Most folks in IT have had the experience of uninformed management trying to run a technical department they don't understand. In fact I'd say most people in any technical field from engineering to research have had that experience. Investors are much the same way and when they all hit upon an idea at the same time like "IT is a gold mine" you get weird economic bubbles that reward the simple things like simply getting into a field with venture capital and ridiculous returns on investment even when nothing of value is produced. This is created not by some intrinsic value in the field in question but in perception about the field. It's a secondary value created by the inefficient workings of the modern market where perceived value is more important than actual value.
So are those days over when you can just start up an IT shop and make millions without really doing anything...probably and hopefully yes. Those types of situations are not good for an industry or the wider economy as we have seen with repetitive corrections in over-invested in sectors. That said modern life, in developed nations, runs on an IT backbone and if you're good and willing to take risks you'll have plenty of opportunity to make a fortune. There is also the developing world which will be a huge consumer of IT as they evolve into modern economies (again you have to be a risk taker..it's no longer a sure thing) which will offer huge returns for those who are able to aid them. Additionally, if you're looking for a stable middle class life IT has matured to a point where it can provide that as long as you're careful to avoid areas that are likely to be outsourced to the lowest bidder. If on the other hand you just want to be in the right place at the right time and cash out...go to business school and find the next hot sector and profit off of the over-investment then get out before the correction.
Your post doesn't really have any rationale behind it but rather states your opinions such as "I have to question the wisdom of using a VM session for more than an hour or so on just the battery" and "that's kind of to be expected, IMO". My response would be why? I'm willing to listen by not just take your word for it. Explain.
As for your comments on usage patterns and there not being a need for this sort of usage, I sometimes do.NET development in Fusion on my MacBook Pro (especially while traveling). Normally I'm plugged in when doing this but I do sometimes go on battery and I haven't had any issues. I know that not everyone does multi-platform development but if you do you and you find yourself traveling then you try to limit the amount of hardware you have to lug around. The easiest way to do this if you're doing OS X, Java, and.NET work is to use a Mac then run a VM for the.NET stuff, IMO.
'We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works.'
In that case I reject the idea that the RIAA has a right to restrict my access to content once their DRM stops working...as far as I'm concerned that now represents out of print and unable to be obtained legally so I shall steal it. Treat me like a criminal and I shall become one. Great model RIAA...thanks for allowing me to self-justify my actions.
True. But didn't the media companies attempt to force the Swedish government to change their laws to fit said media companies' business model? *That* is far beyond what should be permitted.
Not exactly. They tried to get the government to change the law but "forcing" usually involves guns and missiles. I pretty much hate the megacorps but they don't have private armies and they don't attack countries to make money so I suggest we not overstate our position which in turn minimizes the legitimacy of it.
What they did was lobby governments and apply financial pressure. That seems reasonable for a corporation even if I don't like the results.
I'm wondering what got modded insightful? I assume the news of the wheels used to climb stairs would be "Informative" hence I'm left with the assumption that the Dalek comment was the insightful bit....ahh slashdot, thou art true to form =)
For starters that is not the original license. Second the section you reference has nothing to do with them limiting the books ability to be read on the device or disabling functionality. Don't get me wrong you should read the license but my complaint was that they don't tell you what the restriction are on a per book basis or that they're going to limit various functions on a per book basis or which functions are disabled on a per book basis until you have already paid for them. Not that they're spying on my reading habits.
Agreed, except Amazon didn't tell us up front about how far reaching the DRM was and it doesn't affect every book (though it has the potential to do so) so you can't make an informed decision. However after learning of it I refused to buy the DX even though I wanted one for the PDF support so as long as I can get all the info I agree.
The fact that they have in the past hidden it's capabilities and hide the actual restrictions on any given book until they decide to make them known in rather irritating and abusive ways is what makes it an unfair and limits the ability of the market to find a solution. However having been defrauded once by them I agree and I have refrained from further purchases both physical and Kindle related and am now using my Kindle for the free stuff almost exclusively. Unfortunately I am but one consumer.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've seen, the handwriting of Americans don't really differ from print. At least, compared to something like this.
