We've got all sorts of real issues that need to be addressed here in Michigan. Too bad the politicians waste their time (our time actually, we pay for it) coming up with junk like this. These ill-thought 'protect the children' laws never accomplish anything apart from making a few politicians feel good about themselves.
Responsible parents will make sure their children do not have access to inappropriate materials, and will monitor their kids just to make sure. They do not require the state's help in meeting their parental responsibilities. Irresponsible parents will probably buy the stuff for their kids themselves, no matter what the state has to say on the matter.
No amount of legislation is going to turn a bad parent into a good one.
IANAL I've read that many judges are ruling these clickthru EULAs unenforcable. Legally binding agreement takes a whole lot more than just clicking on a button.
There is no proof as to who actually clicked on the button
The vendor's software claiming that you clicked on the 'I Agree' button is no proof that you actually did click it
It is easy enough to write software that displays one EULA for your clickthru approval and a different one later when the EULA is reviewed
The consumer is coerced into agreement since they are unlikely to get a refund if they do not consent to the EULA, and their first opportunity to see the EULA comes after the package has already been opened
Even if Sony's clickthru EULA was found to be enforceable as a contract, that only gets Sony off the hook for civil damages. They still engaged in activity that is very likely to be illegal, and no contract gets you off the hook for commiting crimes.
It is my hope that the Sony Executives responsible for this malicious software get to spend 10 to 20 years in prison. This would send a clear message to any other clueless corporate suits who think they can do damned near anything they feel like to their customers.
Sony didn't write the rootkit. They bought it from someone else.
How is this relevent? It was Sony Management that made the decision to infect their customer's computers with malware. It is Sony Management that needs to face the consequences. Personally I think sending every executive involved in this fiasco to prison for 10 to 20 years would send a clear message to the executives of any other company that would be evil enough to try a stunt like this.
Of course the company that created the code is equally at fault in this, and their executives should join Sony's in the big house. If it was hacker working for organized crime we'd want to lock them up, why should these people be given a pass just because their mob bosses were Sony executives?
In America, comics tend to be considered kiddy fare. Calling it Manga makes it more acceptable for adults. At least that is what the 'suits' in marketing apparently believe.
Let's face it; when you live in a culture where a used car is worth more just because the ads call it 'pre-owned', the marketing types will use whatever term they think will best sell the product. They couldn't care less about the actual appropriateness of the usage.
And you're right about Azumnga Daioh. A truly entertaining work.
My understanding is that treaties are only binding on the countries that sign them. So if I somehow was able to get to the moon and claimed a chunk of it as my own independent country, and my newly minted country is not a party to any of the lunar or outer space treaties, then I am not bound by them.
I suppose there may also be some "International Law" whereby the U.N. may have declared lunar land grabs to be illegal, but just how far into space does the U.N.'s authority extend?
I think the reality of the situation is that if someone obtained the technology to set up permanent residense on the moon, there would be little any county on Earth could do to stop them with current technology. If the technology necessary to live on the moon became readily available, then you'd probably find corporations staking their claims and their lawyers and lobbyists making sure they get their way with the moon.
He's finding that the least competent performers inflate their abilities the most
Of course the least competent exagerate the most. The higher your skill level, the less room there is to exagerate in. A lot less need to exagerate as well.
Back when the World Wide Web was taking off, someone at the Post Office was smart enough to register lots of usps.* domains. The idea was to ensure you didn't have con-men, disgruntled employees, the postal unions, or other parties using a usps branded site for their own purposes.
I was kind of surprised that someone at Postal HQ was smart enough to realize they needed to register all those names to keep the brand safe. You usually didn't see too many intelligent decisions come out of L'Enfant Plaza.
The reason for the policy requirement is backward compatability. The first electronically disseminated weather forecasts were in the days of the ASR-33 teletype machine. Over time commercial software was developed that would decode the forecasts and build screen crawls for TV stations. Since much of the old software is still out there, and there may even be some ASR-33's, the products have to remain in all caps in order to not break the legacy stuff.
What really annoys me about the requirement for all caps, is that the meteorologists leave the caps lock on when they leave the workstations. I usually type in a command or two before I realize nothing happened other than linux reminding me that LL, CAT and GREP are not valid commands.
