This is exactly correct. Mechanical speedos are designed to show an approximation of speed and will always err on the side of caution by reading high - it has nothing to do with massaging MPG figures. If it were possible to be going faster than the indicated speed then manufacturers would be liable to paying for every speeding ticket ever issued. If I'm going through a fixed speed camera bang on the speed limit, I don't want to get nicked because my speedo under-read by a few mph.
A few years ago I took part in a charity 'run-what-you-brung' motorcycle event, which consisted of 2 miles of pristine runway, with a calibrated radar trap in the middle. Even though my fastest indicated speed was 180mph, the maximum speed recorded by the radar was only 165mph; a full 15mph out. That was on a Suzuki GSX-R750, but some other bikes had much bigger discrepancies, from speaking to the riders up to 20-25mph in some cases. Note that sports-bike riders generally don't care about mpg either.
This gadget senses when a 'master' device (i.e. PC, TV whatever) is switched off, and kills the power to everything plugged in via the peripheral sockets - i.e. monitor, speakers, external drives, printres etc. Even 'powerbricks' won't draw a current. I also use one on the TV.
The reasoning behind wearing a helmet is that permanent brain damage can occur at even low speeds in a motorcycle collision, and while other injuries are costly they pale in significane to the medical costs of supporting a person who is mentally disabled for the rest of their life. Wearing a helmet means the rider is hundreds of times less likely to suffer serious/fatal head injuries.
A few years ago I highsided (that's the type of crash you've seen on TV where the rider is ejected straight upwards) my bike at about 60mph. Even after landing head first and getting knocked unconcious, because I was wearing the right gear I suffered nothing other than a mild concussion, some minor bruising and a sprained shoulder, and still completed the remaining 500 miles of the trip. This isn't recommended, because helmets are designed to behave (amongst other things) like crumple zones and should be replaced after even just a minor accident.
The next stop on the trip was Accident & Emergency where I got a few x-rays taken and some [strong] pain-killers. Compare the cost of that to a lifetime of medication and the argument for safety gear really does hold up quite well.
They really don't have a clue. I hadn't heard about this before, but noticed recently when using IE7 with one of our intranet apps it asked about accessing the clipboard. The app is question is a Java applet drawing package, with copy/paste functions.
Whilst its commendable they've made an effort to fix this bug, there's no way to permanently allow a single site access to the clipboard. A user has to click every time, even if the server being accessed is a trusted site.
As an amateur musician I've had the same argument many times with 'audiophile' (read non-muso) friends. It's the music I listen to, not the quality of a recording. Any true 'music lover' would rather listen to a bad recording of a good song than a good recording of a bad song.
I play my MP3 player in the car using one of those cassette things, so it's a lossy format played through an analog interface before it gets to the speakers. However it is sufficient for my needs.
Recently one of my friends was trying to convince me to splash out on a fancy CD player because the sound quality would be "so much better". He couldn't see the futility of spending lots of money for better sound quality which will be listened to in an environment of constant road noise and other distractions. All of my music collection has been digitised into lossy (MP3 or OGG) formats, and my CD collection lives in a cupboard - really it doesn't even occur to me to listen to it at a higher bitrate.
As my mother always said, "if you don't vote, you have no right no complain"
Only once did I not excercise my right to vote at a general election, and every time Tony B. Liar did something objectionable I had to bite my tongue. Never again. In other words, get off your lazy ass and use the power that previous generations paid such a price to protect.
One day [many years ago] I arrived at the IT department of our biggest client. After saying hellos to all the guys I put my laptop on the desk, switched it on and went to get a coffee while it booted up. As I was returning the thing started playing my startup sound. Normally being a work machine the volume was usually muted, but for some reason it was up at full volume.
Anyway, as I was walking back across to my desk the thing started blaring out a sound clip from South Park. I can't remember the exact quote but it was Eric Cartman jabbering about his mom and her pussy and a dildo.