For what it's worth here is my $0.02...
For me it depends on the purpose of the writing. For instance when I write a note to myself it is illegible and usually only has a few letters of the word actually articulated. When I write a quick note to someone else such as "your friend, Jane, called" it tends to look alot like print. If I have to write something formal such as thank you notes it tends to look alot more like a formal script with all the accompanying flourishes and formal letter constructions.
I could be wrong given that it's/. and everything must be said with an over the top zealotry that makes your position completely indefensible, but I don't think people are saying he's wrong to try and make you pay to get his content. Ok, I'm sure RMS is saying that but other than that kind of zealotry I don't think that's the mainstream thought.
I do think people believe it's a bad business model and that it won't work. Premium functionality has often been hidden behind a pay service and people will pay for the extra capability or convenience assuming the cost isn't burdensomely high. In the real world convenience stores succeed at selling marked up drinks because they are cold and available when someone wants to drink one and because despite the high markup they aren't punitive prices compared to an individuals purchasing power. They're not successful because they somehow have better drinks. In the digital world iTunes for example succeeds not because people can't get it for free but because it's easy and cheap for the average person to stuff content on their device. When you combined the extra functionality and convenience (perceived or real) offered by the whole iTunes-iPod-AppleTV-Mac-etc. distribution channel you see people paying for something they could get free elsewhere.
What I haven't seen is a huge group of people just paying because they must have SPECIFIC content however. There are of course exceptions such as Harry Potter where a huge fan base develops around a specific piece of content. That said, does the media industry really want to have to have Harry Potter like success for a piece of content to be successful? Usually, people will simply, as you put it, "...go elsewhere and dont get their content." In my opinion people's disdain for these CEOs isn't that they think they're doing something immoral or unethical it's that they think they're stupid and without vision and that they're inconveniencing them while at the same time failing the companies of which they're supposed to be stewards.
Is it a one for one comparison that gives you a perfect sim? No. But does it provide useful data? sure. To call it useless because it isn't a perfect sim is a bit silly.
That's why they call them simulations. It can't expose all stress factors and no it isn't allowed to kill people to simulate death but that doesn't make it useless. Some stresses can be discovered and tested and dealt with. They psychologically tested the early Astronauts too. Again, was it a perfect sim? No but it wasn't useless and it at least begins to harden and prepare the mind for some portion of what it will face.
Additionally it helps weed out those that will face issues because if they can't hack this they can't hack the real deal.
Agreed even more importantly speaking generally if a test is only valid once then it's not a useful test. It can rank you at that moment in time against all the other tests that were administered but can't compare you to society as a whole or to yourself at another time. A test even if we assume it is valid the one time is useless if I can't retest and determine changes in whatever state/condition I'm detecting with it.
I've been part of two large, high-profile projects that cratered spectacularly (as I knew they would) and I consider it some of the most valuable experience of my career as a software developer. I've told that to interviewers a number of times. If they don't get it, then I don't want to work for them.
Developers blame the project management and architects, architects blame the project management and developers, project management blames the architects and developers and everyone blames politics. All the posts about how much you learned or how valuable the experience was is nice but the truth of the matter is that very few individuals have the introspection skills necessary or the broad view to see what true convergence of horrific behaviors and decisions led to the smoking crater that is the massive software project failure.
The good thing is that with all this confusing and complexity it's extremely rare that anyone ever gets blamed for even their part in the failure much less the whole thing and while some folks might be blacklisted in a small enough company it's almost unheard of for anyone leadership through grunts to be blacklisted in an entire industry or even a big company.
