to take off for a 10am matinee with him, and then make up for that time at 10pm when inspiration hits and I get even more done? Who enjoys just hearing my son playing in the other room? Who took a two month road trip around the country... working from the back seat of the minivan while my wife drove, and then stopped and enjoyed all of the various attractions when we got to them? Most people can't just take 2.5 months off of work and go on a road trip. Because I had a manager that was skilled in the trade of management, and I mingled my work and home life, I was able to take a trip with my family that is out of reach of most Americans without taking any more of a financial hit than most people take during a weekend trip to Disneyland.
The problem is that we now have a culture that does not respect management as a real and independent skill set. Because of this, people who have no skill in management are consistently hired to do that job. This leads to massive incompetence in management. (particularly middle and lower management)
This then leads to management making decisions that lead to creating more work so that they can rationalize their existence while simultaneously being less productive. It is the equivalent of using KLOCs as a metric for software development. More work doesn't mean more productive. Often it is exactly the opposite. Unskilled management does not understand this.
We also suffer from vandalism. So far, it has been confined to physical vandalism of equipment. Some day, some bright boy is going to figure out that he can plug in a WIFI, and use his smart phone to introduce anything he likes to the computerized equipment. The older equipment may not recognize a WIFI device, but the newer machines certainly do.
You have fallen for the "Smartphones are scary" line. If someone can plug a wifi router into the network, they can plug a thumb sized computer into the network. No smartphone necessary. The only way that a smartphone would make this a bigger threat is that the thumb sized computer could be tethered to a smartphone, giving remote access to the vandal from home.
If you are working for the DoD, fine. For the person working in a real estate office, no it isn't. There is no security, and banning cell phones is just being a petty tyrant. The same 99% of other jobs. Heck, I have known accounting firms that literally outsource work to India. Security is always shades of gray. Going nuclear on smartphones because they are new and scary while outsourcing data entry to inmates in a prison is not being "secure".
That is the part that the "work is for work" people seem to miss. There are jobs that are punch in at exactly 8 and punch out at exactly 5. For those, I can acknowledge that a "Time to lean, time to clean" mentality could be fair (not necessarily the most productive, but fair). For any job that you might be asked to stay 15 minutes late for a meeting, called in on a day off, or in any way deal with the job during off hours, saying that "work time is for work, no exceptions" is an acknowledgement, and act of exploiting those in a vulnerable position.
For jobs that might actually ever be on call, it is over the top despicable.
While good engineering for some jobs would be useful, the bigger answer is that the whole security concern is dumb for most jobs. I understand that some jobs require high security, but most jobs very simply do not. Right off the bat, any job that allows the employee to work remotely, or take work home at any time clearly does not need super locked down, no camera, no data transfer security.
Even for jobs that don't ever happen off site, at most jobs, any data that was wanted could easily be hand copied, or photocopied and carried out in a purse, backpack, or briefcase. The discussion on whether smartphones should be banned from the premises should only even start if the company has already implemented physical security at the front door that searches every bag and briefcase that passes through.
In all but the rarest of cases, a ban on smartphones would be nothing but security theater. It is paranoia with delusional fantasies about how data can be prevented for being stolen.
Beats me. It is still a simpler answer than trying to figure out who did bad math. I'm not saying Occam's Razor isn't stupid. I'm just saying that according to Occam's Razor God crashed the multi-billion dollar craft.
Our land survey system needs to be massively revamped irrelevant of the units of measurement. We have massive amounts of stupid stuff like defining a property line by things like "The stump in the middle of the creek". No joke. I have seen tons of legal property descriptions with that kind of language.
As for the unites of measurement, much of our land is measured in freaking "Chains". That's right. Chains. How many of you know how big a "chain" is without looking it up?
We seriously need to a nationwide survey where we divide up the entire nation into metric units that are as small as necessary to reduce lawsuits, and do mass conversion.
Already done. It got a meaningless response.
I can't speak for every industry, but working in a steel mill, I can tell you that it would be trivial to produce the sheets in metric.
If the only thing your carpenter friend has learned in his entire career is the measurements, then I wouldn't want him working on any projects for me.
Who expects a one cup unit of coffee when they order a "cup" of coffee. The word "cup" when used in "I just drank a cup of coffee." is referring to a drinking vessel. The word may have it's etymological roots in the measurement, but they have not been the same word for a very very long time.
Personally, when I have a "cup" of coffee, it is usually 2.5 cups in measurement.
No, it isn't. Lumber is the biggest example of a screwed up measurement system. It isn't even Imperial. A 2x4 isn't 2"x4". A 4x8 isn't 4"x8". If switching to metric would fix the screwed up measurements of lumber, that alone would make it worth while.
That is why I support the change. The system used is less important than standardization.
There is value in standards though. If the rest of the planet was using Imperial units, I would support any stragglers to convert to that. As it is, most of the world uses metric, so I support the move to metric.
Since the simplest answer to every question is "It was God's will.", Occam's Razor says, yes. It was God that crashed the craft into Mars.
A real man doesn't use those wimpy AUTO-mobiles!