'Unless you re-write the laws to make cable a "utility" you can't govern the way they provide service.'
Actually, I believe the time has come to re-categorize internet providers as utilities. Most ISPs operate as either a monopoly or duopoly, have municipal districts and are considered to be an essential service for both business and home. All of these are common traits for a utility. It's time to start treating them as such.
I just wanted to say thank you. I wish more parents were like you. We'd have a lot more smart ass kids in our school systems... and that IS a good thing.
Unfortunately, these have become hard to find in our pay to play economy. And being able to tell who is a good unbiased source of information is a monumental challenge. So far, the only thing that seems to be for sure is that the louder and more often someone says that they are unbiased and neutral the less they are. I would throw out some names and advertising slogans but, I'm not wearing my flame-proof underwear (AC).
Actually, they don't wait to get shut down, usually.
I used to work for one of the top level (*cough*) product companies in this type of scam. I was too naive at the beginning of my employment to truly know what was happening. I learned really quick after the FTC paid a house call and quit the company. No charges were ever filed.
In short, this is how the scam works: A company is selling suspect products, web pages, in my case (hey, it was the 1990s). The hire a shady parent telemarketing company who then sets up, or hires out, smaller boiler room telemarketing companies. These smaller companies are the ones actually placing the calls and rarely have much more than 50 employees. They sell the "product" and everybody takes a cut of the deal. The small companies are rotated out, as the parent post pointed out, with a similar company with the same office, equipment and employees under a new company name and official owner every 3-6 months. This is faster than the FTC and FCC can process complaint claims. When said government agencies question the upstream companies about the crooked deals, they point to the small boiler room company, now closed and with all it's paperwork destroyed, as the source of the criminal act and show the feds sham paperwork that states their "clearly legal guidelines that the rogue company clearly disregarded." Of course, everyone, at the managerial level, is in on the corrupt deal and are fully aware it's illegal. But, this shell game scam creates plausible deniability and prevents the government agencies from putting the top level companies out of business and their owners in jail.
The owner of this "warranty" company in TFA sounds just like the boss at the company I used to work for and is likely just as guilty. The biggest problem is that this system works so well that you have to put some really suspect laws on the books to have any hope of going after the people really responsible as you can never prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were having proxy companies commit a crime for them unless they make a serious mistake.
On a slightly related note: Why do government agencies never talk to the likely underpaid and abused file clerk(s) when they investigate a company? Why do they only interview the managers? The managers usually have a well prepared set of lies for the feds and self motivation not sell out the company. The file clerk(s), even if they've been given the company lie, will likely be more than willing to sell out the managers, especially if immunity and a cut of the fine are offered, and will have the documentation, if there is any, to back up any claims they make. (Guess what my position was at the web company?)
You're still equating something that's an inconvenience (ID theft) with physical harm.
Actually, I think that there are a lot of people that would rather deal with a broken arm, electrical burns and temporally burning off all their hair than deal with ID theft. You get more support for societies infrastructures for one. You can go the the hospital for all of the other items. For ID theft, you call your bank and they say they have to [fill in blanks, varies by country/state] by law but, other than that, sorry sucker! Call the police and they'll look at you funny, say "fill out this paperwork" which they promptly put in a bottom drawer where it never leaves. Call the credit reporting agencies, they'll say "if you want us to actually monitor your credit for activity, it'll cost $XX.XX", if you object, then they'll say "ok, here's your free credit report as required by law" (in the US) and call this number to lock your credit" (thus locking everything, not just malicious activity).
ID theft, in this day and age, can do as much or more harm than the other activities mentioned. It can even lead to death, albeit by other means.
If it was that easy to achieve, we likely would not be having this conversation. It would be nice if it was that simple. Hopefully someday, someone will invent technology like that.
Well, here's why CO2 is a problem. We are using more energy than ever before. From our current sources of energy, that means more CO2 created. On the other side, the largest source of CO2 to O2 (oxygen) conversion, trees, are being removed in great numbers. Sufficient higher quantities of CO2 in the air cause a "greenhouse" effect, warming the planet. None of these facts are in dispute.