The bad news is that we rarely learn from our mistakes and large software projects continue to fail or succeed when the right random mix of situations and behaviors occur. My first advice would be try to steer clear of massive big bang delivery waterfall type projects, they're ripe for breeding a convergence of bad things that lead to failure and while you won't be blacklisted but you'll still experience the suffering and frustration of a failing project.
More practical advice for those of you who can't or don't want to avoid these situations is when one of these monstrosities fails be realistic. You're working in a high risk environment for this type of failure. A huge project with a team with more than 20 or worse 100 (or even worse 1000) people is courting failure. When you experience failure certainly look at what other people did wrong but more importantly ask yourself, "given this high risk of failure environment what did I do that contributed to it". We tend to see what other did to contribute and place an inordinate amount of blame on their behaviors and mistakes when in truth it is the convergence of a massive number of little mistakes that most often causes failure. Any one of the problems alone wouldn't doom the project but the whole of their destructiveness is greater than the sum of the parts in this case. If you can at least not contribute to that swirl of chaos you'll have done the best you can to help avert disaster. Beyond that just prepare to be disappointed because these types of projects are hard and risky and they fail far too often.
Certainly do what makes you happy and I don't think the age thing matters at all. I know plenty of over 40 architects and developers who are more effective than they ever were when they were younger. All things being equal on the happy front, here is a question I might ask to help you decide. As a disclaimer I'm an under 40 architect at a fortune 100 for what it's worth.
Are you going to be an independent contractor? If so I advise tech with heavy expertise in a niche specialization if possible. The tech part makes you an easier hire for clients. Management contractors have to be ridiculously high level for a most companies to invest in them for serious periods of time given the fact they don't want to source what they see as a strategic position with a temporary resource (not saying it's accurate but it's perception). As for the expertise this makes you more resistant to trends such as offshoring/outsourcing. Trends that go after cost and try to take a lowest bidder approach go after the common skills in order to be valuable. Niche tech skills and high level expertise are much harder to replicate with low labor cost models.
Are you going to be a perm employee at a single medium-large company for more than the next 5 years? In this case I would suggest management as those positions tend to have better career paths at larger companies and offer more opportunity if you're good at your job. Additionally these types of jobs are usually viewed as more strategic by upper management (oddly enough most people view jobs similar to what they do as strategic;)
Given that the SSN should never have been used in the way that it is, that's a perfectly acceptable response from the Government. However, a Federal law banning the use of SSN for non-tax, non-SSA related business is way overdue.
I disagree. The government regulates many of the industries that use it, especially in the financial sector. If they regulate them and allow this type of identification to be required for participation and it's an id provided by them they have an obligation to make it a legit ID.
IMO you can't say here is an ID don't use it but the businesses I regulate do use it and I don't stop them oh and by the way if you want to participate then you must use it but if there is a problem it's your mess. That would never fly in the a private unregulated sector. They'd be screaming bloody murder about consumer rights and calling in folks to testify before congress. We shouldn't accept it from our government either. They need to fix the issue one way or another.
Mycroft is correct in that they aren't guaranteed unique. In fact I once met a corporate trainer who was issued the SSN of a dead guy by the government. The guy had been dead only two or three years and it was a complete mess for credit etc. The big problem was that there isn't really a way to deal with this and the government tells you it is your responsibility to resolve any issues it causes and that they are not responsible for helping you.
What the hell is wrong with the Japanese? What practical purpose does this serve?
"we've always been at war with Eastasia"
Obligatory 1984 hyperbole aside this is the corporate version of the thought police. That is be happy and show it if you want to work for us. How long before a chronically low smile rating becomes an excuse for termination, company provided pills, or psych leave?
You can rip the protection from any.azw book on your Kindle. Google mobidedrm.py for more. Sadly, no crack is available for Topaz (.tpz) files - at least, not that I can find. Some online booksellers sell DRMed Mobipocket books that can be stripped of protection in the same way.
