I work with exactly the same situation, helping maintain a halls of residence network where machines are owned by the students. We have a the following setup which seems to work pretty well:
1. the switches drop any traffic between machines in the network to stop malicious traffic propagating, (except to the server obviously:p)
2. all students data quantities are monitored so if a student is using a large amount of bandwidth consistently over a number of days an enquiry is made into whether the student is aware that they are sending/recieving a lot of data. If they were only downloading linux distros or something thats fine, however if they were only checking email then they machines connection is blocked until a virus scan is complete and the machine is fixed.
3. Regarding security, a CD and infosheet is handed to users on arrival to the halls with a slip they have to sign saying that if their machine is found to be sending viruses/spam etc then it will be disconnected from the network until it is fixed (by them). The CD contains Spybot/Adaware and AVG antivirus for those who don't have antivirus software.
4. Ports access is heavily restricted, no p2p traffic for example. (I'm from the UK and the laws that were explained to me are that if a company/organisation runs a network which is engaging in illegal activity then the company is just as liable for copywrite theft as the users are, as they are responsible for their network and must take "reasonable" actions to prevent it)
As a warning you will get a lot of flak from students for "restricting the access that they paid for!" even though in the actual halls contract that they sign is states that "internet access is provided for academic use only".
While this seems a little harsh if people really wanted to do LAN gaming for example they can always set up a separate network to do so.
"Last time I checked, those Virgin Moble and TracPhone cards were very expensive, over a dime a minute." Whereas here in the UK it is quite normal to be charged 35p a min... On the other hand the ethos of the states seems to be to ring everyone whereas texting is very common here and as such there are many packages that pander to that market. I myself barely ring anyone, but I send about 400 texts a month. I therefore don't really care if I have to pay 35p a min but get 12 free texts a day.. However with regards to numbers, you can ring up your supplier (Orange, Vodaphone etc) and ask for the PAK code for your number and transfer it to any other phone/network free of charge which I think it very handy.:-) Also, I think the requirements for my "pay-as-you-go" phone is something like I have to make at least one call or text every 6 months or the number will be disconnected. Still, interesting to see the differences that different countries have with regards to how they use and pay for phones.
Ah Ha! I have you now! Right, now to connect to the machine with a ridiculous looking GUI.. Ha! I've got a connection, now to try some usernames and passwords *presses a few keys* Yes! I've gained entry! Right, to teach him a lesson I'll delete some files.. *presses some more keys* Right now I need to disconnect so no one can trace me, and work on that big report for work tomorrow. Hey! Where did all my files go? Some bastard must have gained access and deleted all my files!
What do you mean Hollywood films are not like real life? I was sure thats how it worked!:-)
Actually having only the first 8 letters might make rather an interesting password as you only end up (probably) with half words in it, and anyone looking over your sholder won't know where your password ended or not.
"the price would go up since the ads would have no effect"
I don't know about you but ads have no effect on me anyway. Anyone else been compelled to buy something they've seen in an advert lately? The ONLY thing that has really got my attention for something is usually a film trailer, however I've usually found out about it from friends before I've seen the trailer and decided to watch it anyway. TV, movie and Internet advertising are entirely pointless in my opinion as I've got so used to tuning them out that I would probably miss an advert that would interest me if it ever did appear!
As they said, AnyDVD does that aswell, allows full control of a DVD (any region) and even has a label saying "Skip annoying trailers and messages on start":-)
Why not make use of the resources that many people with time on their hands provide. Just because they are in prison does not mean that they are stupid.
Like research without reqirements for funding, you never know what they might stumble apon looking at problems from a different perspective. Any revenue from sucessful results could be fed directly back into the system, reducing (maybe) taxpayers expenses.
People who are actively trying to improve should be allowed internet access possibly, but I don't think people who have no intention of reforming their ways should.
Obviously research would be severely limited (for safety reasons) but if an inmate could have the option of benifiting society would that not provide a motivation to return to society as a law abiding citizen? As people have already posted there are inmates who are doing time for crimes of passion and outside of situations of high stress are probably no different than you or I. Would that not be motivation for them?
