"Sorry, the simple fact is there is no need for another desktop OS.."
"Instead, how about focusing on being a workstation OS and a server OS?"
The subtlety between being a desktop OS and s workstation OS is lost on me. So is the need to differentiate.
If this is the thinking going on behind Linux desktop development, then I understand why it is still almost there, but never quite. No surprise.
ps- the SFTU protocol is truly needed in the Linux community. I still get the predictable responses to requests for help with Linux software issues:
1. "RTFM!" 2. "Did you install it correctly?" 3. "Doesn't Winblows suck?" 4. "Did you test your RAM?" (I like this one a lot) 5. "If you don't understand the documnentation, perhaps you shouldn't be using this" 6. "You should be using {insert another application name here, it need not be for the same purpose} instead" 7. "You should try {insert another distro name here} instead" (I get this a lot less nowadays) 8. "Go back to Windoe$"
More helpful advice from the Linux community is not what I wanted. I just wanted help. Of course, I expect a lot from the nonprofessionals that respond the most, I know. I hardly ever snap back anymore. I'm hopeful that one day Linux will indeed command a significant portion of the desktop market. I may even be alive then.
"if you want to sell a one-time use unique product, then the consumer can't tell if it was worth the money until *after* they've consumed it"
How is this different from the previous model? Maybe it isn't supposed to be?
One of the reasons I subscibe to a single magazine is its reputation - I count on desireable content, and I get it most of the time.
One of the reasons I don't subscribe to a newspaper is its reputation - I count on undesireable or substandard content, and I would get it, if I subscribed.
I do read the online version of the local fishwrap, and I feel as if I pretty much get my moneys worth...
And I I know the fishwrap pretty much relies on advertising to survive. They have plenty of ads on their online site, let me tell ya. And they have annoying ads, like the Netflix popunders and lately some bogus antivirus vendors. Yuck.
"Rather than support an international cat-and-mouse style manhunt for multiple unknown individuals and all of the tax dollars that would require... I'd rather just use a more secure OS and let the people who run Windows deal with Windows problems. Simple."
Obviously simple. In fact, so obvious that you could be asking yourself "Well, why haven't we gotten a secure OS yet?" Well, why not? Ask some security professionals. It's nit just the OS, it's also the application. Case in point - Email users that click on attractive attachments can easily execute a program that is indistiguishable from any other user-accepted application, but of course is malware. An OS that is secure might be able to limit the harm, but the real issue is the user chose to run it. How do we keep users from running these apps? I dunno. But more later on how to choose the target.
"Beware of politician's logic. Politicians logic goes like this: "we must do SOMETHING!"... "this is something, so it must be done!""
My point was that Microsoft is avoiding a significant patch to the TCP stack for Xp - the one that can permit remote access and control, you know of it. Similar problem with DNS recently, and still we avoid signing root servers. Perhaps I should rephrase, to do what 'we know needs to be done', instead of just 'something'...?
Your comments on people who use tools they don't understand and then complain about the harm caused by predictable problems reminds me of the table saw industry. SawStop is an insanely clever solution to the problem of users dismembering themselves while using table saws. Not cheap, but how much is a finger worth nowadays? The industry in general seems both unwilling to offer this technology on their brands, and equally unwilling to even admit it works. Possibly cost is a factor, but more likely they need to deny the effectiveness to give them plausible deniability for injury suits. Suing isn't the answer, as I know of only one lawyer who can reattach a severed finger, and he has to do that before he files suit... But there it is, a good solution to the safety issue, and unused. I have a feeling I just made your point, somehow... Darn.
The reality is that Windows is the dominant OS, that it is not likely to get more secure in a hurry due to market resistance to the massive changes necessary, that there are any number of security solutions that cannot be relied upon for 100% protection, and users will continue to be both the primary source of security lapses and generally unskilled in proper security actions.
And since the weasels are in fact doing things that are or should be illegal or at least unethical, why shouldn't we go after them? If they are accessible, can be brought to trial, and we have good reason to believe they are doing something illegal, to not ALSO do this makes less sense to me.