To be honest I haven't looked into the details of cracking it because I'm lazy and have plenty of other stuff to do these days but my main philosophical argument is that I shouldn't have to crack it to use content I paid for in a legit manner (i.e. I want to consume it on either of my devices capable of reading it).
The primary issue I had with the DRM is that they had the download limit set to 1. Hence once I downloaded it to my Kindle2 I could not read it on my iPhone or another Kindle (such as the DX I was considering purchasing at the time). The reason this sucks is that I use my iPhone as a time waster when waiting on movies to start or waiting at the dentist or doctor by reading my Kindle books. The built in "Whispersync" functionality lets both my devices know where I reached while reading either device and jumps me forward to that point. I really like this functionality because it means I can read most of my stuff on the Kindle but don't have to carry it with me when I'm out and about daily.
While I could crack the DRM such that I could manually load it on the other devices I suspect that the Whispersync functionality that makes the iPhone Kindle app so useful as a time waster when away from the larger device would fail to function and I'd have to manually track pages read on each device. (I speak only speculatively and without any real knowledge here)
That's an interesting viewpoint. Let me share another with you. I own a Kindle2 and loved it from day one. I'm totally willing to buy books for it. In fact I don't really have an issue with the prices Amazon charges given the current market but I would expect them to fall as the user base grows.
All of that said, I have decided to stop buying books from one publisher and a specific author due to unreasonable (IMO) DRM restrictions placed on the book when I bought it. Specifically it was a Doubleday book called House of Cards that opened my eyes to how restrictive the Amazon DRM can be. As a result of that experience and the fact that there was no way to know what the restrictions were prior to purchasing, I have started looking for free books and converting various third party books.
I will still occasionally buy books from a known author that I "must" read but I do this with the full realization that Amazon could rip the content away from me at a moments notice. I don't buy unknown authors or books I may want to keep or reread any more on my Kindle. Instead I go to the library or borrow the books from a friend until I'm sure I want to follow that author. I used to just buy everything and anything I was interested in but now I'm much more careful and have started finding ways to read the books for free if I'm not interested in keeping them or they're not a favorite author. So if you're a favorite author of mine your viewpoint works but you certainly won't break into the market at least for me while your works are DRM crippled.
Perhaps piracy is a greater problem that growing your audience for you and if so then good luck with your battle against it but for most authors I suspect growing your audience is the greater problem and at least for me DRM is a non-starter when trying to get me to buy an unknown author or a book I want to keep for multiple reads which leaves me only purchasing stuff that I know I like but don't want to keep and reread over and over again. It has really limited what I buy on my Kindle to just escapist writing that I read for recreation.
This post should have ended with "and get off my lawn". Don't get me wrong BBSs were great and it did seem much easier to control your own machine though this was likely due to the fact that given the lower level access you had to learn more just to use the thing. All that said anyone who honestly in their heart believes there was better access to info (regardless of your definition for better) back then is suffering from nostalgia with curmudgeonly delusions.
The amount of data/info/knowledge currently available online both from a depth of breadth of knowledge standpoint is orders of magnitude greater today and while that may mean that you have to sift through the crap to find the good the fact that it is available to you at all makes today's online world significantly better than yesterdays.
But worry not, good sire, I shall avoideth thy lawn and thy aged wrath against modernity of thought and the new fangled contraptions it bringeth forth from the ether.;)
I have no idea what rubycodez's experience was but just because I can recover from backup doesn't mean data wasn't lost by the filesystem. More importantly external risk management schemes (i.e. backup) don't relieve the file system of the obligation not to kill the copy of my data I've entrusted it with.
EMP != nuke even if you use a nuke to create it. It totally depends on altitude and whether you cause fallout from driving debris into the air. etc. That said if you're building a bunch of electroincs with these nanobots then they're probably not going to work post EMP.
