Its like on the one hand banning guns while on the other hand demanding a percentage for every gun sold.
More like banning guns, yet demanding a percentage on all steel sales, as it can only be used to make guns you know (at least that's what this big pile of cash sitting in front of you says, Senator. And money's never wrong.).
Re:A Sympathy for the Doctor?
on
Complications
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· Score: 2
Thanks for clarifying many of your original ideas.. I think the reply here does your concepts more justice than the original, which did read rather like a mud slinging at doctors.
I'm not one, I just date one, so have a lot more clarification of what really goes on that most do.
Sitting down at the end of the day, and listening to the amount of decisions they have to make each day is sometimes pretty harrowing. One thing I'm awfully glad about is that I'm not one myself.
Where I'm from is the UK.. And over here there's a chronic shortage of people in the medical profession, largely due to low effective salaries (made to high pay by ridiculous hours).
There is very much a large amount of work to be done, and only a few people to do the work... So, the choice is:
a) Give the doctors time out, and simply don't treat people coming through the doors (leading to fatalities, and thus people suing, and the media crawling all over it).
b) Make the doctors work overly long hours, which can be pretty dangerous. The media climbs onto a few cases now and again, and hauls the doctors over the coals.
As for things being all emergency medicine, I'd like to dispute that. In my early 20's, a rugby accident put me way out of comission.. For this, I got Physio, treatment with a Chiropractor, and time at a chronic pain center. None of this was surgery. It took time. It wasn't a quick fix..
It worked too.. For which I'm eternally grateful.
In my comment about checkout attendants, I wasn't trying to trivialise life (as I'm pretty sure you'd have worked out, from the little glimpse I put from my family history.. Life's rather important, as I know full well just how fragile it is). I was simply asking the question of where you draw the line?
Negligence is a word often thrown around by people who, not knowing what really goes on in a profession, and seeing something come out with less than perfect results, sees a fast buck to be made, and quickly files a lawsuit.
This leads to doctors practicing defensive medicine, and deciding not to perform certain actions (such as surgery), as the risk of being sued is way to great, due to outcomes not being absolutely guaranteed perfect.
To someone who sees a family member go into hospital once in an average, say of every 10 years.. Then something going wrong is a huge thing.. It eclipses everything else.
To a doctor working on ITU, where, it's likely that you'll lose about 50% of the people who arrive through your doors, simply because med tech can't fix them, the view changes.
If you add to the list of work they have to do, and force the disclosure of every patient they'd lost, do you think anybody would ever ask them to work under your initial request for disclosure?
My point was, that being outside the profession, we get the odd glimpse in, with a really skewed perspective.
I'm a systems architect myself. I've seen things happen where large portions of data have been lost late in a day (you don't have permanent backups running all day do you?). I've seen Bad Thngs(TM) happen with GUI tools. I've made some unholy cockups in my day too in my way to where I am now.
I'm lucky enough to be in a profession where when things go wrong, someone's life isn't hanging on the end of it, merely a few hours of work.
I don't tell the ground floor users of systems I build about the configuration methods, and operating requirements, and everything else techs need to keep them running and develop. They use it, and I try my best to keep them happy.
It's the same in the med profession. I wouldn't understand a tenth of what they'd need to do to complete any repair of my body, from any point (local doc that prescribes a pill to the docs at the hospitals cutting bits out to fix me).
I hear enough to know that there are internal review boards, which can force doctors to go back for retraining if they don't seem up to par, or cast them out of the profession altogether if they're really not up to scratch.
Personally, I'd prefer to trust to that system. I honestly don't want to know too much.. The more I've learned about what goes on in operations, the risks, and procedures, and the sheer scope there is, even in the best of situations, for things to go hideously wrong, I almost backed out of a recent tonsilectomy, as I was half scared to death!:)
And trust me, that op needed to be done. There were complications, but they were nasty tonsils.
I certainly don't worship doctors, but, I trust them. Some of them get bad press, and some of them could be better, but at the end of the day, they're trying to help, and I'm glad they're there. They do a job that'd turn me grey in a short amount of time, and burn me out.
I know that, and accept it, thus, I give them credit where it's due for having the guts to do what they do.
As a public, I think it does the health of the population in general good to have the image of doctors as the great action heroes. It lets them trust a little more, and have peace of mind at a stressful time.
They did a show over here written by a cardiac doctor which showed pretty much exactly what went on in hospitals. People didn't watch it. And the feedback they generally got was that it made people nervous.
Simply, it stressed them out, where there was simply nothing that could be done about it. They didn't like the fact that doctors have to be a little objective about patients.
As to the dispute about the world being a big bad place.. It is... It's always been a fight, evolution requires that. Now humanity's past the having to fight predators, it fights itself.
It can be very big and bad. Where it's safe, I choose not to see that. It's an illusion, but one I choose, where it's safe to choose. It keeps me happier and less stressed.
Bad things do happen, so I don't think that's half true. Some are grey areas of perspective, but truly bad things do just happen. It's part of the workings of the world (unless you think a random avalanche killing a few people would actually have a bright side, and from your posting, I seriously doubt that).