"To start the application you have to wave your arms like a chicken and jump up and down"
"No no! VIGOROUSLY shake the handheld.. your not doing it fast enough"
"No! Don't do that! If you move all the files will be deleted! And don't even think about sneezing! You don't want do delete everything on the network do you!?! Stay absolutly still in that position till I find a solution"
This is damn insightful, and I think they hit the nail on the head. It is (as far as I can see) the whole ethos of school that is the problem.
Not having been to school in the US I can't back these optinions up with experience but I think that the attitude is to insult "nerds" "geeks" etc not stupid people.
Especially in places like Japan (I believe) and also here in the UK to some extent it is the opposite way around where people are insulted for being stupid not intelligent.
Why would people want to prove themselves in a society where they would only be picked on for differing from the norm?
So now that there is a precident for downloading could it be argued that if only part of a file was uploaded then they are not technically distributing anything as what they have distributed is unitelligable data and can't be reconstructed without the rest of the file? If everyone just distributed a portion of a file and just that portion, is that person guilty of redistributing it? All that would be required is that different people have different parts of the file that they share. I'm not a laywer so there are probably hideous flaws in this but hey, it might be worth asking! If this worked then uploading and downloading suddenly becomes entirely legal (at least in France anyway!).:-)
How about limiting the amount of free articles you can download to say 1 a day, with limitless downloads to subscribers?
That way people who are just curious get access and those who use it for research would still need a subscription. That way universities would still be required to pay for subscriptions, but students who just need to get a copy of a particular paper can get them from anywhere.
Also, with the use of scholar.google.com many papers that are on IEEE are often cached elsewhere as well anyway:-)
When is a computer taxable? Assuming they attempt to include home made PC's (although how they can inforce this unless they tax by component I don't know) then does a computer without an internet connection count?
I know a few people who still use computers just to write documents and don't even have dial up let alone the capacity to actually view streaming video or download videos in any sensible time frame. Are they taxable as well? I think this system would just have too many holes to be feasible.
I accept that by 2017 the connectivity to the internet will (hopefully!) be far more to the level that steaming video is entirely possible for the majority of the population, if they actually use it (see my previous point), but by then the more interesting question would be, what counts as a computer?
The way mobile phones are progressing will they be included? PDAs? MP3 players? Hell, random everyday items that we use like fridges and mirrors might have the potential to connect online and stream video, are they taxable as well?
Alien 1: Sir, our translators have decoded a message saying they are going to declare war!
Alien 2: Prepare the ships of war! No nation threatens us with large members. I don't care HOW big they are, they will be destroyed with our giant death rays!
Seriously though, I really don't want to get into an intergalactic dispute over mixed messages to discover that our defence is that we are only trying to spam them!
maybe this might prompt a response even if it is to tell us to stop it! Then again, they may just invade and destroy us all. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "spam is killing the world":-)
I would still like to see how books get selected for movies, I mean given the amount of amatuer productions of books there appear to be some truly genius adaptations that could be made given proper backing.
I wonder if we could post a top 10 books-to-film list and see if someone actually pays attention to what the public wants... oh wait.. best interests of the public... movie industry... never mind.
"Canada's Privacy Commisioner has ruled that a business e-mail address is personal information"
Just because it is an email address used for business it is still personal for you. Information that is sent out via that address is still connected to you and is a medium for you to state what you have to say/type. In fact many companies automatically add a disclaimer at the bottom of company emails basically saying "Views expressed in this email are not nessesarilly the views of this company"
I could just picture first detailed images of the sea coming back with a frozen martian with a slightly suprised look on its face frozen under the ice.:-)
While this reason was mentioned in another/. article I'm sure, I download a lot of TV shows because they are no longer aired and are not released for DVD. ie, unless you saw them at the time there is no way for you to view them again. I wonder how many downloads for TV shows are based on that reasoning?
Slashdot Mirror
I work with exactly the same situation, helping maintain a halls of residence network where machines are owned by the students. We have a the following setup which seems to work pretty well:
:p)
:-)
1. the switches drop any traffic between machines in the network to stop malicious traffic propagating, (except to the server obviously
2. all students data quantities are monitored so if a student is using a large amount of bandwidth consistently over a number of days an enquiry is made into whether the student is aware that they are sending/recieving a lot of data. If they were only downloading linux distros or something thats fine, however if they were only checking email then they machines connection is blocked until a virus scan is complete and the machine is fixed.