The only arguments are over is how much additional CO2 is required to be in the air before the planet becomes warm enough that it will no longer support human life. (Note: Human. Other life on the planet can likely survive warmer temperatures.) Many environmental groups believe we have put too much additional CO2 in the air and human life is in danger if we do not make dramatic changes right now. Many industrial groups contend that no amount of human industrial activity can possibly make enough of a change to affect human life. Others contend that humans will be able to adapt no matter the environmental changes.
To me, the extra few dollars a megawatt it costs for renewable energy sources verses even the slightest chance of human extinction is a no brainer. By the time we would figure the latter out, it would likely be too late. It's not worth the risk. People who believe "it's not my problem" ARE part of the problem!
Well, if you're talking a full version of Windows XP or Windows 7, then yes, this would be a tall order. However, if they start with their Windows Mobile software and build their way up at some point, they will meet in the middle.
I'm not sure if I want this to happen or see Microsoft ram Windows 7 on an ARM processor and watch the steaming pile of FAIL.
We'll see which strategy they pick. Knowing Microsoft, it'll be the latter one. It'll be fun to watch but painful on computer usability for some time.
Legitimate use is not a defense against zero-tolerance policies.
Which is proof why zero-tolerance policies are stupid and wrong. This prohibitionist, now dubbed "zero-tolerance", policies were wrong in the 20s and 30s and are still wrong today.
Also, I'm glad to see the description of the term "Intellectual Property" called for precisely what it is : propaganda [...] - it muddies the water of the discussion.
That is the point of the term. To eventually muddy the waters enough that the big corporations can have an item and be able to enforce their monopoly with the freedom of trademarks, the term length of copyrights and the enforcement powers of patents.
Bail in this case is $5,000,000. A bail bond would cost $500,000.
So much for the Eighth Amendment.
As the GP stated, the amount of bail is proportional to the severity of the charged crime and the risk of flight. The severity of the charge is quite high: the apparent hi-jacking of a government network.
Severity of crime?! You're kidding right?
Most people accused of murder have lower bail amounts. San Fransisco county's own guidelines for bail recommend only $1 million for most murder cases.
So, you're trying to tell me that holding the passwords up for a government network is 5 times worse then killing someone? (Since flight risk does not seem to be a factor in this case as he wants to fight the charges.)
With Linux (and BSD), there are many different applications and services between the different distros. Some of these packages are unique to those distributions that a maintained by specialized groups, some by like minded programmers and others by corporate interests. There is no "one" version.
With Windows (XP, Vista and 7), there is only one version of Windows now known as Ultimate (there are 32 and 64 bit editions but, as has been pointed our in other posts, this is not what the pricing and features are based off of). Every other package is a "feature crippled" version with different price points. The only purpose of these other packages are to increase the price of the "full" version of Windows while being able to claim that you have not raised the prices to the powers that be and the public.
Personally, I find what Microsoft is doing as a load of crap and I avoid paying the "Microsoft tax" every chance possible.
The only limit I've run into is that when I produce a presentation using Impress, where it's going to be displayed in MS Power Point, I open the file in MS PowerPoint before presenting to make sure it's going to display OK. Sometimes, fonts will be different, carefully aligned elements will be out of order, graphics scale the wrong size, etc.
One way to solve this is to download OpenOffice Portable and install it on your flash drive (or network drive). This way you never have to care if M$ PowerPoint will render your presentation correctly.
This doesn't effect me as I am a citizen. That said, this is getting ridiculous. This data doesn't do DHS any good for terror tracking as there has been research suggesting that the overwhelming amounts of information is a hindrance rather then a benefit. All it's good for is when the DHS, FBI, DEA, ATF, etc. decide they don't like you, they can dig through the data to find any trivial issue to drag you into an interrogation room and work you over.
Thankfully, with Obama becoming president, the odds of you getting Gitmo'd have reduced drastically. But, don't think that the three lettered thugs with badges will let this option be removed from them so easily. Only time will tell. I hope they reduce the base to rubble when we leave so it can't be easily reopened.