If you honestly, and truly want full disclosure on everything, then, I think you're setting yourself up for a lot more stress than you need.
I tend to trust certain things, like the medical profession, to do their best. Not be perfect, just do their best, and to keep watch to try and keep the people as safe as possible.
I know it's an illusion that I'm safe when I go into a hospital, but, it's one that I choose. It'll give me a little peace of mind, and not affect the outcome of the situation one iota.
I'm not trying to prevent you having your say, and I'm honestly glad you replied. It put more things in context, and I understand more of what you were trying to say. I think we just share a different perspective on life, which is all fine and good. I just want to be able to place trust that someone, somewhere is trying to do the right thing. And a doctor's a fair place to start.
Malk
Re:A Sympathy for the Doctor?
on
Complications
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Of course, I was never told that. I was never offered that information, and if I had asked, the surgeon, the hospital, the medical community as a whole would have zipped their lips to protect one of their own.
In a word, 'Bollocks!'.
So.. Every user in a system needs to be told 'This is the sysadmin who accidentally deleted someone's files years ago, and didn't have things on backup', so they can use a different sysadmin?
You want to be told 'This taxi driver once had a car crash! I wouldn't use him if I were you'... This checkout attendant once shortchanged..
Where on earth do you get your clue from? If you want to be educated, go get a medical qualification. Start on proper courses to train you in exactly what being in the profession means..
Honestly, you're sounding like one of those 'holier than thou' people we so often see in politics. Of course they would never make a mistake, but everyone else needs to be open and honest, and let them know all their little failings..
The world is a big bad place. Bad things happen. Nothing is infallible. Some people actually spend many years training to try and help, and perhaps make a difference for the better..
When you can make a difference as profound as a doctor, carry the stress of the decisions day in and day out, and be perfect, then feel free to cast your stone.
My counter story is that each member of my immediate family have at some point had accidents that would have been fatal, if not for some person who trained and knew enough about the body to fix them, and they lived.
Would it have helped to know that these same doctors had lost patients on the table, or the ward days before? Not in the least.. If you go that route, you'll never havea doctor operate on you.. And thus, when it's needed, you'll be too paranoid to accept the risk, and just plain die of neglect.
I beg to disagree with that... My Girlfriend's a Doctor.. Anaesthatist actually.. And there are rather a lot of people that she just has to turn round and say 'No.. They're not getting operated on'. For the sole reason that they'd not make it through the operations.
On the whole, operations are expensive affairs.. And they leave the medical team open to later attack by lawyers.
One thing I hear more and more from my friends in the medical profession is that they're approaching not being able to do anything because they're having to practice so much defensive medicine, simply to avoid having lawyers sicced on them, and perhaps losing their ability to continue doing the jobs they've spent years training to do.
More and more these days, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't. Operate on a sick person, and they die, the doctor gets sued for anything the Lawyers can find. Don't operate and the person dies from what would have killed them in an operation, and the doctor gets sued for not doing anything.
What I'm seeing is doctors being relegated almost to advisory positions, and the patient saying 'Do this!'. That way, at least it wasn't a the doctor's decision, and there's the signature on a contract to prove it.
So, really, when you ask a doctor if you should operate, the response is 'Ask the Lawyer'.
So, in other words, the MPAA will start banning theaters from stocking the movies, as they're all pirates!!
As far as I read this, it makes no difference at all on the pre-release piracy (which, if it make a big dent on their earnings would do so if people watched before the proper release) if they put strong encryption on home movies or not. All this extra protection they pay a fortune for is completely worthless.
Well, we knew that anyway.
Maybe, one day, they'll realise what a clue is..
Incidentally, I'd rather not watch a crap version on rip; I'd prefer to wait until I can see it on the big screen. Read the book, know the story, just want the big screen experience..:)
Actually, no, they're not protecting their property at all.
The problem is that they're selling defective goods, and trying to tell people that it's not their problem that their product, that claims to conform to a standard, doesn't, and as such will not work with devices that are designed to use such an item.
Protecting their property would be using the copyright laws to haul someone over the coals for releasing a CD with copyright material on, when they own that copyright.
What they appear to be doing is making it damn hard for the average guy in the street to work out how to get these things to work. And if it's not immediately obvious, they'll give up and try to take it back as defective (which it is). When they get told "No, that's the way things are now!", I wonder how long it'll be before nobody buys the stuff they sell, as it doesn't work.
They, they'll have all this copyright material not being circulated on the net, and also, not in the shops. They'll keep everything to themselves, literally. No revenue coming in, no company.
When they fall, someone with a little more sense will take their place.
Someone in these companies is suffering from a serious case of market myopia.
With all the hype surrounding Microsoft and Sony wanting to place console/PC style hardware at the heart of every home's entertainment systems (taking on the role of the CD/DVD player), I wonder how long it's going to take the non-recording big boys to turn around, and start complaining that the recording industry is about to ensure that their plans are being rode roughshod over...