Never have I wanted so much for a hole to open up in the ground and swallow me....luckily most of them saw the funny side of it without being too offended!
My "friend" uses the corporate VLK edition with SP2 (leaked/generated key). WGA will be downloaded via Automatic Updates, but they chose not to install it. There is an option "not to prompt again", and if selected, it won't.
The difference is that with a guitar you're not playing the same 2 or 3 notes hundreds or thousands of times every day as you do with a mouse. RSI is all to do with the *exact* same movement repeated (hundreds) of thousands of times.
I ran into some RSI tendonitis problems a couple of years back with my mouse hand, which involved being off work for a while. Our HSE advisor got me to try a few different devices, one of which was a similarly styled "joystick" mouse, so this is nothing new. However it didn't help in my case because my fingers still used the same muscles/tendons to activate the mouse buttons even though the orientation is different. Always having been a "keyboard man" I tried with no mouse for a while, however you'd be surprised at the number of applications which cannot function without a mouse because of bad design (or bad developers).
Additionally I also tried going left-handed for a while, however within a couple of months I started getting the same problem - weird.
Eventually I settled on an external touchpad, although it was fiddly at first it didn't take long to get used to and has some nice programmable features like scroll/zoom zones, hotspots that can be assigned various functions like browser back/forward controls etc. I have one button set up as a "double-click" function which is a real lifesaver.
That was two years ago and now I don't get any problems - until I pick up a mouse for more than 5 minutes. So the notion that the "injury" will heal is a myth - the scar tissue on the tendons will be there for a very long time, probably until I haven't used a PC for a decade. I have a spare touchpad I use for when I'm not working at my desk. Also the sprung hand-strengtheners seem to help.
Amyway back to the original point. The interesting thing is that even at the peak, it didn't affect any other activity (yes, that one too), including playing the guitar. And I'm talking fast thrash metal for hours on end, not strumming along to Kumbayah. However it is well known that dedicated guitarists are likely to develop back problems from the weight of the instrument hanging round the neck/shoulder area. Violin & viola players etc. are also liable to carpal tunnel sydrome from the same movements required in the wrists over many years. However I don't think "musicians practice for hours to figure out how not to hurt their wrists." - it never occurred to me or any I know and I used to play bassoon in a three different orchestras and two bands.
Unfortunatley it's an afflication which no-one thinks about until it's too late, and it's very sudden - I probably average computer use at about 8 or 10 hours a day (still) but it took 15 years to rear it's ugly head, and it was a case of hero to zero in less than a week.
A minimal installation of Oracle 10g takes ~800MB of memory, and will take over ten hours to install on a machine with 512MB ram
Absolute garbage. Granted, the minimum recommended memory is 512MB, however I have 10g Enterprise running on an old P4 1.6GHz running CentOS with 256MB RAM. It isn't fast, but it still works. And it took about an hour to install. On my other machine (Athlon XP1800, Windows XP) with 1GB RAM I have two instances running, and you wouldn't even know it was there.
This isn't a hobby, I've been developing Oracle DB applications for 12 years, now I'm studying for the OCA/OCP DBA certification.
Granted, if you only have 17MB of data, Oracle is overkill but nowhere nearly as memory hungry as you make out. Check your facts first and stop picking numbers out your butt.
HA! How about an 11-year old VB3 app? My company supports a product written in 16-bit Visual Basic (the version from circa 1993)
The application currently runs quite happily on NT4, communicating with an Oracle database over 16-bit SQL*Net. They recently upgraded all their workstations from NT4 to XP, however the program doesn't work due to the multitude of 3rd party 16-bit libraries etc.
We suggested they convert one of their existing NT machines to NT Terminal Server on their LAN. Install the application and the Oracle database on that, bingo. Instant legacy application support, that should work for a long time to come.
I have to say after 10 years in IT I can only think of a handful of female developers. Regardless of skill there is a common thread that their work is much more closely scrutinised than that of their male peers.