And yes, I am proposing something that might not work. Doing nothing, again, is pretty much certain to have no effect.
I'm worried, of course, that pursuit by the legal system may only drive them offshore, to places less antognistic.
Perhaps, we need to recognize something else - That the proper place for Internet security is on the Internet. I'm ready for my ISP to shut off obviously infected hosts for 24 hours a week, with 24 or more hours notice. And no, I don't work for Geek Squad. At least this would wake up users who, as you point out, are not even aware of their predicament. But there are smarter people than me out there who may have better ideas.
If you can't choose a side in this, you're being disingenuous. Just stop it, and for once make sense.
Your only real complaint should be that the Department of Justice, multiple state Attorneys General, or motiviated citizens haven't already pursued these civil actions. And the DoJ etc. should be considering crminal actions, but are no doubt distracted by any number of safer, simpler, and easier to prosecute villains.
There is simply no excuse for going after the worst of these weasels, and expanding the fight overseas when they flee to supposed safe havens. I wish Microsoft good hunting on this one. Let's get after them to patch XP's TCP stack also, but at least DO SOMETHING, someone, please?
At least one consent decree between the US Government and IBM offers good case law to pursue access to service manuals and parts.
For instance the 1956consent decree over tabulating equipment (see section VI(c) in particular.
I made a good living for almost 10 years servicing various IBM office machines, buying parts mostly directly from IBM. Before 1956, this was impossible, and after it was pretty much only under threat of further legal action.
It is frustrating that we haven't exercised that right, as demonstrated by the consent decree.
More sense for them, of course, since they are the ones facing the bill.
More sense for our society as a whole, since we fare better when we mutually agree to support one another.
Not more sense for those who value their independence, and measure it by how much of their income they get to keep, among other things.
So far, health insurance is voluntary. Auto insurance, in much of the U.S., is not. For good reasons.
- Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you would rather not deal with all the regulation of driving, you have the option to move into a city or elsewhere with functional public transit, or take advantage of other forms of transportation. Yes, you do. The problems, etc are the cost of your choice, but you have the choice. I, for instance, still choose to drive 33 miles each way to work 5 days a week. I will choose not to some time soon, believe me. But for now, I do not complain much about my insurance premiums, nor gas, maintenance, and time. My choice.
- Healthcare is of significant financial consenquence, but the health consequences to others of your failure to have health insurance are not yet obvious nor apparently detrimental to the public. And bear in mind, if you get deathly ill, most hospitals will take you in, no matter how you intend (or not) to pay. This ends up costing us all, but this is the price, vs. potentially lethal illnesses being spread even more if the sick merely wandered around until death. And some will anyways.
Fire insurance, for instance, doesn't prevent fires, nor does it prevent the spread. Municipal fire departments do that, and are paid for with taxes in most places. Health insurance is not generally considered a protection for society at large, I suspect because the threat to society is not so obvious or manifest.
I think a mandatory public healthcare system is overstepping the Constitution. But our President seems to be engaging in that debate, that is, what sort of nation do we want to be?
Every claim adds to your history as a cost to the insurance company.
File a claim for your iPhone, and if you don't have replacement cost coverage, you will get a pittance, relatively speaking.
And then your premiums will go up. Look around for cheaper coverage, and there will be none - the other companies see your CLUE report and realize you file claims.
You will pay more in premiums than you ever did for the iPhone.
Now, this seems counterintuitive. Why would using your insurance actually cost you more? Ah, there is an answer. You see, insurance should be there for losses that you CAN'T afford. You can spring for the iPhone, it's having yoru house burn down or the back room be crushed by a falling tree that you want and need insurance for. And for the burglar that slips on the pool deck and sues you for their sprained back. Actually, you get insurance to pay the lawyers to defend you against that, but another topic...
So, perhaps you buy the carrier's insurance for the iPhone - a little pricey, but cheaper than having your homeowner's insurance 'skyrocket' for the next 5 years.