Also, considering that most people who buy stuff want it to work anywhere and everywhere, I wonder how long it'll take the general public to simply stop buying, as it's no longer 'safe' to do so..
Especially with some of the new laws in the EU, and the UK being put forward as also written on The Register.
And if people buy even less than they did before they protected the media, who are they going to blame?
Perhaps this is a case of things needing to get worse before they get better, and perhaps even be a case of the big recording industries shooting themselves in the foot and crippling themselves..
Interestingly enough, this could be an issue that eventually brings Microsoft into the fray against these copy protection mechanisms.
As many./ articles, and lots of hype mention, MS are trying to put PCs at the heart of every home, and have them as the nexus of a standard music system.
Now, given that the recording industry don't want anyone to be able to play their CDs in a PC player, what does this do for the plans of MS (and the console manufacturers) business plans for placing their products in this position? If a console/PC becomes central to a home entertainment system, it needs to play CDs. And if it can, then it can be copied.
And if it can't be played in such a system.. Then it definately won't get much in the way of market penetration into the home music setup..
Methinks it'll be interesting when these two sets of 'Big Fish' realise they're on opposite sides of the war... And what will happen then...
The sad part is that's just about true... Nintendo seem to be appealing.. So, it may be the case of their attourney will play this bit over and over until he wins...
Then again, there are issues with making it illegal to access a non-linked to location on a site.
For example:
Apache contains none of the scripts directories used by code red to compromise windows boxes. Yep these are accessed all the time by those boxes still infected (my logs are still getting spammed by infected boxes.
Were I to put up a document in that place, and it was accessed, then I could quite happily invoke the legislation which makes it illegal to access this un-linked to url, and sue the pants off the person accessing my little machine.
I know, it's a silly concentration on one particular instance, but it really muddies the waters to the point it'll be very lucrative for lawyers, and probably mean we can't do things that we're quite used to doing quite legtamately on the net at the moment.
Personally, I wouldn't put a sensitive document anywhere on a live webserver.
I'm sure before they got net connected, those very documents were held in strictly controlled circles, or locked away from prying eyes, not left out under a table in the lobby (effectively what putting it on a webserver is).
I'd agree it's a crack if they bypass htaccess restrictions, but still.. It's a very very silly thing to do.
Actually, getting the police to enforce it would be the worst thing they could do.
As soon as they started kicking the doors down on average people, those average people would wake up and pay attention to all the laws that enable the music industry to have such a leverage.
That would get popular opinion in the opposing camp to the entertainment industry in a big way..
Which is exactly what they can't afford.
There is nothing intrinsically 'evil' about signing an NDA.
Just as there is nothing intrinsically wrong with walking down a street. However if you've just been found guilty of some heinous crime, and sent out to jail, then, you shouldn't then be walking down the street as if nothing has happened.
MS have been found guilty of being a Monopoly! The usual rules don't apply, as they're in the situation where the normal tides of commerce and capitalism don't affect them in a normal way. They've been told to shape up and be good.
However, they're doing all they can to ignore everything they're told, and say "Well, everyone else does this.. Why can't we?".
Well, the answer to this is: They've been found guilty. Just as usual freedoms of the average person don't quite count to convicted felons, so the usual freedoms of commerce no longer apply to MS.
They put themselves in this position. Now they should live with it, instead of still trying to be the playground bully.
Hmm.. Seems to me the guys that bought this hardware are Sun customers that don't mind shelling out a little cash to buy the necessary hardware. Putting cold cathode lights on the outside of a case seems to be to be a very poor excuse to get out of a service contract. Now, if they'd left cables dangling all over the floor, or had coffee stains all down the front of the box, I'd think differently. However, if this comms room is actually a place where customers are shown round, the non-technical would certainly get a blast from seeing all the cases lit up, and it'd be something they remembered. A bit of a plus over all the 'boring' comms rooms that just hum a little. Something to show the investors on a nice day round. If they've spent this much on the boxes, I'm damn sure they spent the money to figure out with sun if putting these on invalidated an agreement. I'm also pretty sure the guy in question worked out what effect this would have on the boxes. If someone turned up to a site where I'd done pretty much the same thing, and an engineer turned round and refused to touch the machine on that basis, I know that the first thing I'd do is call his boss, and be a little peeved. And then I'd take it higher. If the company in question said they'd not support it, then I'd have a very serious think about who would offer a sensible support package. In my days going round the comms rooms, I've seen far far worse setups, and had them supported. If you're going to be so picky as to not do something for such a picky reason (hey, the guys who go for cheap memory and processors from Ebay generally don't turn their boxes into showcase pieces like that. They cram what they can quietly into racks and try and make sure nobody sees 'em), then you're on a sure fire way of losing some business. In this day and age, with competition as fierce as it is, I don't think you can afford to do that. Personally, I'd see this as someone taking PRIDE in their machines, and as such, I'd rather take is as being a good indicator of one that I would want to work on (as the guys are VERY likely to know all the ins and outs of the server, and it's day to day quirks). I honestly don't know where you get your ideas from, but I think you'd be a firm candidate for a 'jobsworth' award where you'd try and get out of doing anything you absolutely didn't have to, just in case it turned out to be hard work. If you feel this is just a big, unconsidered flame, then consider. I've done this kind of job in the past, (and moved upwards and onwards), and met many who have done this job also. Some guys are a pleasure to work with, accomodating in most respects (but cut the line at people just being silly arses with things), and some are just cold and trying to weasel out of everything. These days, I go with the companies that offer good service, and decent engineers that actually make a good showing. I drop like hotcakes those that weasel out. Before you talk about invalidating the warranty, especially in a high profile place like/. make damn sure you've got the right end of the stick, otherwise you will most definately start giving people the impression (in some cases, the ones that pony up the cash for the gear) that Sun just have stucks up their arses, and are playing the weasel out of it game. Bad bad press indeed. And from the Sun techs I've met in the past (quite a few, and from many levels), they'd think this was kind of interesting, and be quite chuffed that people took the pride in their hardware to do this kind of thing.
