The same with most financial institutions: SECURITY.
Sorry... wrong.
I've consulted to 3 of the largest banks in Canada, and they DO outsource. Seeing as Canada only has 4-5 banks, that would meant that most *DO* outsource.
In my experience, it didn't work out in 80% of the work performed (which is why I was called in), due to everything from management issues to lack of technical expertise of the contractors.
Actually, they should just enact a law that states that while driving a car, your attention should be focused on (duh!) *driving the car*
EXACTLY.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen near misses because some woman was doing her makeup on the way to work while driving, or some guy was fishing fries out of the McD's bag while pulling into traffic.
<MarvinTheMartian>And it makes me angry! So very angry!</>
Slightly off-topic, but it's interesting to note that when Google News or other links send me to "registration required" sites, the username/password of password/password usually works.
I first learned of that for the NYT links here on slashdot, but it seems to be everywhere.
It'd be pretty interesting to see the stats on this "password" person.;)
You're also assuming that Java is to be used for SQL.
We currently use Java to perform SMTP/POP3 operations, make web service calls, perform Java-based "rsync's" between the DB and file systems, etc., all from within the DB and in a lot of cases being triggered by, well, a trigger.
While I agree that I would tend to abstract all SQL to some PL/SQL call that "DBA's who get it" have control over, there are LOTS of things that Java can do that are VERY handy, when viewed at in the application architecure POV and not just in a SQL context.
and in certain cases the JVM in the database is vastly more scalable than your client or middle tier
Very true. I think that the coolest thing was probably how Oracle re-coded their threading and garbage-collection code to allow for HUGE scalability.
We were doing some benchmarking and found that our app "died" at about 3,000 sessions (as defined by us) in the tweaked/tuned native JVM, whereas the Oracle JVM handled almost 150,000 before croaking.
We were also messing around with hacking JavaSpaces and RMID to run within the Oracle JVM, and the initial performance and fault-tolerance findings were very impressive.
Also, (at least here in Canada), our AT&T cel phones log and report on EVERY call made, not just long distance, so if that stuff is included somehow, that's a LOT of data.
I don't find this list all that accurate (or maybe representative), as I have personally worked with at least 4 DB's that would easily top the list. Mind you, I do a lot of high-end database consulting for governments and fortune 50 companies, and they probably declined to be included, or weren't even aware of this list.
Maybe they should rename it to "the top 10 list of databases that we know about and are allowed to talk about".;)
Commercial software is built by carefully selected and screened teams of programmers working to build proprietary, secure software... By contrast, much of Linux has been built from contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers, each contributing a small section of code...
Hmmm.... he's obviously never met MY commercial product development team!
Nope, inside, at one of the bars near the back of the club.
How would registering help?
Then the cops would at least have a pic of the guy who did this, that could be shown around, put in the paper, on CrimeStoppers, etc., in an attempt to catch him. Right now they have nothing, except for varying descriptions.
In other instances, they can't find witnesses to shootings, stabbings, beatings, etc. Registration would at least give them the ability to track down potential witnesses to help those that were assaulted. I also know 4 friends of mine that have had their drinks spiked in the last couple of years, and they say they had problems describing them, but they could have picked them out from a group of photos (facial scars, shirt they were wearing, etc.).
It also turns out that the same pair of guys went to 4 or 5 bars that night, getting kicked out for causing problems inside the bar... a couple of fights, etc. I found this out when I went around, calling on some bar-staff friends to see if we could find out anything about them.
In this extreme case, it seems that these guys were out to scrap... plain and simple. They came armed with a weapon and the mind-set.
Registration could have at least alerted the other bars, not letting them in to cause problems, and the cops may have had a better chance of catching up to them.
I think it's also important to understand that the area of town where most of this is taking place is VERY small... TONS of bars within a $5 cab ride. It's not unusual for people to get kicked out of one bar and go to another one down the street. On Granville Row, there are about 8 bars, on the same street, in a single block.