True story - I got a Palm Pilot 5000 when it was first out. Sweet. Dropped it the third day I had it, cracked the screen magnificently. Sent it in with $100 and fixed good as new. Dropped it again two days later. I learned to treat it gently, and never cracked another one, from the IIIc to V to Vx. The next item I cracked was my Toshiba Gigabeat, in my gym bag, whacked a door frame. $30, some time to tear it apart, and I have a white S60. I learned to care for my devices, a lesson re-learned occasionally... If you're hard on stuff, you learn not to be, get protection, or pay. Life isn't fair, just real.
Besides the web filters, hard firewall rules, and 'smart' content filters, the networking guys here are proud of their record. No known (!) breaches.
Recently a contractor got caught taking some data home on a stick. Not good for him.
And they take security seriously in the way that I get the content filter warning often enough, but no one comes to ask me what I'm trying to do. And I understand most of what they are filtering - warez sites, obvious problem sites, and of course anything intended to help me circumvent security, which would of course include anything likely to host malware.
I'm not complaining. My phone is mostly in the holster. If I wanna fritter away some time, I got/.
I don't see the demand for corporate workers to have Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al available 24x7.
Yet.
If you can get yer consultant to turn Twitter into a corporate must-have enablement disrupter, then you'll see these in Corporate America.
Of course, around here, we just raise our voices a little bit, and everyone knows our business. No twitter required. Even the tall cubicles can be circumvented with a change in volume, or standing up.
Since we don't get Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc here at work, then we need these phones to maintain our personal lives while we are at work. Well, maybe not so much... Though I'm looking forward to someone burning ROMs of Blur for my G1. I need something to make it run slower then ever.
It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog.
Trust me on this.
I knew two female police officers, neither of which I would challenge, despite outweighing them. being significantly taller, more reach, and stronger by every objective measure. EVEN^H^H^H^HEspecially without their gun being handy. They do not need anything but their hands.
And one of them died when a drunk driver ran her over and then went back and beat her to death.
Tasers are no doubt used inappropriately, and police officers exercise bad judgement occasionally, possible even more often. But you never know what is going to happen as a police officer.
When I get pulled over, I put my hands on the dash, ask the officer what they want me to do, tell them what I am reaching for, where, and what it will look like. I want the officer to be confident they know what is happening. No surprises, nothing unexpected. I don't want to become a victim of bad judgement, knowing it will probably be my own mistake that sets off that series of events.
And yet, we should expect our officers to improve their practices and avoid killing us unecessarily.
I moved myself 2800 miles away from my servers. Of couyrse, they were running Fedora Core releases, so being remote didn't worry me so much:
- Compaq servers with iLOs. Worst-case scenario included booting from CD to reinstall from scratch. Once in 4 years, amongst 5 servers. One long night without access when even the perimeter router failed, no power. The batteries lasted 5 hours. The outage lasted 11. Batteries are finite. I turned on the servers remotely
- Fedora. Stable enough.
- Raid 5 w/hot spares. A local buddy dropped over and pulled the blinking caddy. A day later, he put in the replacement. all the rest remotely.
I managed Windows servers remotely for a few years before I changed careers. Beats driving 200+ miles to do routine maintenance, or check on backup rotations.
Now, the real test is to make sure they don't have much parking at the new 'green' site. You KNOW some of the less adaptable will be driving over...:)
In fact, if you watch it again and again, you come to different conclusions. Unless you're not really watching it, in which case you're not really observing the state, and so while it doesn't change, you wouldn't know that.
You do know that Physics is intended to make sense out of nothing. And it seems to work well for that.
You could at one time buy a 54G that would happily load any of several open-source firmware options. Of course, having a Linux-based router was somethinng of a novelty then, and after twisting arms and getting linksys to actually obey the GPL, code was written and we had fun.
Then Linksys upgraded the WRT54 series, and introduced some with minimal RAM/ROM hardware. Oh my, you would think the world stopped.
Eventually, Linksys actually shipped some with the old hardware, at greater cost, and you could have fun again.
If Sony wants to reduce retail price by cheapening components and eliminating the option to load other OSes, well, their choice. Go buy a Wii. Or an xBox. Or a PC. They left you.