Slashdot Mirror
Kinda like being a member of slashdot? ;)
Most folks in IT have had the experience of uninformed management trying to run a technical department they don't understand. In fact I'd say most people in any technical field from engineering to research have had that experience. Investors are much the same way and when they all hit upon an idea at the same time like "IT is a gold mine" you get weird economic bubbles that reward the simple things like simply getting into a field with venture capital and ridiculous returns on investment even when nothing of value is produced. This is created not by some intrinsic value in the field in question but in perception about the field. It's a secondary value created by the inefficient workings of the modern market where perceived value is more important than actual value.
So are those days over when you can just start up an IT shop and make millions without really doing anything...probably and hopefully yes. Those types of situations are not good for an industry or the wider economy as we have seen with repetitive corrections in over-invested in sectors. That said modern life, in developed nations, runs on an IT backbone and if you're good and willing to take risks you'll have plenty of opportunity to make a fortune. There is also the developing world which will be a huge consumer of IT as they evolve into modern economies (again you have to be a risk taker..it's no longer a sure thing) which will offer huge returns for those who are able to aid them. Additionally, if you're looking for a stable middle class life IT has matured to a point where it can provide that as long as you're careful to avoid areas that are likely to be outsourced to the lowest bidder. If on the other hand you just want to be in the right place at the right time and cash out...go to business school and find the next hot sector and profit off of the over-investment then get out before the correction.
Your post doesn't really have any rationale behind it but rather states your opinions such as "I have to question the wisdom of using a VM session for more than an hour or so on just the battery" and "that's kind of to be expected, IMO". My response would be why? I'm willing to listen by not just take your word for it. Explain.
.NET development in Fusion on my MacBook Pro (especially while traveling). Normally I'm plugged in when doing this but I do sometimes go on battery and I haven't had any issues. I know that not everyone does multi-platform development but if you do you and you find yourself traveling then you try to limit the amount of hardware you have to lug around. The easiest way to do this if you're doing OS X, Java, and .NET work is to use a Mac then run a VM for the .NET stuff, IMO.
As for your comments on usage patterns and there not being a need for this sort of usage, I sometimes do
'We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works.'
In that case I reject the idea that the RIAA has a right to restrict my access to content once their DRM stops working...as far as I'm concerned that now represents out of print and unable to be obtained legally so I shall steal it. Treat me like a criminal and I shall become one. Great model RIAA...thanks for allowing me to self-justify my actions.
True. But didn't the media companies attempt to force the Swedish government to change their laws to fit said media companies' business model? *That* is far beyond what should be permitted.
Not exactly. They tried to get the government to change the law but "forcing" usually involves guns and missiles. I pretty much hate the megacorps but they don't have private armies and they don't attack countries to make money so I suggest we not overstate our position which in turn minimizes the legitimacy of it.
What they did was lobby governments and apply financial pressure. That seems reasonable for a corporation even if I don't like the results.
I'm wondering what got modded insightful? I assume the news of the wheels used to climb stairs would be "Informative" hence I'm left with the assumption that the Dalek comment was the insightful bit....ahh slashdot, thou art true to form =)
For starters that is not the original license. Second the section you reference has nothing to do with them limiting the books ability to be read on the device or disabling functionality. Don't get me wrong you should read the license but my complaint was that they don't tell you what the restriction are on a per book basis or that they're going to limit various functions on a per book basis or which functions are disabled on a per book basis until you have already paid for them. Not that they're spying on my reading habits.
Agreed, except Amazon didn't tell us up front about how far reaching the DRM was and it doesn't affect every book (though it has the potential to do so) so you can't make an informed decision. However after learning of it I refused to buy the DX even though I wanted one for the PDF support so as long as I can get all the info I agree.
The fact that they have in the past hidden it's capabilities and hide the actual restrictions on any given book until they decide to make them known in rather irritating and abusive ways is what makes it an unfair and limits the ability of the market to find a solution. However having been defrauded once by them I agree and I have refrained from further purchases both physical and Kindle related and am now using my Kindle for the free stuff almost exclusively. Unfortunately I am but one consumer.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've seen, the handwriting of Americans don't really differ from print. At least, compared to something like this.