There usually aren't many problems outside (except when people get tossed), because there's usually a few cops around (there's a community police station right in the middle of it). It's usually on the inside, in the packed night clubs, that the problems occur.
As to the ID Swap thing, the bouncers aren't (usually) idiots... if they look at the ID (which they'll do before any pics are taken), and it doesn't match you, then you'll be refused. Also, attempting to use ID that is not yours to enter a licensed drinking establishment is a criminal offense... not that that's a big deal or anything... just pointing it out.
On top of which, not only are you scanned when you enter the casino, you also have multiple staff that can surreptitiously follow you, and mutiple video cameras that can track you and are being taped 100% of the time.
And, all this is correlated with your credit card info from your check-in, and they know all the shows you went to see, etc.
And this data is shared between casinos.
Just because it's out of sight, doesn't mean that it's not being done.
If anything, this "in your face" picture taking may be all that is required to stop most stupidity at bars, as problems are caused by people who think that they're anonymous.
I live downtown Vancouver, 2 blocks from the "granville row" that they refer to in the article.
I've played in the house band of one of these clubs, and know a LOT of people that work and play in these clubs.
I think this is a GOOD thing.
Even as we speak, a friend of mine is STILL recuperating from a severe shit-kicking that happened within one of the bars over 2 months ago.
She (yes, SHE) was minding her own business, when 2 guys bumped into her boyfriend, who turned around with the typical "WTF!?", and the 2 guys almost killed him. I wish I were being over-dramatic, but they literally ALMOST KILLED HIM. They knew how to fight, and they went at it. One of them even pulled out a collapsable baton and hit him while he was down. It should be mentioned that the guy who got shit-kicked was knocked down and unconscious before he even finished the "WTF!?".
At this point, his girlfriend jumped in and tried to get them to stop, so they started beating her with the baton.
This happened in less than 30 seconds, in front of a horrified bartender, and the guys were gone before any bouncers could arrive... and they weren't slow to get there.
Even now the bar-scene staff, Vancouver Police, and RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), are trying to figure out who the guys were and how to find them.
The sad part is that it's not an isolated incedent. In-bar muggings and shootings are on the rise, with a number of East Indian and Asian gangs going nuts on each other.
My whole philosophy is that it's private property, it's reasonable for the bars to ask you to do this to get in, and at the end of the day, you don't HAVE to go there. You don't like their policies, don't go.
If anything, I'd rather see this story being discussed from a "technology-based solution to a problem" angle rather than a knee-jerk "oh my God they're coming to get us, put on your tinfoil hats!" angle.
Or instead of probably violating your provider's Terms of Service by running a server (as I do too), you could just pony up the extra cash for a business account that will let you do anything you want.
But that still won't work for my companies. I have 3 software development companies that have people all over the planet that use our hosted email servers, using POPAUTH relay authorization. This means that when the end-user checks their email, it then opens up the IP address that they're coming from to relay mail through the corporate server for 10 minutes. Every time they check their email, they refresh that 10 minutes.
We provide SSL/TLS SMTP and POP3 connections, so that even if they are in a "hostile" environment (like another company's LAN), they can still send and recieve their email without fear of a packet sniff divulging its contents. It also means that they can attach themselves to just about any Internet connection (compuserve, ATT Global, corporate LAN, etc.) and be able to send emails without having to screw around with their email settings.
Now, this means that our "allowable IP list" changes quite often. It's not like all IP's are within our assigned block, etc.
For that matter, most corporate IP's would be some 10. or 192. range, I'm guessing, which means that those IP's would have to be on the "allowed list", and it wouldn't be that hard to spoof those IP's.
I don't think this would work, even if everyone jumped on board.
There's a company called LunarTek in Victoria, BC, Canada, that does a great job. Lorrie Wright, the owner/operator, does a great job of finding people work, or finding work people, and she only asks for $10/hr for the service.