The two that stick in my mind most:
One crossed over from a maths degree and was technically excellent. Unfortunately she had to put up with over-criticism of her work by other male colleagues which IMHO was completely unjustified - I was the only one who stuck up for her. (and no I wasn't trying to get into her pants). She left to do IT training overseas.
Another was a complete geek, to the point of being highly annoying. Spoke in baby language half the time. She could write code allright ("writey-witey codey-wodey"), but was unable to follow project plans and didn't know the meaning of the word "test". I recommended her contract was not extended, but that decision was based solely on merit, not gender.
It's catch-22, women have to excel in their job to be regarded as "on the same level" as men, but when they do men feel inferior and try to make their life difficult.
Until us guys progress from a neanderthal mindset, it's not wonder women are leaving IT!
Do the RIAA go based on filename alone, or do they actually download and verify the MP3 files are infringing copyright?
If it's on filename alone then someone who has the necessary time and resources could create a honeypot experiment. AFAIK this is not illegal but could give the pretext for being tested in court.
I'm no expert but I can see it going something like this:
Create several gigs of files composed of random gibberish
Files should be suitably named & sized to catch the eye of the watchers
Take MD5 sums so the file can be later verified by an expert.
Share on a popular network
Wait
If suitable documentation was kept it would blow the RIAA evidence out of the water. Prosecution would also become that much more difficult if a computer forensics expert was required for every case.
Note: Personally I don't illegaly download music and don't necessarily approve of those who do, however I disagree even more with the strong-arm tactic of the RIAA. Also I don't reside in the US, but the rot http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/bpi_filesh are_settlements/ has set in here as well.
This is a few years ago, before ID scams were commonplace. I got an answering machine message asking me to call my banks Credit Card Fraud number.
So I dialled the stated number, the conversation went like this:
me: Hello, can I speak to xxxxx her: speaking me : I got a message to call you back her: Yes. Can you read me your credit card number to confirm your identity me: (alarm bells) I'm sorry, I don't feel comfortable doing that her: errrrr....why not? me : because anyone could have left that message...how do I know this is really my bank her: well.....it is ! me : but how do I know that? her: I don't know...(long pause) you would have to call the number printed on your bank statement.
Whilst on the phone I found a statement and confirmed it was the number I dialled and continued with the call. As it happens there was no fraud on my account, just a routine check for a transaction that had been flagged up as out-of-the-ordinary (first online purchase with that card)
It may well be different now, but I find it ironic the Credit Card Fraud department expected consumers to divulge their personal details on a whim, but had no procedures to verify their own identity !
Laugh you may....one unfortunate guy who had been with the company for 15 years was caught not holding the handrail by one of the Health & Safety secret police.
When confronted he told them to F--- Off and got fired for "Gross Misconduct"
I sit at the computer no less than 40 hours per week, sometimes 12 hours in a day. I use the mouse very frequently and have never had any of these problems. Are they trying to create a market where none exists, or do some people really get a sore wrist from mousing?
It is a very real problem, I developed tendonitis in my right wrist (yes I've heard all the jokes already...) which meant doctors appointments, time off work and 4 months physio (Acupuncture, ultrasound, massage & Interferential). Paid for by my employers, I might add.
It was due to a badly set up workstation, I had 2 PC's/keyboards/mice on one desk meaning it was necessary to overreach. I switched over to my left hand but after six months I had the same problem with that.
My theory is that scroll-wheels on mice have a large part to play in this - look at the tendons on the back of your hand when scrolling up and down a page - is this really good for you ???
These days I use a USB touchpad / split keyboard which helps tremendously, I hardly ever have a problem now. Strangely I can don anything now without worrying about tendon pain, but if I use a mouse for 5 minutes the old symptoms return with a vengeance.
Anyway, my old problems returned when I got an XBox a while ago. The extension of the right hand index finger on the trigger with the thumb over the buttons is a similar posture to mouse-use. So I took the physio's advice and got a set of hand-grips, which I squeeze in "idle time", probably averaging 2 or 3 hours a day.