For what it's worth here is my $0.02...
For me it depends on the purpose of the writing. For instance when I write a note to myself it is illegible and usually only has a few letters of the word actually articulated. When I write a quick note to someone else such as "your friend, Jane, called" it tends to look alot like print. If I have to write something formal such as thank you notes it tends to look alot more like a formal script with all the accompanying flourishes and formal letter constructions.
I could be wrong given that it's /. and everything must be said with an over the top zealotry that makes your position completely indefensible, but I don't think people are saying he's wrong to try and make you pay to get his content. Ok, I'm sure RMS is saying that but other than that kind of zealotry I don't think that's the mainstream thought.
I do think people believe it's a bad business model and that it won't work. Premium functionality has often been hidden behind a pay service and people will pay for the extra capability or convenience assuming the cost isn't burdensomely high. In the real world convenience stores succeed at selling marked up drinks because they are cold and available when someone wants to drink one and because despite the high markup they aren't punitive prices compared to an individuals purchasing power. They're not successful because they somehow have better drinks. In the digital world iTunes for example succeeds not because people can't get it for free but because it's easy and cheap for the average person to stuff content on their device. When you combined the extra functionality and convenience (perceived or real) offered by the whole iTunes-iPod-AppleTV-Mac-etc. distribution channel you see people paying for something they could get free elsewhere.
What I haven't seen is a huge group of people just paying because they must have SPECIFIC content however. There are of course exceptions such as Harry Potter where a huge fan base develops around a specific piece of content. That said, does the media industry really want to have to have Harry Potter like success for a piece of content to be successful? Usually, people will simply, as you put it, "...go elsewhere and dont get their content." In my opinion people's disdain for these CEOs isn't that they think they're doing something immoral or unethical it's that they think they're stupid and without vision and that they're inconveniencing them while at the same time failing the companies of which they're supposed to be stewards.
Is it a one for one comparison that gives you a perfect sim? No. But does it provide useful data? sure. To call it useless because it isn't a perfect sim is a bit silly.
That's why they call them simulations. It can't expose all stress factors and no it isn't allowed to kill people to simulate death but that doesn't make it useless. Some stresses can be discovered and tested and dealt with. They psychologically tested the early Astronauts too. Again, was it a perfect sim? No but it wasn't useless and it at least begins to harden and prepare the mind for some portion of what it will face.
Additionally it helps weed out those that will face issues because if they can't hack this they can't hack the real deal.
Agreed even more importantly speaking generally if a test is only valid once then it's not a useful test. It can rank you at that moment in time against all the other tests that were administered but can't compare you to society as a whole or to yourself at another time. A test even if we assume it is valid the one time is useless if I can't retest and determine changes in whatever state/condition I'm detecting with it.
I've been part of two large, high-profile projects that cratered spectacularly (as I knew they would) and I consider it some of the most valuable experience of my career as a software developer. I've told that to interviewers a number of times. If they don't get it, then I don't want to work for them.
Developers blame the project management and architects, architects blame the project management and developers, project management blames the architects and developers and everyone blames politics. All the posts about how much you learned or how valuable the experience was is nice but the truth of the matter is that very few individuals have the introspection skills necessary or the broad view to see what true convergence of horrific behaviors and decisions led to the smoking crater that is the massive software project failure.
The good thing is that with all this confusing and complexity it's extremely rare that anyone ever gets blamed for even their part in the failure much less the whole thing and while some folks might be blacklisted in a small enough company it's almost unheard of for anyone leadership through grunts to be blacklisted in an entire industry or even a big company.
The bad news is that we rarely learn from our mistakes and large software projects continue to fail or succeed when the right random mix of situations and behaviors occur. My first advice would be try to steer clear of massive big bang delivery waterfall type projects, they're ripe for breeding a convergence of bad things that lead to failure and while you won't be blacklisted but you'll still experience the suffering and frustration of a failing project.