Hmm.. I'm sure if the Church really wished it so, they could dig up a load of old church laws, and burn the guy at the stake for heresy in taking the name God and associating it with a lizard..
What democracy? Far as I can see, things are heading towards a corporate feudalism.
Corporations, of course, occupying the positions of the local lords, and the local government taking the position of monarch, dispensing laws.
The 'lords' were the concentration of the power and the wealth, quite capable of toppling a monarch by subtle intrigue, which is why most courts of old had to carfully give the 'lords' lots of what they required, to placate them.
The same is true of corporations now, with their campaign donations, and media slant/purchasing.
The common consumer now takes the role of the ancient 'peasant'. They work hard to get their subsistance, and a little more to keep them happy.
The earnings are given mainly to the 'lords' (currently corporations), who report what they want the monarch (govenment) to hear (via lobby groups, lawyers etc). Then they threaten to withdraw support of actions they want aren't taken.
Most monarchs (political parties) will capitulate to hold onto the power. If they don't, well, the next one will likely be more malleable. Removing the current one is no problem for the 'lords'.
Currently, it seems that a vote is an illusion. No matter who you vote for, a consumate bought and paid for politician is who you get, and the 'power behind the throne' still stays the same.
A democracy presupposes that everyone is informed about all the issues, and that their votes count. Currently, people get one vote every few years, and then just about no say for the next several years. Not only that, but much of the time, actually finding out what the issues are ahead of time is hard to do.. Much like the planning permission for Arthur Dent's house in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was in a disused basement in a locked cabinet, and both stairs and light were out, and there was a sign saying beware of the leopard.
And if we don't reply, it's then assumed that we don't object. Just like the peasantry of the Feudal system. Given enough to be kept 'content', and then kept in the dark about most things of real importance, with the "what the don't know won't hurt us" stance.
Democracy's a great thing. I just wish we had one in the first place.
A trivial change to a piece of open software can make the proprietary version incompatible with the open version. This places people and companies in the awkward position of having to adopt the proprietary versoin or risk being left behind.
So, you have an OpenCar, with 4 wheels for driving on, a steering wheel, a brake accelerator and clutch.
Now, this is subverted and the steering wheel and brake removed by ClosedCar, which is marketed through the roof by a particular company.
They are subtle changes (small in the overall size of things), but anybody can see it doesn't work.
Just because proprietary has released a version, it doesn't mean it'll default to the 'best option'.
If the open version gains wide acceptance and recognition before the proprietary, there's not a chance in hell that you can start making people pay through the nose for something they had, almost exactly the same, and working on all the files they already have (which the broken or extended proprietary may not), for free.
Malk
API Change and Win 95 obsolescence.
on
WineX 2.0
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· Score: 2
Note the change of the API to stop DX8.0 working with DX 8.1. And the hurriedly released DX8.1 synchronised with the cessation of 'official support' for Win95. As far as I can see, it looks more like MS wanting to stop any Win 95 users from even having a look in at new games, tying them into forcible upgrades to XP. That being said, I hear there were additions to support extra features that were added to ATI's radeon card that were not present on the GeForce3 range, so there is some extra functionality added. However, most games won't use this extra functionality.. Wo why not just let them be, with requirements for least common denominator in the API? Seems like incentives being offered to upset the user base, and get yourself the nice shiny new stuff that MS is pushing for cheap.
Umm.. No..
Every living being on the planet is the product of physical evolution.
Somehow, I don't think you could call everyone a cancerous growth.. Not unless you were feeling somewhat antisocial.
Slashdot Mirror
Its like on the one hand banning guns while on the other hand demanding a percentage for every gun sold.
More like banning guns, yet demanding a percentage on all steel sales, as it can only be used to make guns you know (at least that's what this big pile of cash sitting in front of you says, Senator. And money's never wrong.).
Thanks for clarifying many of your original ideas.. I think the reply here does your concepts more justice than the original, which did read rather like a mud slinging at doctors.