Yep, so they would have to destroy the data within days if they had no legal reason to keep it.
And I believe that the gang down at the Geek Squad or the corner PC store won't copy my Pr0n collection, history, and links when I have them replace the motherboard. If they find any.
Does your employer have written policies that govern acceptable use, data security, etc?
If not, now is a good time. You are going to use some form of full disk encryption, aren't you? Or would you rather give away all your and his data if^H^Hwhen your laptop is stolen?
Such policies make it much clearer. At least you will know the score, and he really should have such a policy. I suspect there is already.
I work with a very different organization, so they not only warn me any data is theirs, but our group policies also limit the type of media I can actually use - USB sticks generally work, but my 8G stick with the microSD reader won't let me mount a microSD card. My music player will mount, but won't let me copy.MP3,.OGG, and.MWA files. And my security agent reports on all that. I have to go back and request removable device support when it expires so I can back up data to the DVD drive etc as required by our disaster recovery policy - my access is limited and expires regularly, requiring me to jump through flaming hoops of fire (Kleenex on a coathanger, but they think it's fun) to justify to one group what I am mandated to do by another.
If you get a chance to work for a Furtune 100 company, do. Network management there is more fun than a rubber crutch, and will remind you that your former squabbles over screensavers and PST files are small potatoes in the grand scheme of life.
Slashdot Mirror
"Sorry, the simple fact is there is no need for another desktop OS.."
"Instead, how about focusing on being a workstation OS and a server OS?"
The subtlety between being a desktop OS and s workstation OS is lost on me. So is the need to differentiate.
If this is the thinking going on behind Linux desktop development, then I understand why it is still almost there, but never quite. No surprise.
ps- the SFTU protocol is truly needed in the Linux community. I still get the predictable responses to requests for help with Linux software issues:
1. "RTFM!"
2. "Did you install it correctly?"
3. "Doesn't Winblows suck?"
4. "Did you test your RAM?" (I like this one a lot)
5. "If you don't understand the documnentation, perhaps you shouldn't be using this"
6. "You should be using {insert another application name here, it need not be for the same purpose} instead"
7. "You should try {insert another distro name here} instead" (I get this a lot less nowadays)
8. "Go back to Windoe$"
More helpful advice from the Linux community is not what I wanted. I just wanted help. Of course, I expect a lot from the nonprofessionals that respond the most, I know. I hardly ever snap back anymore. I'm hopeful that one day Linux will indeed command a significant portion of the desktop market. I may even be alive then.
"if you want to sell a one-time use unique product, then the consumer can't tell if it was worth the money until *after* they've consumed it"
How is this different from the previous model? Maybe it isn't supposed to be?
One of the reasons I subscibe to a single magazine is its reputation - I count on desireable content, and I get it most of the time.
One of the reasons I don't subscribe to a newspaper is its reputation - I count on undesireable or substandard content, and I would get it, if I subscribed.
I do read the online version of the local fishwrap, and I feel as if I pretty much get my moneys worth...
And I I know the fishwrap pretty much relies on advertising to survive. They have plenty of ads on their online site, let me tell ya. And they have annoying ads, like the Netflix popunders and lately some bogus antivirus vendors. Yuck.
"Rather than support an international cat-and-mouse style manhunt for multiple unknown individuals and all of the tax dollars that would require ... I'd rather just use a more secure OS and let the people who run Windows deal with Windows problems. Simple."
Obviously simple. In fact, so obvious that you could be asking yourself "Well, why haven't we gotten a secure OS yet?" Well, why not? Ask some security professionals. It's nit just the OS, it's also the application. Case in point - Email users that click on attractive attachments can easily execute a program that is indistiguishable from any other user-accepted application, but of course is malware. An OS that is secure might be able to limit the harm, but the real issue is the user chose to run it. How do we keep users from running these apps? I dunno. But more later on how to choose the target.
"Beware of politician's logic. Politicians logic goes like this: "we must do SOMETHING!" ... "this is something, so it must be done!""