Now I'm no weakling, but increasing muscle strength alleviates the tendon problems big-time. Now not only can I play the XBox, but I have Kung-Fu grip too!
For anyone under the impression RSI is a myth (as I once was) you need to seriously think about what you would do if you were unable to use a keyboard or mouse. There aren't really any practical solutions. My doctor even suggested at one point I think about a change of career. Now that is scary stuff...get your workstation set up correctly !
Not at all. They can try, but without a warrant are powerless.
Many "agencies" try this (e.g. sherriffs officers) with a high degree of success because people don't know their rights and do the things that people in uniforms tell them to do.
Every now and then there is a campaign ("The TV Detector van is in your area"). The vans have various antennae on top and drive around built-up areas slowly to try and scare everyone into buying a TV licence, however I have heard it on good authority than there is actually no detection equipment in the van at all - it's just a bunch of fake antennae.
I believe they do have hand-held equipment that can be used for specific cases.
It sounds draconian but it's really just an ongoing PR stunt because there isn't really any other way of enforcing it.
It is against Company Policy here (very large multi-national company) to divulge your password, even if for critical busines issues. Employees are expected to log a call with the service desk for a reset. Working in the middle of the night on a critical project? Tough - you should have arranged on-call support.
Divulging a password is a disciplinary offence too, but it still happens regulary - mostly because it's rarely enforced.
Here are some random office rules that are obeyed without question, these are all disciplinary offences, and are regularly enforced:
* always hold the handrail on the stairs * do not walk AND talk on the phone/read bits of paper * hot drinks MUST have lids on * etc.
People follow these rules without question (I don't), but I think the average perception is that it's harmless to give out a password.
Unless there very real personal consequence of divulging passwords etc., it's always going to happen.
That's not far from the truth, some years ago a colleague of mine was fired after the boss discovered he was using company email/web to perform his search for new employment. The laws are different here in the UK - you can't just fire someone because you don't like them - but he did get fired on a technicality.
I resigned from my job last week, after 7 (mostly) enojoyable years. Although the pay is pretty good things have gone severely downhill in the last 2 years - being permanently on a client site supporting a dull application. Motivation? None. The main reason is lack of career development - a developer needs to develop and learn new things which I've been unable to do. I should have moved last year when the contract was extended but I put it off for a number of reasons.
Anyway, due to the fired colleague anecdote, I had to keep everything top secret - I simply can't afford not to work. So, new dedicated mobile phone aka "the employment hotline", everything conducted without use of company resources (email, web etc), and most importantly any interviews had to be outwith working hours. Any respectable company will be agreeable to this - if not then they aren't worth working for.
To cut a long story short, I start a new job at the end of the month, it has more seniority and the potential for better career development. At the moment I'm not worried about "ageism" but it's time to start looking forward.(I'm 30)
So...I handed in my notice last week and followed the golden rule: leave amicably. As much I wanted to tell them to stick their job up the first available orifice, it's just not worth it.
Keep everything 100% professional, and keep your integrity intact.
As the saying goes "Be nice to people on the way up - because you never know who you're going to meet on the way back down again"
The system tables (or "Data Dictionary") are simply meta-data about the database itself - a standard part of any RDBMS...it's nothing to do with opening up the source code.
Slashdot Mirror
This is exactly correct. Mechanical speedos are designed to show an approximation of speed and will always err on the side of caution by reading high - it has nothing to do with massaging MPG figures. If it were possible to be going faster than the indicated speed then manufacturers would be liable to paying for every speeding ticket ever issued. If I'm going through a fixed speed camera bang on the speed limit, I don't want to get nicked because my speedo under-read by a few mph.
A few years ago I took part in a charity 'run-what-you-brung' motorcycle event, which consisted of 2 miles of pristine runway, with a calibrated radar trap in the middle. Even though my fastest indicated speed was 180mph, the maximum speed recorded by the radar was only 165mph; a full 15mph out. That was on a Suzuki GSX-R750, but some other bikes had much bigger discrepancies, from speaking to the riders up to 20-25mph in some cases. Note that sports-bike riders generally don't care about mpg either.
possib-lee I've seen too much...