:)
I'm not one, I just date one, so have a lot more clarification of what really goes on that most do.
Sitting down at the end of the day, and listening to the amount of decisions they have to make each day is sometimes pretty harrowing. One thing I'm awfully glad about is that I'm not one myself.
Where I'm from is the UK.. And over here there's a chronic shortage of people in the medical profession, largely due to low effective salaries (made to high pay by ridiculous hours).
There is very much a large amount of work to be done, and only a few people to do the work... So, the choice is:
a) Give the doctors time out, and simply don't treat people coming through the doors (leading to fatalities, and thus people suing, and the media crawling all over it).
b) Make the doctors work overly long hours, which can be pretty dangerous. The media climbs onto a few cases now and again, and hauls the doctors over the coals.
As for things being all emergency medicine, I'd like to dispute that. In my early 20's, a rugby accident put me way out of comission.. For this, I got Physio, treatment with a Chiropractor, and time at a chronic pain center. None of this was surgery. It took time. It wasn't a quick fix..
It worked too.. For which I'm eternally grateful.
In my comment about checkout attendants, I wasn't trying to trivialise life (as I'm pretty sure you'd have worked out, from the little glimpse I put from my family history.. Life's rather important, as I know full well just how fragile it is). I was simply asking the question of where you draw the line?
Negligence is a word often thrown around by people who, not knowing what really goes on in a profession, and seeing something come out with less than perfect results, sees a fast buck to be made, and quickly files a lawsuit.
This leads to doctors practicing defensive medicine, and deciding not to perform certain actions (such as surgery), as the risk of being sued is way to great, due to outcomes not being absolutely guaranteed perfect.
To someone who sees a family member go into hospital once in an average, say of every 10 years.. Then something going wrong is a huge thing.. It eclipses everything else.
To a doctor working on ITU, where, it's likely that you'll lose about 50% of the people who arrive through your doors, simply because med tech can't fix them, the view changes.
If you add to the list of work they have to do, and force the disclosure of every patient they'd lost, do you think anybody would ever ask them to work under your initial request for disclosure?
My point was, that being outside the profession, we get the odd glimpse in, with a really skewed perspective.
I'm a systems architect myself. I've seen things happen where large portions of data have been lost late in a day (you don't have permanent backups running all day do you?). I've seen Bad Thngs(TM) happen with GUI tools. I've made some unholy cockups in my day too in my way to where I am now.
I'm lucky enough to be in a profession where when things go wrong, someone's life isn't hanging on the end of it, merely a few hours of work.
I don't tell the ground floor users of systems I build about the configuration methods, and operating requirements, and everything else techs need to keep them running and develop. They use it, and I try my best to keep them happy.
It's the same in the med profession. I wouldn't understand a tenth of what they'd need to do to complete any repair of my body, from any point (local doc that prescribes a pill to the docs at the hospitals cutting bits out to fix me).
I hear enough to know that there are internal review boards, which can force doctors to go back for retraining if they don't seem up to par, or cast them out of the profession altogether if they're really not up to scratch.
Personally, I'd prefer to trust to that system. I honestly don't want to know too much.. The more I've learned about what goes on in operations, the risks, and procedures, and the sheer scope there is, even in the best of situations, for things to go hideously wrong, I almost backed out of a recent tonsilectomy, as I was half scared to death!
And trust me, that op needed to be done. There were complications, but they were nasty tonsils.
I certainly don't worship doctors, but, I trust them. Some of them get bad press, and some of them could be better, but at the end of the day, they're trying to help, and I'm glad they're there. They do a job that'd turn me grey in a short amount of time, and burn me out.
I know that, and accept it, thus, I give them credit where it's due for having the guts to do what they do.
As a public, I think it does the health of the population in general good to have the image of doctors as the great action heroes. It lets them trust a little more, and have peace of mind at a stressful time.
They did a show over here written by a cardiac doctor which showed pretty much exactly what went on in hospitals. People didn't watch it. And the feedback they generally got was that it made people nervous.
Simply, it stressed them out, where there was simply nothing that could be done about it. They didn't like the fact that doctors have to be a little objective about patients.
As to the dispute about the world being a big bad place.. It is... It's always been a fight, evolution requires that. Now humanity's past the having to fight predators, it fights itself.
It can be very big and bad. Where it's safe, I choose not to see that. It's an illusion, but one I choose, where it's safe to choose. It keeps me happier and less stressed.
Bad things do happen, so I don't think that's half true. Some are grey areas of perspective, but truly bad things do just happen. It's part of the workings of the world (unless you think a random avalanche killing a few people would actually have a bright side, and from your posting, I seriously doubt that).
If you honestly, and truly want full disclosure on everything, then, I think you're setting yourself up for a lot more stress than you need.
I tend to trust certain things, like the medical profession, to do their best. Not be perfect, just do their best, and to keep watch to try and keep the people as safe as possible.