As a contract consultant who charges $70-$150 per hour depending on the gig, that is more than reasonable for me.
It's very refreshing in an environment where companies want to take half, and it seems to be doing quite well for her.
Is it just me, or might this be an instance where a class action lawsuit would be in order?
Get the team of lawyers over at EFF (or someplace similar) to get a class-action on behalf of all of us Internet and techie users, sue Verisign's assess of, and then the awarded "legal fees" normally awarded in such suits go to the EFF. (Win win?)
I, for one, feel compelled to DO something about this... but I'm not sure what.
From the article: The device is a Media Lab Europe project which goes against the grain of mobile development.
Against the grain? I'll say! Cuz we all know how portable a POOL is.
I also bet that they got some sort of grant money for this as well.
Do they expect to be taken seriously with this work? I fully expect the only user of this thing to be Austin Powers, with a bunch of sharks with fricken lasers on their heads swimming around him.
Hell, this is even too stupid for Get Smart... and he had the "Cones of Silence".
Even after my second cup of coffee, this just doesn't make sense... it belongs on the Onion more than the BBC.
Slashdot Mirror
The same with most financial institutions: SECURITY.
Sorry... wrong.
I've consulted to 3 of the largest banks in Canada, and they DO outsource. Seeing as Canada only has 4-5 banks, that would meant that most *DO* outsource.
In my experience, it didn't work out in 80% of the work performed (which is why I was called in), due to everything from management issues to lack of technical expertise of the contractors.
Actually, they should just enact a law that states that while driving a car, your attention should be focused on (duh!) *driving the car*
EXACTLY.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen near misses because some woman was doing her makeup on the way to work while driving, or some guy was fishing fries out of the McD's bag while pulling into traffic.
<MarvinTheMartian>And it makes me angry! So very angry!</>
Nah, it's probably the guy that hung the birdfeeders behind the turbine....
For some reason, that made me think of this REALLY FUNNY video of spinning bird feeders.
so that makes little over 3 birds killed per turbine in 20 years, or 0.157... birds/year/turbine!
Hell, my CAT has a better kill-rating than one of these turbines!
The birds will adapt, or die. Darwin in action. Build a bridge and get over it.
This sounds like some bizarre cheesy plot from Hollywood gone awry...
"What? Nothing's wrong? But that can't be right! We've got to try and break it again!"
Slightly off-topic, but it's interesting to note that when Google News or other links send me to "registration required" sites, the username/password of password/password usually works.
;)
I first learned of that for the NYT links here on slashdot, but it seems to be everywhere.
It'd be pretty interesting to see the stats on this "password" person.
Actually, some of the apparent "DBMS_*" utility packages are just wrappers for Java procedures, like the DBMS_SMTP packages to send emails.
You're also assuming that Java is to be used for SQL.
We currently use Java to perform SMTP/POP3 operations, make web service calls, perform Java-based "rsync's" between the DB and file systems, etc., all from within the DB and in a lot of cases being triggered by, well, a trigger.
While I agree that I would tend to abstract all SQL to some PL/SQL call that "DBA's who get it" have control over, there are LOTS of things that Java can do that are VERY handy, when viewed at in the application architecure POV and not just in a SQL context.
and in certain cases the JVM in the database is vastly more scalable than your client or middle tier
Very true. I think that the coolest thing was probably how Oracle re-coded their threading and garbage-collection code to allow for HUGE scalability.
We were doing some benchmarking and found that our app "died" at about 3,000 sessions (as defined by us) in the tweaked/tuned native JVM, whereas the Oracle JVM handled almost 150,000 before croaking.
We were also messing around with hacking JavaSpaces and RMID to run within the Oracle JVM, and the initial performance and fault-tolerance findings were very impressive.
Also, (at least here in Canada), our AT&T cel phones log and report on EVERY call made, not just long distance, so if that stuff is included somehow, that's a LOT of data.