3. Regarding security, a CD and infosheet is handed to users on arrival to the halls with a slip they have to sign saying that if their machine is found to be sending viruses/spam etc then it will be disconnected from the network until it is fixed (by them). The CD contains Spybot/Adaware and AVG antivirus for those who don't have antivirus software.
4. Ports access is heavily restricted, no p2p traffic for example. (I'm from the UK and the laws that were explained to me are that if a company/organisation runs a network which is engaging in illegal activity then the company is just as liable for copywrite theft as the users are, as they are responsible for their network and must take "reasonable" actions to prevent it)
As a warning you will get a lot of flak from students for "restricting the access that they paid for!" even though in the actual halls contract that they sign is states that "internet access is provided for academic use only".
While this seems a little harsh if people really wanted to do LAN gaming for example they can always set up a separate network to do so.
Hope that helps
Sam
"I always wondered what motivation robots have for "learning"."
Given the intelligence of some people the same could be said for humans..
"Last time I checked, those Virgin Moble and TracPhone cards were very expensive, over a dime a minute." :-)
Whereas here in the UK it is quite normal to be charged 35p a min...
On the other hand the ethos of the states seems to be to ring everyone whereas texting is very common here and as such there are many packages that pander to that market. I myself barely ring anyone, but I send about 400 texts a month. I therefore don't really care if I have to pay 35p a min but get 12 free texts a day..
However with regards to numbers, you can ring up your supplier (Orange, Vodaphone etc) and ask for the PAK code for your number and transfer it to any other phone/network free of charge which I think it very handy.
Also, I think the requirements for my "pay-as-you-go" phone is something like I have to make at least one call or text every 6 months or the number will be disconnected.
Still, interesting to see the differences that different countries have with regards to how they use and pay for phones.
Ah Ha! I have you now! Right, now to connect to the machine with a ridiculous looking GUI.. Ha! I've got a connection, now to try some usernames and passwords *presses a few keys* Yes! I've gained entry! Right, to teach him a lesson I'll delete some files.. *presses some more keys* Right now I need to disconnect so no one can trace me, and work on that big report for work tomorrow. Hey! Where did all my files go? Some bastard must have gained access and deleted all my files!
:-)
What do you mean Hollywood films are not like real life? I was sure thats how it worked!
Actually having only the first 8 letters might make rather an interesting password as you only end up (probably) with half words in it, and anyone looking over your sholder won't know where your password ended or not.
"the price would go up since the ads would have no effect"
I don't know about you but ads have no effect on me anyway. Anyone else been compelled to buy something they've seen in an advert lately?
The ONLY thing that has really got my attention for something is usually a film trailer, however I've usually found out about it from friends before I've seen the trailer and decided to watch it anyway.
TV, movie and Internet advertising are entirely pointless in my opinion as I've got so used to tuning them out that I would probably miss an advert that would interest me if it ever did appear!
As they said, AnyDVD does that aswell, allows full control of a DVD (any region) and even has a label saying "Skip annoying trailers and messages on start" :-)
Why not make use of the resources that many people with time on their hands provide. Just because they are in prison does not mean that they are stupid.
Like research without reqirements for funding, you never know what they might stumble apon looking at problems from a different perspective. Any revenue from sucessful results could be fed directly back into the system, reducing (maybe) taxpayers expenses.
People who are actively trying to improve should be allowed internet access possibly, but I don't think people who have no intention of reforming their ways should.
Obviously research would be severely limited (for safety reasons) but if an inmate could have the option of benifiting society would that not provide a motivation to return to society as a law abiding citizen? As people have already posted there are inmates who are doing time for crimes of passion and outside of situations of high stress are probably no different than you or I. Would that not be motivation for them?
Just think of the abuse you could do to users!
"To start the application you have to wave your arms like a chicken and jump up and down"
"No no! VIGOROUSLY shake the handheld.. your not doing it fast enough"
"No! Don't do that! If you move all the files will be deleted! And don't even think about sneezing! You don't want do delete everything on the network do you!?! Stay absolutly still in that position till I find a solution"
Oooo the power! Bwhahahahaha!