Even all other things being equal, I still tend to prefer AMD as they have a better track record of supporting upgrades without having to change out your CPU, RAM and motherboard every time. Also, if your board burns out, you're far more likely to find a new retail motherboard for AMD to replace it. Intel, a lot of times, your only option is eBay.
Text synopsis for those of use who can't watch YouTube videos at work? (I can bypass the web filter but, it's not worth risking my job to watch a YouTube video linked to by Slashdot.)
And could someone please convert Slashdot to Unicode now? Sorry for all the stupid characters in that. Trust me. I'm not offended and I think most Slashdotters will be either. I fight with the Unicode issue myself all the time. Problem is, if people do their web page work on Windows, there are few tools that handle UTF-8 well, if at all. I had to switch to a Unix development environment to get good UTF-8 support.
I am also a DreamHost customer. If you feel this way, email them and let them know. Otherwise, they have no way of knowing how you feel. (Even though I suspect a large percentage of DreamHost employees browse Slashdot.
The reason SAMBA licensed the Microsoft protocols is fairly obvious. It was purely a business decision. Every day that SAMBA doesn't know exactly how the Microsoft protocols work, is a day their application isn't quite fully compatible.
For most BSD/Linux geeks, such as myself, this is not much of an issue as the current system is good enough. However, Linux providers are trying to get big business on board and most big business "good enough" doesn't cut it. If you can't promise 100% compatibility with the largest vendor in town, your out of luck.
It sucks that the Linux community has to cater to the Microsoft bobble heads that run most big business IT departments. But, that is the price for wide adoption.
Slashdot Mirror
'Unless you re-write the laws to make cable a "utility" you can't govern the way they provide service.'
Actually, I believe the time has come to re-categorize internet providers as utilities. Most ISPs operate as either a monopoly or duopoly, have municipal districts and are considered to be an essential service for both business and home. All of these are common traits for a utility. It's time to start treating them as such.
I just wanted to say thank you. I wish more parents were like you. We'd have a lot more smart ass kids in our school systems... and that IS a good thing.
look for an unbiased neutral party.
Unfortunately, these have become hard to find in our pay to play economy. And being able to tell who is a good unbiased source of information is a monumental challenge. So far, the only thing that seems to be for sure is that the louder and more often someone says that they are unbiased and neutral the less they are. I would throw out some names and advertising slogans but, I'm not wearing my flame-proof underwear (AC).
Actually, they don't wait to get shut down, usually.
I used to work for one of the top level (*cough*) product companies in this type of scam. I was too naive at the beginning of my employment to truly know what was happening. I learned really quick after the FTC paid a house call and quit the company. No charges were ever filed.
In short, this is how the scam works: A company is selling suspect products, web pages, in my case (hey, it was the 1990s). The hire a shady parent telemarketing company who then sets up, or hires out, smaller boiler room telemarketing companies. These smaller companies are the ones actually placing the calls and rarely have much more than 50 employees. They sell the "product" and everybody takes a cut of the deal. The small companies are rotated out, as the parent post pointed out, with a similar company with the same office, equipment and employees under a new company name and official owner every 3-6 months. This is faster than the FTC and FCC can process complaint claims. When said government agencies question the upstream companies about the crooked deals, they point to the small boiler room company, now closed and with all it's paperwork destroyed, as the source of the criminal act and show the feds sham paperwork that states their "clearly legal guidelines that the rogue company clearly disregarded." Of course, everyone, at the managerial level, is in on the corrupt deal and are fully aware it's illegal. But, this shell game scam creates plausible deniability and prevents the government agencies from putting the top level companies out of business and their owners in jail.
The owner of this "warranty" company in TFA sounds just like the boss at the company I used to work for and is likely just as guilty. The biggest problem is that this system works so well that you have to put some really suspect laws on the books to have any hope of going after the people really responsible as you can never prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were having proxy companies commit a crime for them unless they make a serious mistake.