There was a proposal to purchase laptops for all 6th graders in the state of Michigan a while back. I think it's a dead issue right now due to a lack of funding. However, even if the money was there I think a blanket purchase for all middle schools like this is a pretty lame idea.
Many of these kids walk home in neighborhoods where people have been killed just to steal their sneakers. How many kids do you think will still have their laptops one week after the devices are issued? How many kids can we expect to see killed over the laptop?
Now I'm all for having computer labs at the schools where the kids who come from families that can't afford computers can still learn basic computer skills in a monitored and safe environment. I suspect running and staffing these labs a few hours after the end of school each day would cost a lot less than purchasing every kid a soon to be lost or stolen laptop.
I also find Dreamweaver to be pretty good at converting Word DOCs into HTML. It doesn't do a fully automated conversion as I've got some mandated from above 'corporate image' weirdness I have to adjust for, but it gets me about 80% of the way there.
He may be trying to promote the business, but I think he's already burned that bridge. If I was getting ready to invest in some serious *nix based systems, why would I want to go to a vendor that is likely to be out of business in the near future? You can't get support from SCO once SCO is dead & buried.
I think a smart CIO would prefer IBM, Red Hat or Novell's Linux offerings over SCO for no other reason than those corporate entities will still be around years down the road for upgrades and support.
I work for the NWS at a local field office and am familiar with the software involved in the warning process. The user interface really isn't the problem. The issue is that the systems are designed to get warnings out to the public as quickly as possible. As soon as a meteorologist hits the send button the product is rushed to all the places it needs to go without any additional delay. Adding a confirmation dialog may reduce false alarms, but if the forecaster is actually taking the time to read the confirmation then the product will be delayed for however long it takes to read it.
A drop-down list isn't very feasible due to the shear number of possible products that would need to be in the list. A forecaster in a hurry to issue a tornado warning is more likely to make a mistake and/or take additional time trying to find the tornado warning in the drop down than if she just needs to type in 'TOR'.
To answer the question What is wrong with the designers of this software?? I would have to say from my own dealings with the developers that the biggest thing wrong with them is that they are woefully understaffed.
Slashdot Mirror
We've got all sorts of real issues that need to be addressed here in Michigan. Too bad the politicians waste their time (our time actually, we pay for it) coming up with junk like this. These ill-thought 'protect the children' laws never accomplish anything apart from making a few politicians feel good about themselves.
Responsible parents will make sure their children do not have access to inappropriate materials, and will monitor their kids just to make sure. They do not require the state's help in meeting their parental responsibilities. Irresponsible parents will probably buy the stuff for their kids themselves, no matter what the state has to say on the matter.
No amount of legislation is going to turn a bad parent into a good one.
IANAL I've read that many judges are ruling these clickthru EULAs unenforcable. Legally binding agreement takes a whole lot more than just clicking on a button.
Even if Sony's clickthru EULA was found to be enforceable as a contract, that only gets Sony off the hook for civil damages. They still engaged in activity that is very likely to be illegal, and no contract gets you off the hook for commiting crimes.
It is my hope that the Sony Executives responsible for this malicious software get to spend 10 to 20 years in prison. This would send a clear message to any other clueless corporate suits who think they can do damned near anything they feel like to their customers.
Sony didn't write the rootkit. They bought it from someone else.
How is this relevent? It was Sony Management that made the decision to infect their customer's computers with malware. It is Sony Management that needs to face the consequences. Personally I think sending every executive involved in this fiasco to prison for 10 to 20 years would send a clear message to the executives of any other company that would be evil enough to try a stunt like this.
Of course the company that created the code is equally at fault in this, and their executives should join Sony's in the big house. If it was hacker working for organized crime we'd want to lock them up, why should these people be given a pass just because their mob bosses were Sony executives?
In America, comics tend to be considered kiddy fare. Calling it Manga makes it more acceptable for adults. At least that is what the 'suits' in marketing apparently believe.
Let's face it; when you live in a culture where a used car is worth more just because the ads call it 'pre-owned', the marketing types will use whatever term they think will best sell the product. They couldn't care less about the actual appropriateness of the usage.