I don't find this list all that accurate (or maybe representative), as I have personally worked with at least 4 DB's that would easily top the list. Mind you, I do a lot of high-end database consulting for governments and fortune 50 companies, and they probably declined to be included, or weren't even aware of this list.
;)
Maybe they should rename it to "the top 10 list of databases that we know about and are allowed to talk about".
We'll get a "cease and desist" letter from some inter-gallactic lawyer citing the DMCA.
Commercial software is built by carefully selected and screened teams of programmers working to build proprietary, secure software... By contrast, much of Linux has been built from contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers, each contributing a small section of code...
Hmmm.... he's obviously never met MY commercial product development team!
Oh.... wait...
They ARE pretty cool.
You can see a review of one of their latest laptops here,
I hear you, and more power to you.
At the end of the day, nothing is being enforced on either of us, so it really IS a personal choice.
Eventually, it will be interesting to see if the market will tolerate this or not.
Regardless, I'm sure a lot of people, myself included, will be watching this with interest.
That happened outside the bar?
Nope, inside, at one of the bars near the back of the club.
How would registering help?
Then the cops would at least have a pic of the guy who did this, that could be shown around, put in the paper, on CrimeStoppers, etc., in an attempt to catch him. Right now they have nothing, except for varying descriptions.
In other instances, they can't find witnesses to shootings, stabbings, beatings, etc. Registration would at least give them the ability to track down potential witnesses to help those that were assaulted. I also know 4 friends of mine that have had their drinks spiked in the last couple of years, and they say they had problems describing them, but they could have picked them out from a group of photos (facial scars, shirt they were wearing, etc.).
It also turns out that the same pair of guys went to 4 or 5 bars that night, getting kicked out for causing problems inside the bar... a couple of fights, etc. I found this out when I went around, calling on some bar-staff friends to see if we could find out anything about them.
In this extreme case, it seems that these guys were out to scrap... plain and simple. They came armed with a weapon and the mind-set.
Registration could have at least alerted the other bars, not letting them in to cause problems, and the cops may have had a better chance of catching up to them.
I think it's also important to understand that the area of town where most of this is taking place is VERY small... TONS of bars within a $5 cab ride. It's not unusual for people to get kicked out of one bar and go to another one down the street. On Granville Row, there are about 8 bars, on the same street, in a single block.
There usually aren't many problems outside (except when people get tossed), because there's usually a few cops around (there's a community police station right in the middle of it). It's usually on the inside, in the packed night clubs, that the problems occur.
As to the ID Swap thing, the bouncers aren't (usually) idiots... if they look at the ID (which they'll do before any pics are taken), and it doesn't match you, then you'll be refused. Also, attempting to use ID that is not yours to enter a licensed drinking establishment is a criminal offense... not that that's a big deal or anything... just pointing it out.
On top of which, not only are you scanned when you enter the casino, you also have multiple staff that can surreptitiously follow you, and mutiple video cameras that can track you and are being taped 100% of the time.
And, all this is correlated with your credit card info from your check-in, and they know all the shows you went to see, etc.
And this data is shared between casinos.
Just because it's out of sight, doesn't mean that it's not being done.
If anything, this "in your face" picture taking may be all that is required to stop most stupidity at bars, as problems are caused by people who think that they're anonymous.
yeah, but even with a fake ID, they'd still have a good pic of him to send around to the other bars and to give the cops.
Right now they have 5 different descriptions from drunk patrons and a freaked out bartender.
I live downtown Vancouver, 2 blocks from the "granville row" that they refer to in the article.
I've played in the house band of one of these clubs, and know a LOT of people that work and play in these clubs.
I think this is a GOOD thing.
Even as we speak, a friend of mine is STILL recuperating from a severe shit-kicking that happened within one of the bars over 2 months ago.