My point was that Microsoft is avoiding a significant patch to the TCP stack for Xp - the one that can permit remote access and control, you know of it. Similar problem with DNS recently, and still we avoid signing root servers. Perhaps I should rephrase, to do what 'we know needs to be done', instead of just 'something'...?
Your comments on people who use tools they don't understand and then complain about the harm caused by predictable problems reminds me of the table saw industry. SawStop is an insanely clever solution to the problem of users dismembering themselves while using table saws. Not cheap, but how much is a finger worth nowadays? The industry in general seems both unwilling to offer this technology on their brands, and equally unwilling to even admit it works. Possibly cost is a factor, but more likely they need to deny the effectiveness to give them plausible deniability for injury suits. Suing isn't the answer, as I know of only one lawyer who can reattach a severed finger, and he has to do that before he files suit... But there it is, a good solution to the safety issue, and unused. I have a feeling I just made your point, somehow... Darn.
The reality is that Windows is the dominant OS, that it is not likely to get more secure in a hurry due to market resistance to the massive changes necessary, that there are any number of security solutions that cannot be relied upon for 100% protection, and users will continue to be both the primary source of security lapses and generally unskilled in proper security actions.
And since the weasels are in fact doing things that are or should be illegal or at least unethical, why shouldn't we go after them? If they are accessible, can be brought to trial, and we have good reason to believe they are doing something illegal, to not ALSO do this makes less sense to me.
And yes, I am proposing something that might not work. Doing nothing, again, is pretty much certain to have no effect.
I'm worried, of course, that pursuit by the legal system may only drive them offshore, to places less antognistic.
Perhaps, we need to recognize something else - That the proper place for Internet security is on the Internet. I'm ready for my ISP to shut off obviously infected hosts for 24 hours a week, with 24 or more hours notice. And no, I don't work for Geek Squad. At least this would wake up users who, as you point out, are not even aware of their predicament. But there are smarter people than me out there who may have better ideas.
If you can't choose a side in this, you're being disingenuous. Just stop it, and for once make sense.
Your only real complaint should be that the Department of Justice, multiple state Attorneys General, or motiviated citizens haven't already pursued these civil actions. And the DoJ etc. should be considering crminal actions, but are no doubt distracted by any number of safer, simpler, and easier to prosecute villains.
There is simply no excuse for going after the worst of these weasels, and expanding the fight overseas when they flee to supposed safe havens. I wish Microsoft good hunting on this one. Let's get after them to patch XP's TCP stack also, but at least DO SOMETHING, someone, please?
Me? I'm no good at suits.
You heard it here, remember me well.
magic elixir and that case will hold up to a lot more.
Won't replace shielding though. Maybe snip some tinfoil from your hats?
Hopefully it will run Flash sometime soon... Though I hate Flash and everything it stands for...
At least one consent decree between the US Government and IBM offers good case law to pursue access to service manuals and parts.
For instance the 1956 consent decree over tabulating equipment (see section VI(c) in particular.
I made a good living for almost 10 years servicing various IBM office machines, buying parts mostly directly from IBM. Before 1956, this was impossible, and after it was pretty much only under threat of further legal action.
It is frustrating that we haven't exercised that right, as demonstrated by the consent decree.
More sense for them, of course, since they are the ones facing the bill.
More sense for our society as a whole, since we fare better when we mutually agree to support one another.
Not more sense for those who value their independence, and measure it by how much of their income they get to keep, among other things.
So far, health insurance is voluntary. Auto insurance, in much of the U.S., is not. For good reasons.
- Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you would rather not deal with all the regulation of driving, you have the option to move into a city or elsewhere with functional public transit, or take advantage of other forms of transportation. Yes, you do. The problems, etc are the cost of your choice, but you have the choice. I, for instance, still choose to drive 33 miles each way to work 5 days a week. I will choose not to some time soon, believe me. But for now, I do not complain much about my insurance premiums, nor gas, maintenance, and time. My choice.