On a slightly related note: Why do government agencies never talk to the likely underpaid and abused file clerk(s) when they investigate a company? Why do they only interview the managers? The managers usually have a well prepared set of lies for the feds and self motivation not sell out the company. The file clerk(s), even if they've been given the company lie, will likely be more than willing to sell out the managers, especially if immunity and a cut of the fine are offered, and will have the documentation, if there is any, to back up any claims they make. (Guess what my position was at the web company?)
You're still equating something that's an inconvenience (ID theft) with physical harm.
Actually, I think that there are a lot of people that would rather deal with a broken arm, electrical burns and temporally burning off all their hair than deal with ID theft. You get more support for societies infrastructures for one. You can go the the hospital for all of the other items. For ID theft, you call your bank and they say they have to [fill in blanks, varies by country/state] by law but, other than that, sorry sucker! Call the police and they'll look at you funny, say "fill out this paperwork" which they promptly put in a bottom drawer where it never leaves. Call the credit reporting agencies, they'll say "if you want us to actually monitor your credit for activity, it'll cost $XX.XX", if you object, then they'll say "ok, here's your free credit report as required by law" (in the US) and call this number to lock your credit" (thus locking everything, not just malicious activity).
ID theft, in this day and age, can do as much or more harm than the other activities mentioned. It can even lead to death, albeit by other means.
If it was that easy to achieve, we likely would not be having this conversation. It would be nice if it was that simple. Hopefully someday, someone will invent technology like that.
Well, here's why CO2 is a problem. We are using more energy than ever before. From our current sources of energy, that means more CO2 created. On the other side, the largest source of CO2 to O2 (oxygen) conversion, trees, are being removed in great numbers. Sufficient higher quantities of CO2 in the air cause a "greenhouse" effect, warming the planet. None of these facts are in dispute.
The only arguments are over is how much additional CO2 is required to be in the air before the planet becomes warm enough that it will no longer support human life. (Note: Human. Other life on the planet can likely survive warmer temperatures.) Many environmental groups believe we have put too much additional CO2 in the air and human life is in danger if we do not make dramatic changes right now. Many industrial groups contend that no amount of human industrial activity can possibly make enough of a change to affect human life. Others contend that humans will be able to adapt no matter the environmental changes.
To me, the extra few dollars a megawatt it costs for renewable energy sources verses even the slightest chance of human extinction is a no brainer. By the time we would figure the latter out, it would likely be too late. It's not worth the risk. People who believe "it's not my problem" ARE part of the problem!
Well, if you're talking a full version of Windows XP or Windows 7, then yes, this would be a tall order. However, if they start with their Windows Mobile software and build their way up at some point, they will meet in the middle.
I'm not sure if I want this to happen or see Microsoft ram Windows 7 on an ARM processor and watch the steaming pile of FAIL.
We'll see which strategy they pick. Knowing Microsoft, it'll be the latter one. It'll be fun to watch but painful on computer usability for some time.
The only wisdom I have to share at this point is : if you find out your ISP is in league with the RIAA, change ISP's, and let them know why you left.
Well, start the list with AT&T, Comcast and Cox cable.
Legitimate use is not a defense against zero-tolerance policies.
Which is proof why zero-tolerance policies are stupid and wrong. This prohibitionist, now dubbed "zero-tolerance", policies were wrong in the 20s and 30s and are still wrong today.
Also, I'm glad to see the description of the term "Intellectual Property" called for precisely what it is : propaganda [...] - it muddies the water of the discussion.
That is the point of the term. To eventually muddy the waters enough that the big corporations can have an item and be able to enforce their monopoly with the freedom of trademarks, the term length of copyrights and the enforcement powers of patents.
Bail in this case is $5,000,000. A bail bond would cost $500,000.
So much for the Eighth Amendment.
As the GP stated, the amount of bail is proportional to the severity of the charged crime and the risk of flight. The severity of the charge is quite high: the apparent hi-jacking of a government network.
Severity of crime?! You're kidding right?
Most people accused of murder have lower bail amounts. San Fransisco county's own guidelines for bail recommend only $1 million for most murder cases.