She (yes, SHE) was minding her own business, when 2 guys bumped into her boyfriend, who turned around with the typical "WTF!?", and the 2 guys almost killed him. I wish I were being over-dramatic, but they literally ALMOST KILLED HIM. They knew how to fight, and they went at it. One of them even pulled out a collapsable baton and hit him while he was down. It should be mentioned that the guy who got shit-kicked was knocked down and unconscious before he even finished the "WTF!?".
At this point, his girlfriend jumped in and tried to get them to stop, so they started beating her with the baton.
This happened in less than 30 seconds, in front of a horrified bartender, and the guys were gone before any bouncers could arrive... and they weren't slow to get there.
Even now the bar-scene staff, Vancouver Police, and RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), are trying to figure out who the guys were and how to find them.
The sad part is that it's not an isolated incedent. In-bar muggings and shootings are on the rise, with a number of East Indian and Asian gangs going nuts on each other.
My whole philosophy is that it's private property, it's reasonable for the bars to ask you to do this to get in, and at the end of the day, you don't HAVE to go there. You don't like their policies, don't go.
If anything, I'd rather see this story being discussed from a "technology-based solution to a problem" angle rather than a knee-jerk "oh my God they're coming to get us, put on your tinfoil hats!" angle.
Or instead of probably violating your provider's Terms of Service by running a server (as I do too), you could just pony up the extra cash for a business account that will let you do anything you want.
But that still won't work for my companies. I have 3 software development companies that have people all over the planet that use our hosted email servers, using POPAUTH relay authorization. This means that when the end-user checks their email, it then opens up the IP address that they're coming from to relay mail through the corporate server for 10 minutes. Every time they check their email, they refresh that 10 minutes.
We provide SSL/TLS SMTP and POP3 connections, so that even if they are in a "hostile" environment (like another company's LAN), they can still send and recieve their email without fear of a packet sniff divulging its contents. It also means that they can attach themselves to just about any Internet connection (compuserve, ATT Global, corporate LAN, etc.) and be able to send emails without having to screw around with their email settings.
Now, this means that our "allowable IP list" changes quite often. It's not like all IP's are within our assigned block, etc.
For that matter, most corporate IP's would be some 10. or 192. range, I'm guessing, which means that those IP's would have to be on the "allowed list", and it wouldn't be that hard to spoof those IP's.
I don't think this would work, even if everyone jumped on board.
There's a company called LunarTek in Victoria, BC, Canada, that does a great job. Lorrie Wright, the owner/operator, does a great job of finding people work, or finding work people, and she only asks for $10/hr for the service.
As a contract consultant who charges $70-$150 per hour depending on the gig, that is more than reasonable for me.
It's very refreshing in an environment where companies want to take half, and it seems to be doing quite well for her.
Maybe his first order of business should be to go after Verisign, as they're the biggest "Cyber Threat" out there right now.
;)
Who knows, maybe his Air Force experience will come in handy when it comes time to call in the air strike.
For that matter, while he's at it, he could pay a little visit to SCO as well.
Is it just me, or might this be an instance where a class action lawsuit would be in order?
Get the team of lawyers over at EFF (or someplace similar) to get a class-action on behalf of all of us Internet and techie users, sue Verisign's assess of, and then the awarded "legal fees" normally awarded in such suits go to the EFF. (Win win?)
I, for one, feel compelled to DO something about this... but I'm not sure what.
It just worked from Vancouver, BC. :)
:)
I just called, gave them a fictitious name, and then asked them to call me back on their now un-listed phone number.
Made my day.
From the article: The device is a Media Lab Europe project which goes against the grain of mobile development.
Against the grain? I'll say! Cuz we all know how portable a POOL is.
I also bet that they got some sort of grant money for this as well.
Do they expect to be taken seriously with this work? I fully expect the only user of this thing to be Austin Powers, with a bunch of sharks with fricken lasers on their heads swimming around him.
Hell, this is even too stupid for Get Smart... and he had the "Cones of Silence".
Even after my second cup of coffee, this just doesn't make sense... it belongs on the Onion more than the BBC.
*sigh*