More practical advice for those of you who can't or don't want to avoid these situations is when one of these monstrosities fails be realistic. You're working in a high risk environment for this type of failure. A huge project with a team with more than 20 or worse 100 (or even worse 1000) people is courting failure. When you experience failure certainly look at what other people did wrong but more importantly ask yourself, "given this high risk of failure environment what did I do that contributed to it". We tend to see what other did to contribute and place an inordinate amount of blame on their behaviors and mistakes when in truth it is the convergence of a massive number of little mistakes that most often causes failure. Any one of the problems alone wouldn't doom the project but the whole of their destructiveness is greater than the sum of the parts in this case. If you can at least not contribute to that swirl of chaos you'll have done the best you can to help avert disaster. Beyond that just prepare to be disappointed because these types of projects are hard and risky and they fail far too often.
Certainly do what makes you happy and I don't think the age thing matters at all. I know plenty of over 40 architects and developers who are more effective than they ever were when they were younger. All things being equal on the happy front, here is a question I might ask to help you decide. As a disclaimer I'm an under 40 architect at a fortune 100 for what it's worth.
;)
Are you going to be an independent contractor? If so I advise tech with heavy expertise in a niche specialization if possible. The tech part makes you an easier hire for clients. Management contractors have to be ridiculously high level for a most companies to invest in them for serious periods of time given the fact they don't want to source what they see as a strategic position with a temporary resource (not saying it's accurate but it's perception). As for the expertise this makes you more resistant to trends such as offshoring/outsourcing. Trends that go after cost and try to take a lowest bidder approach go after the common skills in order to be valuable. Niche tech skills and high level expertise are much harder to replicate with low labor cost models.
Are you going to be a perm employee at a single medium-large company for more than the next 5 years? In this case I would suggest management as those positions tend to have better career paths at larger companies and offer more opportunity if you're good at your job. Additionally these types of jobs are usually viewed as more strategic by upper management (oddly enough most people view jobs similar to what they do as strategic
Just my 2 cents...your mileage may vary.
Given that the SSN should never have been used in the way that it is, that's a perfectly acceptable response from the Government. However, a Federal law banning the use of SSN for non-tax, non-SSA related business is way overdue.
I disagree. The government regulates many of the industries that use it, especially in the financial sector. If they regulate them and allow this type of identification to be required for participation and it's an id provided by them they have an obligation to make it a legit ID.
IMO you can't say here is an ID don't use it but the businesses I regulate do use it and I don't stop them oh and by the way if you want to participate then you must use it but if there is a problem it's your mess. That would never fly in the a private unregulated sector. They'd be screaming bloody murder about consumer rights and calling in folks to testify before congress. We shouldn't accept it from our government either. They need to fix the issue one way or another.
Mycroft is correct in that they aren't guaranteed unique. In fact I once met a corporate trainer who was issued the SSN of a dead guy by the government. The guy had been dead only two or three years and it was a complete mess for credit etc. The big problem was that there isn't really a way to deal with this and the government tells you it is your responsibility to resolve any issues it causes and that they are not responsible for helping you.
What the hell is wrong with the Japanese? What practical purpose does this serve?
"we've always been at war with Eastasia"
Obligatory 1984 hyperbole aside this is the corporate version of the thought police. That is be happy and show it if you want to work for us. How long before a chronically low smile rating becomes an excuse for termination, company provided pills, or psych leave?
You can rip the protection from any .azw book on your Kindle. Google mobidedrm.py for more. Sadly, no crack is available for Topaz (.tpz) files - at least, not that I can find. Some online booksellers sell DRMed Mobipocket books that can be stripped of protection in the same way.
To be honest I haven't looked into the details of cracking it because I'm lazy and have plenty of other stuff to do these days but my main philosophical argument is that I shouldn't have to crack it to use content I paid for in a legit manner (i.e. I want to consume it on either of my devices capable of reading it).