So, you're trying to tell me that holding the passwords up for a government network is 5 times worse then killing someone? (Since flight risk does not seem to be a factor in this case as he wants to fight the charges.)
Well, there is a major difference.
With Linux (and BSD), there are many different applications and services between the different distros. Some of these packages are unique to those distributions that a maintained by specialized groups, some by like minded programmers and others by corporate interests. There is no "one" version.
With Windows (XP, Vista and 7), there is only one version of Windows now known as Ultimate (there are 32 and 64 bit editions but, as has been pointed our in other posts, this is not what the pricing and features are based off of). Every other package is a "feature crippled" version with different price points. The only purpose of these other packages are to increase the price of the "full" version of Windows while being able to claim that you have not raised the prices to the powers that be and the public.
Personally, I find what Microsoft is doing as a load of crap and I avoid paying the "Microsoft tax" every chance possible.
The only limit I've run into is that when I produce a presentation using Impress, where it's going to be displayed in MS Power Point, I open the file in MS PowerPoint before presenting to make sure it's going to display OK. Sometimes, fonts will be different, carefully aligned elements will be out of order, graphics scale the wrong size, etc.
One way to solve this is to download OpenOffice Portable and install it on your flash drive (or network drive). This way you never have to care if M$ PowerPoint will render your presentation correctly.
Actually, I've seen lots of Japanese Hentai with such a disclaimer, even though the story states that the characters are high school students.
I have a feeling that the "over 18" disclaimer was placed on there for this exact reason.
This doesn't effect me as I am a citizen. That said, this is getting ridiculous. This data doesn't do DHS any good for terror tracking as there has been research suggesting that the overwhelming amounts of information is a hindrance rather then a benefit. All it's good for is when the DHS, FBI, DEA, ATF, etc. decide they don't like you, they can dig through the data to find any trivial issue to drag you into an interrogation room and work you over.
Thankfully, with Obama becoming president, the odds of you getting Gitmo'd have reduced drastically. But, don't think that the three lettered thugs with badges will let this option be removed from them so easily. Only time will tell. I hope they reduce the base to rubble when we leave so it can't be easily reopened.
I couldn't agree more.
Even all other things being equal, I still tend to prefer AMD as they have a better track record of supporting upgrades without having to change out your CPU, RAM and motherboard every time. Also, if your board burns out, you're far more likely to find a new retail motherboard for AMD to replace it. Intel, a lot of times, your only option is eBay.
I must admit, this is one of the most useful links I have ever seen posted.
This one goes into my permanent bookmarks. Thank you.
I was able to generate this message up to Windows Me. After 2000/XP, I have not been able to generate it again:
Interrupt Divide by 0
Not only was your software frozen, but your CPU too! Cold boot for you.
Thank you. :)
Reminds me of great Cthulhu: You nuke him, he regenerates, is now radioactive and pissed as hell.
Text synopsis for those of use who can't watch YouTube videos at work? (I can bypass the web filter but, it's not worth risking my job to watch a YouTube video linked to by Slashdot.)
The low cost GoDaddy SSL certs you are referring to get flagged by FireFox 3 as well.
The high price ones $89.99US/yr and higher are the only ones included in the browser trusted certificates.
I know this because I'm dealing with this at work.
I am also a DreamHost customer. If you feel this way, email them and let them know. Otherwise, they have no way of knowing how you feel. (Even though I suspect a large percentage of DreamHost employees browse Slashdot.
The reason SAMBA licensed the Microsoft protocols is fairly obvious. It was purely a business decision. Every day that SAMBA doesn't know exactly how the Microsoft protocols work, is a day their application isn't quite fully compatible.
For most BSD/Linux geeks, such as myself, this is not much of an issue as the current system is good enough. However, Linux providers are trying to get big business on board and most big business "good enough" doesn't cut it. If you can't promise 100% compatibility with the largest vendor in town, your out of luck.
It sucks that the Linux community has to cater to the Microsoft bobble heads that run most big business IT departments. But, that is the price for wide adoption.