Wow! I didn't expect a sensible answer! I was thinking along the lines of assualt and battery as it were :p
The mind abounds with disturbing images of people abusing batteries in all sorts of different ways..
This is damn insightful, and I think they hit the nail on the head. It is (as far as I can see) the whole ethos of school that is the problem.
Not having been to school in the US I can't back these optinions up with experience but I think that the attitude is to insult "nerds" "geeks" etc not stupid people.
Especially in places like Japan (I believe) and also here in the UK to some extent it is the opposite way around where people are insulted for being stupid not intelligent.
Why would people want to prove themselves in a society where they would only be picked on for differing from the norm?
In the article is says:
/. I'm sure that would create attention!
"For this to happen, we need to put some pressure on the search engines."
Such as posting it on
"although it seems unreachable at the moment"
/.
After being posted on
Never!
So now that there is a precident for downloading could it be argued that if only part of a file was uploaded then they are not technically distributing anything as what they have distributed is unitelligable data and can't be reconstructed without the rest of the file? :-)
If everyone just distributed a portion of a file and just that portion, is that person guilty of redistributing it? All that would be required is that different people have different parts of the file that they share. I'm not a laywer so there are probably hideous flaws in this but hey, it might be worth asking! If this worked then uploading and downloading suddenly becomes entirely legal (at least in France anyway!).
How about limiting the amount of free articles you can download to say 1 a day, with limitless downloads to subscribers?
:-)
That way people who are just curious get access and those who use it for research would still need a subscription. That way universities would still be required to pay for subscriptions, but students who just need to get a copy of a particular paper can get them from anywhere.
Also, with the use of scholar.google.com many papers that are on IEEE are often cached elsewhere as well anyway
When is a computer taxable? Assuming they attempt to include home made PC's (although how they can inforce this unless they tax by component I don't know) then does a computer without an internet connection count?
I know a few people who still use computers just to write documents and don't even have dial up let alone the capacity to actually view streaming video or download videos in any sensible time frame. Are they taxable as well? I think this system would just have too many holes to be feasible.
I accept that by 2017 the connectivity to the internet will (hopefully!) be far more to the level that steaming video is entirely possible for the majority of the population, if they actually use it (see my previous point), but by then the more interesting question would be, what counts as a computer?
The way mobile phones are progressing will they be included? PDAs? MP3 players? Hell, random everyday items that we use like fridges and mirrors might have the potential to connect online and stream video, are they taxable as well?
Alien 1: Sir, our translators have decoded a message saying they are going to declare war!
Alien 2: Prepare the ships of war! No nation threatens us with large members. I don't care HOW big they are, they will be destroyed with our giant death rays!
Seriously though, I really don't want to get into an intergalactic dispute over mixed messages to discover that our defence is that we are only trying to spam them!
maybe this might prompt a response even if it is to tell us to stop it! Then again, they may just invade and destroy us all. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "spam is killing the world" :-)
I would still like to see how books get selected for movies, I mean given the amount of amatuer productions of books there appear to be some truly genius adaptations that could be made given proper backing.
I wonder if we could post a top 10 books-to-film list and see if someone actually pays attention to what the public wants... oh wait.. best interests of the public... movie industry... never mind.
So people thinking in real UK English instead of Microsoft US English are still safe, thats good to hear. :-)
"Canada's Privacy Commisioner has ruled that a business e-mail address is personal information"
Just because it is an email address used for business it is still personal for you. Information that is sent out via that address is still connected to you and is a medium for you to state what you have to say/type. In fact many companies automatically add a disclaimer at the bottom of company emails basically saying "Views expressed in this email are not nessesarilly the views of this company"
I could just picture first detailed images of the sea coming back with a frozen martian with a slightly suprised look on its face frozen under the ice. :-)
While this reason was mentioned in another /. article I'm sure, I download a lot of TV shows because they are no longer aired and are not released for DVD. ie, unless you saw them at the time there is no way for you to view them again. I wonder how many downloads for TV shows are based on that reasoning?
Microsoft out of the picture? I mean if there was no Microsoft then who could take all the abuse of all the geeks out there? :-)