Has it occurred to anyone that it is the government approved propoganda version that has been deliberately leaked?
.....
Disinformation is just as valuable as the cloak of secrecy
This gadget senses when a 'master' device (i.e. PC, TV whatever) is switched off, and kills the power to everything plugged in via the peripheral sockets - i.e. monitor, speakers, external drives, printres etc. Even 'powerbricks' won't draw a current. I also use one on the TV.
http://www.powergen.co.uk/At-Home/Going-Green/Energy-Saving-Advice/Interactive-House/Resource-Centre/resource-centre-powerdown.htm
The reasoning behind wearing a helmet is that permanent brain damage can occur at even low speeds in a motorcycle collision, and while other injuries are costly they pale in significane to the medical costs of supporting a person who is mentally disabled for the rest of their life. Wearing a helmet means the rider is hundreds of times less likely to suffer serious/fatal head injuries.
A few years ago I highsided (that's the type of crash you've seen on TV where the rider is ejected straight upwards) my bike at about 60mph. Even after landing head first and getting knocked unconcious, because I was wearing the right gear I suffered nothing other than a mild concussion, some minor bruising and a sprained shoulder, and still completed the remaining 500 miles of the trip. This isn't recommended, because helmets are designed to behave (amongst other things) like crumple zones and should be replaced after even just a minor accident.
The next stop on the trip was Accident & Emergency where I got a few x-rays taken and some [strong] pain-killers. Compare the cost of that to a lifetime of medication and the argument for safety gear really does hold up quite well.
I've told you a million times not to exagerrate !
They really don't have a clue. I hadn't heard about this before, but noticed recently when using IE7 with one of our intranet apps it asked about accessing the clipboard. The app is question is a Java applet drawing package, with copy/paste functions.
Whilst its commendable they've made an effort to fix this bug, there's no way to permanently allow a single site access to the clipboard. A user has to click every time, even if the server being accessed is a trusted site.
Hear hear. (forgive the pun)
As an amateur musician I've had the same argument many times with 'audiophile' (read non-muso) friends. It's the music I listen to, not the quality of a recording. Any true 'music lover' would rather listen to a bad recording of a good song than a good recording of a bad song.
I play my MP3 player in the car using one of those cassette things, so it's a lossy format played through an analog interface before it gets to the speakers. However it is sufficient for my needs.
Recently one of my friends was trying to convince me to splash out on a fancy CD player because the sound quality would be "so much better". He couldn't see the futility of spending lots of money for better sound quality which will be listened to in an environment of constant road noise and other distractions. All of my music collection has been digitised into lossy (MP3 or OGG) formats, and my CD collection lives in a cupboard - really it doesn't even occur to me to listen to it at a higher bitrate.
Well, if it's good enough for Gerald Ratner !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_a_Ratner
As my mother always said, "if you don't vote, you have no right no complain"
Only once did I not excercise my right to vote at a general election, and every time Tony B. Liar did something objectionable I had to bite my tongue. Never again. In other words, get off your lazy ass and use the power that previous generations paid such a price to protect.
One day [many years ago] I arrived at the IT department of our biggest client. After saying hellos to all the guys I put my laptop on the desk, switched it on and went to get a coffee while it booted up. As I was returning the thing started playing my startup sound. Normally being a work machine the volume was usually muted, but for some reason it was up at full volume.
Anyway, as I was walking back across to my desk the thing started blaring out a sound clip from South Park. I can't remember the exact quote but it was Eric Cartman jabbering about his mom and her pussy and a dildo.
Never have I wanted so much for a hole to open up in the ground and swallow me....luckily most of them saw the funny side of it without being too offended!
My "friend" uses the corporate VLK edition with SP2 (leaked/generated key). WGA will be downloaded via Automatic Updates, but they chose not to install it. There is an option "not to prompt again", and if selected, it won't.