- Healthcare is of significant financial consenquence, but the health consequences to others of your failure to have health insurance are not yet obvious nor apparently detrimental to the public. And bear in mind, if you get deathly ill, most hospitals will take you in, no matter how you intend (or not) to pay. This ends up costing us all, but this is the price, vs. potentially lethal illnesses being spread even more if the sick merely wandered around until death. And some will anyways.
Fire insurance, for instance, doesn't prevent fires, nor does it prevent the spread. Municipal fire departments do that, and are paid for with taxes in most places. Health insurance is not generally considered a protection for society at large, I suspect because the threat to society is not so obvious or manifest.
I think a mandatory public healthcare system is overstepping the Constitution. But our President seems to be engaging in that debate, that is, what sort of nation do we want to be?
Every claim adds to your history as a cost to the insurance company.
File a claim for your iPhone, and if you don't have replacement cost coverage, you will get a pittance, relatively speaking.
And then your premiums will go up. Look around for cheaper coverage, and there will be none - the other companies see your CLUE report and realize you file claims.
You will pay more in premiums than you ever did for the iPhone.
Now, this seems counterintuitive. Why would using your insurance actually cost you more? Ah, there is an answer. You see, insurance should be there for losses that you CAN'T afford. You can spring for the iPhone, it's having yoru house burn down or the back room be crushed by a falling tree that you want and need insurance for. And for the burglar that slips on the pool deck and sues you for their sprained back. Actually, you get insurance to pay the lawyers to defend you against that, but another topic...
So, perhaps you buy the carrier's insurance for the iPhone - a little pricey, but cheaper than having your homeowner's insurance 'skyrocket' for the next 5 years.
True story - I got a Palm Pilot 5000 when it was first out. Sweet. Dropped it the third day I had it, cracked the screen magnificently. Sent it in with $100 and fixed good as new. Dropped it again two days later. I learned to treat it gently, and never cracked another one, from the IIIc to V to Vx. The next item I cracked was my Toshiba Gigabeat, in my gym bag, whacked a door frame. $30, some time to tear it apart, and I have a white S60. I learned to care for my devices, a lesson re-learned occasionally... If you're hard on stuff, you learn not to be, get protection, or pay. Life isn't fair, just real.
Besides the web filters, hard firewall rules, and 'smart' content filters, the networking guys here are proud of their record. No known (!) breaches.
Recently a contractor got caught taking some data home on a stick. Not good for him.
And they take security seriously in the way that I get the content filter warning often enough, but no one comes to ask me what I'm trying to do. And I understand most of what they are filtering - warez sites, obvious problem sites, and of course anything intended to help me circumvent security, which would of course include anything likely to host malware.
I'm not complaining. My phone is mostly in the holster. If I wanna fritter away some time, I got /.
Around here, 'Tor' is a synonym for 'fired'.
Like the guys in networking don't know that trick. pffft. If I wanna tweet, I got to use my phone. Woohoo.
And I do use my phone to probe the honeypot open WiFi they run from time to time. So far they haven't come for me...
If you love
your tweets,
set them
free.
I'll kill
any
that get
to
me.
Burma Shave.
I don't see the demand for corporate workers to have Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al available 24x7.
Yet.
If you can get yer consultant to turn Twitter into a corporate must-have enablement disrupter, then you'll see these in Corporate America.
Of course, around here, we just raise our voices a little bit, and everyone knows our business. No twitter required. Even the tall cubicles can be circumvented with a change in volume, or standing up.
Since we don't get Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc here at work, then we need these phones to maintain our personal lives while we are at work. Well, maybe not so much... Though I'm looking forward to someone burning ROMs of Blur for my G1. I need something to make it run slower then ever.
It's not the size of the dog in the fight.
It's the size of the fight in the dog.
Trust me on this.
I knew two female police officers, neither of which I would challenge, despite outweighing them. being significantly taller, more reach, and stronger by every objective measure. EVEN^H^H^H^HEspecially without their gun being handy. They do not need anything but their hands.
And one of them died when a drunk driver ran her over and then went back and beat her to death.