And you're right about Azumnga Daioh. A truly entertaining work.
My understanding is that treaties are only binding on the countries that sign them. So if I somehow was able to get to the moon and claimed a chunk of it as my own independent country, and my newly minted country is not a party to any of the lunar or outer space treaties, then I am not bound by them.
I suppose there may also be some "International Law" whereby the U.N. may have declared lunar land grabs to be illegal, but just how far into space does the U.N.'s authority extend?
I think the reality of the situation is that if someone obtained the technology to set up permanent residense on the moon, there would be little any county on Earth could do to stop them with current technology. If the technology necessary to live on the moon became readily available, then you'd probably find corporations staking their claims and their lawyers and lobbyists making sure they get their way with the moon.
He's finding that the least competent performers inflate their abilities the most
Of course the least competent exagerate the most. The higher your skill level, the less room there is to exagerate in. A lot less need to exagerate as well.
Back when the World Wide Web was taking off, someone at the Post Office was smart enough to register lots of usps.* domains. The idea was to ensure you didn't have con-men, disgruntled employees, the postal unions, or other parties using a usps branded site for their own purposes.
I was kind of surprised that someone at Postal HQ was smart enough to realize they needed to register all those names to keep the brand safe. You usually didn't see too many intelligent decisions come out of L'Enfant Plaza.
The all caps format on forecast products is a policy requirement. The applicable policy can be found at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/010/pd01017001a .pdf.
The reason for the policy requirement is backward compatability. The first electronically disseminated weather forecasts were in the days of the ASR-33 teletype machine. Over time commercial software was developed that would decode the forecasts and build screen crawls for TV stations. Since much of the old software is still out there, and there may even be some ASR-33's, the products have to remain in all caps in order to not break the legacy stuff.
What really annoys me about the requirement for all caps, is that the meteorologists leave the caps lock on when they leave the workstations. I usually type in a command or two before I realize nothing happened other than linux reminding me that LL, CAT and GREP are not valid commands.
There was a proposal to purchase laptops for all 6th graders in the state of Michigan a while back. I think it's a dead issue right now due to a lack of funding. However, even if the money was there I think a blanket purchase for all middle schools like this is a pretty lame idea.
Many of these kids walk home in neighborhoods where people have been killed just to steal their sneakers. How many kids do you think will still have their laptops one week after the devices are issued? How many kids can we expect to see killed over the laptop?
Now I'm all for having computer labs at the schools where the kids who come from families that can't afford computers can still learn basic computer skills in a monitored and safe environment. I suspect running and staffing these labs a few hours after the end of school each day would cost a lot less than purchasing every kid a soon to be lost or stolen laptop.
I also find Dreamweaver to be pretty good at converting Word DOCs into HTML. It doesn't do a fully automated conversion as I've got some mandated from above 'corporate image' weirdness I have to adjust for, but it gets me about 80% of the way there.
He may be trying to promote the business, but I think he's already burned that bridge. If I was getting ready to invest in some serious *nix based systems, why would I want to go to a vendor that is likely to be out of business in the near future? You can't get support from SCO once SCO is dead & buried.
I think a smart CIO would prefer IBM, Red Hat or Novell's Linux offerings over SCO for no other reason than those corporate entities will still be around years down the road for upgrades and support.
I work for the NWS at a local field office and am familiar with the software involved in the warning process. The user interface really isn't the problem. The issue is that the systems are designed to get warnings out to the public as quickly as possible. As soon as a meteorologist hits the send button the product is rushed to all the places it needs to go without any additional delay. Adding a confirmation dialog may reduce false alarms, but if the forecaster is actually taking the time to read the confirmation then the product will be delayed for however long it takes to read it.
A drop-down list isn't very feasible due to the shear number of possible products that would need to be in the list. A forecaster in a hurry to issue a tornado warning is more likely to make a mistake and/or take additional time trying to find the tornado warning in the drop down than if she just needs to type in 'TOR'. To answer the question What is wrong with the designers of this software?? I would have to say from my own dealings with the developers that the biggest thing wrong with them is that they are woefully understaffed.