The difference is that with a guitar you're not playing the same 2 or 3 notes hundreds or thousands of times every day as you do with a mouse. RSI is all to do with the *exact* same movement repeated (hundreds) of thousands of times.
I ran into some RSI tendonitis problems a couple of years back with my mouse hand, which involved being off work for a while. Our HSE advisor got me to try a few different devices, one of which was a similarly styled "joystick" mouse, so this is nothing new. However it didn't help in my case because my fingers still used the same muscles/tendons to activate the mouse buttons even though the orientation is different. Always having been a "keyboard man" I tried with no mouse for a while, however you'd be surprised at the number of applications which cannot function without a mouse because of bad design (or bad developers).
Additionally I also tried going left-handed for a while, however within a couple of months I started getting the same problem - weird.
Eventually I settled on an external touchpad, although it was fiddly at first it didn't take long to get used to and has some nice programmable features like scroll/zoom zones, hotspots that can be assigned various functions like browser back/forward controls etc. I have one button set up as a "double-click" function which is a real lifesaver.
That was two years ago and now I don't get any problems - until I pick up a mouse for more than 5 minutes. So the notion that the "injury" will heal is a myth - the scar tissue on the tendons will be there for a very long time, probably until I haven't used a PC for a decade. I have a spare touchpad I use for when I'm not working at my desk. Also the sprung hand-strengtheners seem to help.
Amyway back to the original point. The interesting thing is that even at the peak, it didn't affect any other activity (yes, that one too), including playing the guitar. And I'm talking fast thrash metal for hours on end, not strumming along to Kumbayah. However it is well known that dedicated guitarists are likely to develop back problems from the weight of the instrument hanging round the neck/shoulder area. Violin & viola players etc. are also liable to carpal tunnel sydrome from the same movements required in the wrists over many years. However I don't think "musicians practice for hours to figure out how not to hurt their wrists." - it never occurred to me or any I know and I used to play bassoon in a three different orchestras and two bands.
Unfortunatley it's an afflication which no-one thinks about until it's too late, and it's very sudden - I probably average computer use at about 8 or 10 hours a day (still) but it took 15 years to rear it's ugly head, and it was a case of hero to zero in less than a week.
A minimal installation of Oracle 10g takes ~800MB of memory, and will take over ten hours to install on a machine with 512MB ram
Absolute garbage. Granted, the minimum recommended memory is 512MB, however I have 10g Enterprise running on an old P4 1.6GHz running CentOS with 256MB RAM. It isn't fast, but it still works. And it took about an hour to install. On my other machine (Athlon XP1800, Windows XP) with 1GB RAM I have two instances running, and you wouldn't even know it was there.
This isn't a hobby, I've been developing Oracle DB applications for 12 years, now I'm studying for the OCA/OCP DBA certification.
Granted, if you only have 17MB of data, Oracle is overkill but nowhere nearly as memory hungry as you make out. Check your facts first and stop picking numbers out your butt.
Problem (mostly) solved.
Only last week I did my monthly check for dodgy programs. "NETSTAT -AN" showed up clean, as did checking the security log in Event Viewer.
Unless you actually need to connect to your machine remotely, there are about twenty (or more) services that can be safely disabled.
The following services on my home PC are disabled, or set to 'Manual'
Server, Workstation
Computer Browser
Secondary Logon
Clipbook (remote)
Distributed Link Transaction Coordinator
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching
Help & Support
Messenger (i.e. Blaster)
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
NT LM Security Support Provider
QoS RSVP (Req'd for Netmeeting)
RPC, RPC Locator
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Telnet (very bad)
Terminal Services
UPS (I don't have one)
Universal Plug & Play
Volume Shadow Copy
Webclient (rubbish)
Wireless Zero Configuration
It's also a lot faster to boot up with all the crap disabled.