Tasers are no doubt used inappropriately, and police officers exercise bad judgement occasionally, possible even more often. But you never know what is going to happen as a police officer.
When I get pulled over, I put my hands on the dash, ask the officer what they want me to do, tell them what I am reaching for, where, and what it will look like. I want the officer to be confident they know what is happening. No surprises, nothing unexpected. I don't want to become a victim of bad judgement, knowing it will probably be my own mistake that sets off that series of events.
And yet, we should expect our officers to improve their practices and avoid killing us unecessarily.
I moved myself 2800 miles away from my servers. Of couyrse, they were running Fedora Core releases, so being remote didn't worry me so much:
- Compaq servers with iLOs. Worst-case scenario included booting from CD to reinstall from scratch. Once in 4 years, amongst 5 servers. One long night without access when even the perimeter router failed, no power. The batteries lasted 5 hours. The outage lasted 11. Batteries are finite. I turned on the servers remotely
- Fedora. Stable enough.
- Raid 5 w/hot spares. A local buddy dropped over and pulled the blinking caddy. A day later, he put in the replacement. all the rest remotely.
I managed Windows servers remotely for a few years before I changed careers. Beats driving 200+ miles to do routine maintenance, or check on backup rotations.
Now, the real test is to make sure they don't have much parking at the new 'green' site. You KNOW some of the less adaptable will be driving over... :)
Sounds like a new episode of Majestic
Precisely. Viewing it changed the state.
In fact, if you watch it again and again, you come to different conclusions. Unless you're not really watching it, in which case you're not really observing the state, and so while it doesn't change, you wouldn't know that.
You do know that Physics is intended to make sense out of nothing. And it seems to work well for that.
Kinda like the Linksys WRT54G 'controversy'.
You could at one time buy a 54G that would happily load any of several open-source firmware options. Of course, having a Linux-based router was somethinng of a novelty then, and after twisting arms and getting linksys to actually obey the GPL, code was written and we had fun.
Then Linksys upgraded the WRT54 series, and introduced some with minimal RAM/ROM hardware. Oh my, you would think the world stopped.
Eventually, Linksys actually shipped some with the old hardware, at greater cost, and you could have fun again.
If Sony wants to reduce retail price by cheapening components and eliminating the option to load other OSes, well, their choice. Go buy a Wii. Or an xBox. Or a PC. They left you.
"they forgot to remove a (commented) reference to a Google spreadsheet"
Sounds like transparency to me. Another promise kept. Working as designed.
You CANNOT make this stuff up.
I've been using GMail without error from about 0800 - 1500MST.
What outage again? Didn't see it. Must not be as widespread as reported...
Ask the British taxpayers.
Yep, so they would have to destroy the data within days if they had no legal reason to keep it.
And I believe that the gang down at the Geek Squad or the corner PC store won't copy my Pr0n collection, history, and links when I have them replace the motherboard. If they find any.
I trust the local guys more than I do DHS.
And we've known this for a while.
It's just the confusion over who they're stealing from...
Does your employer have written policies that govern acceptable use, data security, etc?
If not, now is a good time. You are going to use some form of full disk encryption, aren't you? Or would you rather give away all your and his data if^H^Hwhen your laptop is stolen?
Such policies make it much clearer. At least you will know the score, and he really should have such a policy. I suspect there is already.
I work with a very different organization, so they not only warn me any data is theirs, but our group policies also limit the type of media I can actually use - USB sticks generally work, but my 8G stick with the microSD reader won't let me mount a microSD card. My music player will mount, but won't let me copy .MP3, .OGG, and .MWA files. And my security agent reports on all that. I have to go back and request removable device support when it expires so I can back up data to the DVD drive etc as required by our disaster recovery policy - my access is limited and expires regularly, requiring me to jump through flaming hoops of fire (Kleenex on a coathanger, but they think it's fun) to justify to one group what I am mandated to do by another.
If you get a chance to work for a Furtune 100 company, do. Network management there is more fun than a rubber crutch, and will remind you that your former squabbles over screensavers and PST files are small potatoes in the grand scheme of life.