The primary issue I had with the DRM is that they had the download limit set to 1. Hence once I downloaded it to my Kindle2 I could not read it on my iPhone or another Kindle (such as the DX I was considering purchasing at the time). The reason this sucks is that I use my iPhone as a time waster when waiting on movies to start or waiting at the dentist or doctor by reading my Kindle books. The built in "Whispersync" functionality lets both my devices know where I reached while reading either device and jumps me forward to that point. I really like this functionality because it means I can read most of my stuff on the Kindle but don't have to carry it with me when I'm out and about daily.
While I could crack the DRM such that I could manually load it on the other devices I suspect that the Whispersync functionality that makes the iPhone Kindle app so useful as a time waster when away from the larger device would fail to function and I'd have to manually track pages read on each device. (I speak only speculatively and without any real knowledge here)
That's an interesting viewpoint. Let me share another with you. I own a Kindle2 and loved it from day one. I'm totally willing to buy books for it. In fact I don't really have an issue with the prices Amazon charges given the current market but I would expect them to fall as the user base grows.
All of that said, I have decided to stop buying books from one publisher and a specific author due to unreasonable (IMO) DRM restrictions placed on the book when I bought it. Specifically it was a Doubleday book called House of Cards that opened my eyes to how restrictive the Amazon DRM can be. As a result of that experience and the fact that there was no way to know what the restrictions were prior to purchasing, I have started looking for free books and converting various third party books.
I will still occasionally buy books from a known author that I "must" read but I do this with the full realization that Amazon could rip the content away from me at a moments notice. I don't buy unknown authors or books I may want to keep or reread any more on my Kindle. Instead I go to the library or borrow the books from a friend until I'm sure I want to follow that author. I used to just buy everything and anything I was interested in but now I'm much more careful and have started finding ways to read the books for free if I'm not interested in keeping them or they're not a favorite author. So if you're a favorite author of mine your viewpoint works but you certainly won't break into the market at least for me while your works are DRM crippled.
Perhaps piracy is a greater problem that growing your audience for you and if so then good luck with your battle against it but for most authors I suspect growing your audience is the greater problem and at least for me DRM is a non-starter when trying to get me to buy an unknown author or a book I want to keep for multiple reads which leaves me only purchasing stuff that I know I like but don't want to keep and reread over and over again. It has really limited what I buy on my Kindle to just escapist writing that I read for recreation.
This post should have ended with "and get off my lawn". Don't get me wrong BBSs were great and it did seem much easier to control your own machine though this was likely due to the fact that given the lower level access you had to learn more just to use the thing. All that said anyone who honestly in their heart believes there was better access to info (regardless of your definition for better) back then is suffering from nostalgia with curmudgeonly delusions.
;)
The amount of data/info/knowledge currently available online both from a depth of breadth of knowledge standpoint is orders of magnitude greater today and while that may mean that you have to sift through the crap to find the good the fact that it is available to you at all makes today's online world significantly better than yesterdays.
But worry not, good sire, I shall avoideth thy lawn and thy aged wrath against modernity of thought and the new fangled contraptions it bringeth forth from the ether.
I have no idea what rubycodez's experience was but just because I can recover from backup doesn't mean data wasn't lost by the filesystem. More importantly external risk management schemes (i.e. backup) don't relieve the file system of the obligation not to kill the copy of my data I've entrusted it with.
EMP != nuke even if you use a nuke to create it. It totally depends on altitude and whether you cause fallout from driving debris into the air. etc. That said if you're building a bunch of electroincs with these nanobots then they're probably not going to work post EMP.
Your sense of humor must be too sophisticated for me. ;)
Well you seemed to have gotten the general gist of my question yet missed the fact I was joking. ;)
Odd I still thought it was funny and not disrespectful at all. I mean the dude was a famous pitch man.