I know it's an illusion that I'm safe when I go into a hospital, but, it's one that I choose. It'll give me a little peace of mind, and not affect the outcome of the situation one iota.
I'm not trying to prevent you having your say, and I'm honestly glad you replied. It put more things in context, and I understand more of what you were trying to say. I think we just share a different perspective on life, which is all fine and good. I just want to be able to place trust that someone, somewhere is trying to do the right thing. And a doctor's a fair place to start.
Malk
Of course, I was never told that. I was never offered that information, and if I had asked, the surgeon, the hospital, the medical community as a whole would have zipped their lips to protect one of their own.
In a word, 'Bollocks!'.
So.. Every user in a system needs to be told 'This is the sysadmin who accidentally deleted someone's files years ago, and didn't have things on backup', so they can use a different sysadmin?
You want to be told 'This taxi driver once had a car crash! I wouldn't use him if I were you'... This checkout attendant once shortchanged..
Where on earth do you get your clue from? If you want to be educated, go get a medical qualification. Start on proper courses to train you in exactly what being in the profession means..
Honestly, you're sounding like one of those 'holier than thou' people we so often see in politics. Of course they would never make a mistake, but everyone else needs to be open and honest, and let them know all their little failings..
The world is a big bad place. Bad things happen. Nothing is infallible. Some people actually spend many years training to try and help, and perhaps make a difference for the better..
When you can make a difference as profound as a doctor, carry the stress of the decisions day in and day out, and be perfect, then feel free to cast your stone.
My counter story is that each member of my immediate family have at some point had accidents that would have been fatal, if not for some person who trained and knew enough about the body to fix them, and they lived.
Would it have helped to know that these same doctors had lost patients on the table, or the ward days before? Not in the least.. If you go that route, you'll never havea doctor operate on you.. And thus, when it's needed, you'll be too paranoid to accept the risk, and just plain die of neglect.
Malk
I beg to disagree with that... My Girlfriend's a Doctor.. Anaesthatist actually.. And there are rather a lot of people that she just has to turn round and say 'No.. They're not getting operated on'. For the sole reason that they'd not make it through the operations.
On the whole, operations are expensive affairs.. And they leave the medical team open to later attack by lawyers.
One thing I hear more and more from my friends in the medical profession is that they're approaching not being able to do anything because they're having to practice so much defensive medicine, simply to avoid having lawyers sicced on them, and perhaps losing their ability to continue doing the jobs they've spent years training to do.
More and more these days, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't. Operate on a sick person, and they die, the doctor gets sued for anything the Lawyers can find. Don't operate and the person dies from what would have killed them in an operation, and the doctor gets sued for not doing anything.
What I'm seeing is doctors being relegated almost to advisory positions, and the patient saying 'Do this!'. That way, at least it wasn't a the doctor's decision, and there's the signature on a contract to prove it.
So, really, when you ask a doctor if you should operate, the response is 'Ask the Lawyer'.
Malk
I think he's there for a meeting with Major Cockup.
So, in other words, the MPAA will start banning theaters from stocking the movies, as they're all pirates!! :)
As far as I read this, it makes no difference at all on the pre-release piracy (which, if it make a big dent on their earnings would do so if people watched before the proper release) if they put strong encryption on home movies or not. All this extra protection they pay a fortune for is completely worthless.
Well, we knew that anyway.
Maybe, one day, they'll realise what a clue is..
Incidentally, I'd rather not watch a crap version on rip; I'd prefer to wait until I can see it on the big screen. Read the book, know the story, just want the big screen experience..
Malk
Actually, no, they're not protecting their property at all.
The problem is that they're selling defective goods, and trying to tell people that it's not their problem that their product, that claims to conform to a standard, doesn't, and as such will not work with devices that are designed to use such an item.
Protecting their property would be using the copyright laws to haul someone over the coals for releasing a CD with copyright material on, when they own that copyright.
What they appear to be doing is making it damn hard for the average guy in the street to work out how to get these things to work. And if it's not immediately obvious, they'll give up and try to take it back as defective (which it is). When they get told "No, that's the way things are now!", I wonder how long it'll be before nobody buys the stuff they sell, as it doesn't work.
They, they'll have all this copyright material not being circulated on the net, and also, not in the shops. They'll keep everything to themselves, literally. No revenue coming in, no company.
When they fall, someone with a little more sense will take their place.
Someone in these companies is suffering from a serious case of market myopia.
Malk
With all the hype surrounding Microsoft and Sony wanting to place console/PC style hardware at the heart of every home's entertainment systems (taking on the role of the CD/DVD player), I wonder how long it's going to take the non-recording big boys to turn around, and start complaining that the recording industry is about to ensure that their plans are being rode roughshod over...
Also, considering that most people who buy stuff want it to work anywhere and everywhere, I wonder how long it'll take the general public to simply stop buying, as it's no longer 'safe' to do so..
Especially with some of the new laws in the EU, and the UK being put forward as also written on The Register. And if people buy even less than they did before they protected the media, who are they going to blame? Perhaps this is a case of things needing to get worse before they get better, and perhaps even be a case of the big recording industries shooting themselves in the foot and crippling themselves..