HA! How about an 11-year old VB3 app? My company supports a product written in 16-bit Visual Basic (the version from circa 1993)
The application currently runs quite happily on NT4, communicating with an Oracle database over 16-bit SQL*Net. They recently upgraded all their workstations from NT4 to XP, however the program doesn't work due to the multitude of 3rd party 16-bit libraries etc.
We suggested they convert one of their existing NT machines to NT Terminal Server on their LAN. Install the application and the Oracle database on that, bingo. Instant legacy application support, that should work for a long time to come.
Maybe not perfect but cheaper than a re-write.
I have to say after 10 years in IT I can only think of a handful of female developers. Regardless of skill there is a common thread that their work is much more closely scrutinised than that of their male peers.
The two that stick in my mind most:
One crossed over from a maths degree and was technically excellent. Unfortunately she had to put up with over-criticism of her work by other male colleagues which IMHO was completely unjustified - I was the only one who stuck up for her. (and no I wasn't trying to get into her pants). She left to do IT training overseas.
Another was a complete geek, to the point of being highly annoying. Spoke in baby language half the time. She could write code allright ("writey-witey codey-wodey"), but was unable to follow project plans and didn't know the meaning of the word "test". I recommended her contract was not extended, but that decision was based solely on merit, not gender.
It's catch-22, women have to excel in their job to be regarded as "on the same level" as men, but when they do men feel inferior and try to make their life difficult.
Until us guys progress from a neanderthal mindset, it's not wonder women are leaving IT!
If it's on filename alone then someone who has the necessary time and resources could create a honeypot experiment. AFAIK this is not illegal but could give the pretext for being tested in court.
I'm no expert but I can see it going something like this:
Create several gigs of files composed of random gibberish
Files should be suitably named & sized to catch the eye of the watchers
Take MD5 sums so the file can be later verified by an expert.
Share on a popular network
Wait
h are_settlements/ has set in here as well.
If suitable documentation was kept it would blow the RIAA evidence out of the water. Prosecution would also become that much more difficult if a computer forensics expert was required for every case.
Note: Personally I don't illegaly download music and don't necessarily approve of those who do, however I disagree even more with the strong-arm tactic of the RIAA.
Also I don't reside in the US, but the rot http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/bpi_files
Correct, it's very one sided.
This is a few years ago, before ID scams were commonplace. I got an answering machine message asking me to call my banks Credit Card Fraud number.
So I dialled the stated number, the conversation went like this:
me: Hello, can I speak to xxxxx
her: speaking
me : I got a message to call you back
her: Yes. Can you read me your credit card number to confirm your identity
me: (alarm bells) I'm sorry, I don't feel comfortable doing that
her: errrrr....why not?
me : because anyone could have left that message...how do I know this is really my bank
her: well.....it is !
me : but how do I know that?
her: I don't know...(long pause) you would have to call the number printed on your bank statement.
Whilst on the phone I found a statement and confirmed it was the number I dialled and continued with the call. As it happens there was no fraud on my account, just a routine check for a transaction that had been flagged up as out-of-the-ordinary (first online purchase with that card)
It may well be different now, but I find it ironic the Credit Card Fraud department expected consumers to divulge their personal details on a whim, but had no procedures to verify their own identity !
Laugh you may....one unfortunate guy who had been with the company for 15 years was caught not holding the handrail by one of the Health & Safety secret police.
When confronted he told them to F--- Off and got fired for "Gross Misconduct"
I sit at the computer no less than 40 hours per week, sometimes 12 hours in a day. I use the mouse very frequently and have never had any of these problems. Are they trying to create a market where none exists, or do some people really get a sore wrist from mousing?
It is a very real problem, I developed tendonitis in my right wrist (yes I've heard all the jokes already...) which meant doctors appointments, time off work and 4 months physio (Acupuncture, ultrasound, massage & Interferential). Paid for by my employers, I might add.
It was due to a badly set up workstation, I had 2 PC's/keyboards/mice on one desk meaning it was necessary to overreach. I switched over to my left hand but after six months I had the same problem with that.
My theory is that scroll-wheels on mice have a large part to play in this - look at the tendons on the back of your hand when scrolling up and down a page - is this really good for you ???
These days I use a USB touchpad / split keyboard which helps tremendously, I hardly ever have a problem now. Strangely I can don anything now without worrying about tendon pain, but if I use a mouse for 5 minutes the old symptoms return with a vengeance.
Anyway, my old problems returned when I got an XBox a while ago. The extension of the right hand index finger on the trigger with the thumb over the buttons is a similar posture to mouse-use. So I took the physio's advice and got a set of hand-grips, which I squeeze in "idle time", probably averaging 2 or 3 hours a day.
Now I'm no weakling, but increasing muscle strength alleviates the tendon problems big-time. Now not only can I play the XBox, but I have Kung-Fu grip too!
For anyone under the impression RSI is a myth (as I once was) you need to seriously think about what you would do if you were unable to use a keyboard or mouse. There aren't really any practical solutions. My doctor even suggested at one point I think about a change of career. Now that is scary stuff...get your workstation set up correctly !
Not at all. They can try, but without a warrant are powerless.
Many "agencies" try this (e.g. sherriffs officers) with a high degree of success because people don't know their rights and do the things that people in uniforms tell them to do.
Every now and then there is a campaign ("The TV Detector van is in your area"). The vans have various antennae on top and drive around built-up areas slowly to try and scare everyone into buying a TV licence, however I have heard it on good authority than there is actually no detection equipment in the van at all - it's just a bunch of fake antennae.
I believe they do have hand-held equipment that can be used for specific cases.
It sounds draconian but it's really just an ongoing PR stunt because there isn't really any other way of enforcing it.
It is against Company Policy here (very large multi-national company) to divulge your password, even if for critical busines issues. Employees are expected to log a call with the service desk for a reset. Working in the middle of the night on a critical project? Tough - you should have arranged on-call support.
Divulging a password is a disciplinary offence too, but it still happens regulary - mostly because it's rarely enforced.
Here are some random office rules that are obeyed without question, these are all disciplinary offences, and are regularly enforced:
* always hold the handrail on the stairs
* do not walk AND talk on the phone/read bits of paper
* hot drinks MUST have lids on
* etc.
People follow these rules without question (I don't), but I think the average perception is that it's harmless to give out a password.
Unless there very real personal consequence of divulging passwords etc., it's always going to happen.
That's not far from the truth, some years ago a colleague of mine was fired after the boss discovered he was using company email/web to perform his search for new employment. The laws are different here in the UK - you can't just fire someone because you don't like them - but he did get fired on a technicality.
I resigned from my job last week, after 7 (mostly) enojoyable years. Although the pay is pretty good things have gone severely downhill in the last 2 years - being permanently on a client site supporting a dull application. Motivation? None. The main reason is lack of career development - a developer needs to develop and learn new things which I've been unable to do. I should have moved last year when the contract was extended but I put it off for a number of reasons.
Anyway, due to the fired colleague anecdote, I had to keep everything top secret - I simply can't afford not to work. So, new dedicated mobile phone aka "the employment hotline", everything conducted without use of company resources (email, web etc), and most importantly any interviews had to be outwith working hours. Any respectable company will be agreeable to this - if not then they aren't worth working for.
To cut a long story short, I start a new job at the end of the month, it has more seniority and the potential for better career development. At the moment I'm not worried about "ageism" but it's time to start looking forward.(I'm 30)
So...I handed in my notice last week and followed the golden rule: leave amicably. As much I wanted to tell them to stick their job up the first available orifice, it's just not worth it.
Keep everything 100% professional, and keep your integrity intact.
As the saying goes
"Be nice to people on the way up - because you never know who you're going to meet on the way back down again"
The system tables (or "Data Dictionary") are simply meta-data about the database itself - a standard part of any RDBMS...it's nothing to do with opening up the source code.