Malk
Interestingly enough, this could be an issue that eventually brings Microsoft into the fray against these copy protection mechanisms. ./ articles, and lots of hype mention, MS are trying to put PCs at the heart of every home, and have them as the nexus of a standard music system.
As many
Now, given that the recording industry don't want anyone to be able to play their CDs in a PC player, what does this do for the plans of MS (and the console manufacturers) business plans for placing their products in this position?
If a console/PC becomes central to a home entertainment system, it needs to play CDs. And if it can, then it can be copied.
And if it can't be played in such a system.. Then it definately won't get much in the way of market penetration into the home music setup..
Methinks it'll be interesting when these two sets of 'Big Fish' realise they're on opposite sides of the war... And what will happen then...
Malk
The sad part is that's just about true...
Nintendo seem to be appealing.. So, it may be the case of their attourney will play this bit over and over until he wins...
Malk
Then again, there are issues with making it illegal to access a non-linked to location on a site. For example:
Apache contains none of the scripts directories used by code red to compromise windows boxes. Yep these are accessed all the time by those boxes still infected (my logs are still getting spammed by infected boxes.
Were I to put up a document in that place, and it was accessed, then I could quite happily invoke the legislation which makes it illegal to access this un-linked to url, and sue the pants off the person accessing my little machine.
I know, it's a silly concentration on one particular instance, but it really muddies the waters to the point it'll be very lucrative for lawyers, and probably mean we can't do things that we're quite used to doing quite legtamately on the net at the moment.
Personally, I wouldn't put a sensitive document anywhere on a live webserver.
I'm sure before they got net connected, those very documents were held in strictly controlled circles, or locked away from prying eyes, not left out under a table in the lobby (effectively what putting it on a webserver is). I'd agree it's a crack if they bypass htaccess restrictions, but still.. It's a very very silly thing to do.
Malk
Actually, getting the police to enforce it would be the worst thing they could do. As soon as they started kicking the doors down on average people, those average people would wake up and pay attention to all the laws that enable the music industry to have such a leverage. That would get popular opinion in the opposing camp to the entertainment industry in a big way.. Which is exactly what they can't afford.
There is nothing intrinsically 'evil' about signing an NDA.
Just as there is nothing intrinsically wrong with walking down a street.
However if you've just been found guilty of some heinous crime, and sent out to jail, then, you shouldn't then be walking down the street as if nothing has happened.
MS have been found guilty of being a Monopoly! The usual rules don't apply, as they're in the situation where the normal tides of commerce and capitalism don't affect them in a normal way. They've been told to shape up and be good.
However, they're doing all they can to ignore everything they're told, and say "Well, everyone else does this.. Why can't we?".
Well, the answer to this is: They've been found guilty. Just as usual freedoms of the average person don't quite count to convicted felons, so the usual freedoms of commerce no longer apply to MS.
They put themselves in this position. Now they should live with it, instead of still trying to be the playground bully.
Malk
Fear when you hear the words on the train..
"Damn, my battery's crapped out again!"
Hmm.. /. make damn sure you've got the right end of the stick, otherwise you will most definately start giving people the impression (in some cases, the ones that pony up the cash for the gear) that Sun just have stucks up their arses, and are playing the weasel out of it game.
Seems to me the guys that bought this hardware are Sun customers that don't mind shelling out a little cash to buy the necessary hardware.
Putting cold cathode lights on the outside of a case seems to be to be a very poor excuse to get out of a service contract.
Now, if they'd left cables dangling all over the floor, or had coffee stains all down the front of the box, I'd think differently.
However, if this comms room is actually a place where customers are shown round, the non-technical would certainly get a blast from seeing all the cases lit up, and it'd be something they remembered. A bit of a plus over all the 'boring' comms rooms that just hum a little. Something to show the investors on a nice day round.
If they've spent this much on the boxes, I'm damn sure they spent the money to figure out with sun if putting these on invalidated an agreement.
I'm also pretty sure the guy in question worked out what effect this would have on the boxes.
If someone turned up to a site where I'd done pretty much the same thing, and an engineer turned round and refused to touch the machine on that basis, I know that the first thing I'd do is call his boss, and be a little peeved.
And then I'd take it higher.
If the company in question said they'd not support it, then I'd have a very serious think about who would offer a sensible support package.
In my days going round the comms rooms, I've seen far far worse setups, and had them supported.
If you're going to be so picky as to not do something for such a picky reason (hey, the guys who go for cheap memory and processors from Ebay generally don't turn their boxes into showcase pieces like that. They cram what they can quietly into racks and try and make sure nobody sees 'em), then you're on a sure fire way of losing some business. In this day and age, with competition as fierce as it is, I don't think you can afford to do that.
Personally, I'd see this as someone taking PRIDE in their machines, and as such, I'd rather take is as being a good indicator of one that I would want to work on (as the guys are VERY likely to know all the ins and outs of the server, and it's day to day quirks).
I honestly don't know where you get your ideas from, but I think you'd be a firm candidate for a 'jobsworth' award where you'd try and get out of doing anything you absolutely didn't have to, just in case it turned out to be hard work.
If you feel this is just a big, unconsidered flame, then consider. I've done this kind of job in the past, (and moved upwards and onwards), and met many who have done this job also. Some guys are a pleasure to work with, accomodating in most respects (but cut the line at people just being silly arses with things), and some are just cold and trying to weasel out of everything. These days, I go with the companies that offer good service, and decent engineers that actually make a good showing. I drop like hotcakes those that weasel out.
Before you talk about invalidating the warranty, especially in a high profile place like
Bad bad press indeed. And from the Sun techs I've met in the past (quite a few, and from many levels), they'd think this was kind of interesting, and be quite chuffed that people took the pride in their hardware to do this kind of thing.
Just my tuppence worth.
Malk.
Aw hey, you mean it comes with Palladium enabled then?
Hmm.. I'm sure if the Church really wished it so, they could dig up a load of old church laws, and burn the guy at the stake for heresy in taking the name God and associating it with a lizard..
What democracy? Far as I can see, things are heading towards a corporate feudalism.
Corporations, of course, occupying the positions of the local lords, and the local government taking the position of monarch, dispensing laws.
The 'lords' were the concentration of the power and the wealth, quite capable of toppling a monarch by subtle intrigue, which is why most courts of old had to carfully give the 'lords' lots of what they required, to placate them.
The same is true of corporations now, with their campaign donations, and media slant/purchasing.
The common consumer now takes the role of the ancient 'peasant'. They work hard to get their subsistance, and a little more to keep them happy.
The earnings are given mainly to the 'lords' (currently corporations), who report what they want the monarch (govenment) to hear (via lobby groups, lawyers etc). Then they threaten to withdraw support of actions they want aren't taken.
Most monarchs (political parties) will capitulate to hold onto the power. If they don't, well, the next one will likely be more malleable. Removing the current one is no problem for the 'lords'.
Currently, it seems that a vote is an illusion. No matter who you vote for, a consumate bought and paid for politician is who you get, and the 'power behind the throne' still stays the same.
A democracy presupposes that everyone is informed about all the issues, and that their votes count. Currently, people get one vote every few years, and then just about no say for the next several years. Not only that, but much of the time, actually finding out what the issues are ahead of time is hard to do.. Much like the planning permission for Arthur Dent's house in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was in a disused basement in a locked cabinet, and both stairs and light were out, and there was a sign saying beware of the leopard.
And if we don't reply, it's then assumed that we don't object. Just like the peasantry of the Feudal system. Given enough to be kept 'content', and then kept in the dark about most things of real importance, with the "what the don't know won't hurt us" stance.
Democracy's a great thing. I just wish we had one in the first place.
Malk
A trivial change to a piece of open software can make the proprietary version incompatible with the open version. This places people and companies in the awkward position of having to adopt the proprietary versoin or risk being left behind.
So, you have an OpenCar, with 4 wheels for driving on, a steering wheel, a brake accelerator and clutch.
Now, this is subverted and the steering wheel and brake removed by ClosedCar, which is marketed through the roof by a particular company. They are subtle changes (small in the overall size of things), but anybody can see it doesn't work. Just because proprietary has released a version, it doesn't mean it'll default to the 'best option'. If the open version gains wide acceptance and recognition before the proprietary, there's not a chance in hell that you can start making people pay through the nose for something they had, almost exactly the same, and working on all the files they already have (which the broken or extended proprietary may not), for free.
Malk
Note the change of the API to stop DX8.0 working with DX 8.1. And the hurriedly released DX8.1 synchronised with the cessation of 'official support' for Win95.
As far as I can see, it looks more like MS wanting to stop any Win 95 users from even having a look in at new games, tying them into forcible upgrades to XP.
That being said, I hear there were additions to support extra features that were added to ATI's radeon card that were not present on the GeForce3 range, so there is some extra functionality added. However, most games won't use this extra functionality.. Wo why not just let them be, with requirements for least common denominator in the API?
Seems like incentives being offered to upset the user base, and get yourself the nice shiny new stuff that MS is pushing for cheap.
Cheers,
Malk
Problem is I can't just pack up, and go live in New Zealand - they wont let me. Not too many industrial nations in the world are as open as the US.
I take it by that, you mean as open to you as a US Resident.
Trust me, it's no easy thing to move to the US from any other nation.
"Sun may dump it. Sun tends to do stuff like that"
They're not the only ones. I have a paid for, boxed, commercial Win 95 OS that's abandonware. And win 3.x, and dos...
Umm.. No..
Every living being on the planet is the product of physical evolution.
Somehow, I don't think you could call everyone a cancerous growth.. Not unless you were feeling somewhat antisocial.
Why of course? The rest of the world managed without America for the last few hundred years, why should it be so dependant now?
Only in the US.. It's likely that chip will not be present in the rest of the world...