Mod me troll if you will. But we already have a 2-tiered legal system in the US, so why not a 2-tiered internet? Makes perfect sense if you think about it.
Apologies if I'm sounding too cynical, but when I see articles like this and the one on whistle-blowers today it's hard to remain very optimisitc about our future.
Okay, you owe me a new monitor as I just spewed Diet Coke all over mine reading that:)
Actually, we used to have a school teacher named Ms. Spellaburg that we called Ms. Spell for short.
Then there was the ditzy IT Dept. secretary who was constantly sending people off in the wrong direction. We took to calling her Ms. Information until the PHB heard it and made us stop.
Someone with points please mod the partent post up.
This is a very important point that has been missing from nearly every recent discussion I have seen regarding the NSA. We have such short memories in this country that we forget that this agency was only allowed to become so powerful with the strict limitation (as stated in the directive) that it was expressly prohibited from using such intelligence against US citizens. The power mongers in office have abused the FUD created by 9/11 to broaden their own power base in the name of national security and create yet another bloated beaurocratic monstrosity called "Homeland Security".
Instead of fixing what was broken with our intelligence community prior to 9/11, we've created this mess. Somewhere deep in a cave, Osama and his minions are laughing at us because we have played right into their hands.
Well at least you can get a hard copy of your transaction record when using an ATM.
One of the most vocal arguments in my state (Florida) and others has been that there is no audit trail for voting records using these machines. There have been arguments and law suits but the audit trail proponents seem to lose each and every time. Could this be due to the fact that the judges hearing these cases are by and large elected using these very same systems?
I respectfully disagree. The simple act of counting licenses requires legal advice? Come on, can't we do anything in this country without involving an attorney anymore?
The knee-jerk reaction to contact a lawyer for anything and everything in the US is the main reason for our being by far the most litigious society in the world. This serves nothing except the legal community and is an impediment to our overall progress and productivity. As I said, a simple phone call to one of this person's superiors at MS probably would have been enough and the issue would have been defused then and there.
I am no MS apologist, but this was not an 'intimidation campaign' by Microsoft. It was an arrogant and abrasive employee who thought way too much of herself and who needed to be put back in line. I stand by my remarks.
Good points. I thought the article might be a troll until I saw it was written by CW's editor in chief and then I became puzzled. I mean, it talks about one instance at one company where there was probably a little bit of ego brusing and some pissing contests going on. This was IMHO a personality conflict, not an intimidation crusade by Microsoft. The company owner must be a golf buddy of the author.
Seriously, if there were numerous reports of MS staffers showing up on company's doorsteps toting baseball bats, this would be news. But this situation is not. At my company, we have an Enterprise Agreement with MS which gives them the right to come on sight and audit our usage. We true-up at the end of each year based on what we're actually using and everyone goes home happy.
In this case, the guy in question should have just escalated this with Microsoft's management and tried to speak with someone more reasonable. The fact that he decided to call a lawyer first makes me think he was a little nervous about something he might have overlooked. Just my 2 centavos.
Sadly, it's more a matter of economic expediency and politics than anything or at least that's the way I see it. Think about it: The great so-called Conservative/Republican Richard Nixon was the one who took the historic trip to China in order to establish official relations with them. Our government subsequently lobbied heavily on behalf of China in order to obtain "Most Favored Nation" trading status for them. We gave them Coca-Cola and McDonalds and they gave us cheap commodities. This is the same China that was supplying guns and ammunition to the Viet Kong who were busy killing our soldiers. And the same China that entered into the arms race and sided with the former USSR and against the US and the UK in nearly every significant issue brought up in the United Nations during the cold war.
Why do we have all of this? Politics and economics. We like buying our nick nacks at Walmart for a quarter of what it cost (in real dollars) 20 years ago. I believe that adjusted for inflation, many many goods are available for much less than even that now. Part of this is due to improvements in manufacturing processes, but in a large part it is also due to cheap (read slave) labor. And we as consumers don't cherish basic human freedoms as much as we do having our cheap commodities. We could start voting with our (Euro or US) dollars, but until this happens don't expect anything to change.
It's easy for us to speak out against the oppresion in (insert third world country name here) when there is no economic or political consequence of doing so. We (both as a people and as a government) aren't going to do so if the cost is too dear. It's the politics of expediency and it's also a sad commentary on our character.
Assuming your user name is for real and not a joke or a troll, I would start by asking these questions of your current administration.
After years of relative isolation from the West, public unrest, and overwhelming social and economic problems, the old USSR basically fell of its own weight. Some people thought Communism (Socialism more properly) was dead then, but obviously it's not by a long shot. Reagan got the credit for this, but in my mind it was more a matter of timing and economics.
In contrast, there are numerous social and economic factors in China that allow it to not only survive, but prosper as a totalitarian state. If we really want to protest the way things are going in China, why not just boycott all of their products that are by and large produced by what amounts to slave labor? If you seriously think that this will happen, I have some swamp land in Southern Florida that I think might interest you.
"Besides, where do you live that your electricity is petroleum generated? The vast majority in the US comes from coal."
Within eyesight of my building in Fort Lauderdale we have a petroleum fueled station that powers much of this area. There are nuke plants further to the North and South of us, but ours here still burns fuel. There are no coal mines anywhere near here and the land is very flat so hydroelectric power is not an option.
Needless to say, we're not happy about oil prices going up as this not only affects us at the pump, it's also passed along to us by our local electric provider monopoly so we see it on our power bill as well. And we're still footing the tab for the hurricanes damage to the infrastructure here last year. I am not happy about my electric bill lately, I can assure you.
"Come home, plug it in and voila, all charged. Imagine being able to have a small solar array in your backhard to charge it with too."
This has been my point when discueesing electric powered vehicles. IF you can plug it into a renewable source (such as solar) and get it to charge in a reasonable time frame (and with a system that doesn't cost you a fortune), then you've got something. But I live in an area where the vast majority of our electricity comes from petroleum powered generators. If I'm charging my car only using house current, am I not in the end actually the cause of a net greater use of fossil fuel? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
"These aren't random complaints from unhappy researchers," Newman said, referring to the comments from Kornbrust and Cerrudo. "They need to admit their procedures aren't working and seek help getting it fixed."
This Week on Ask Slashdot...
'Larry' has a company that sells database software and he's trying to get developers to release security patches that are both trouble free and actually fix security holes and other problems...and then finally get them to do all of this on time.
"Microsoft isn't good at security. We're good at that and I don't think sending a memo is going to help," 'Larry' states. Now he's turning to the/. community for help. So what advice can you give to 'Larry'?
Slashdot Mirror
Mod me troll if you will. But we already have a 2-tiered legal system in the US, so why not a 2-tiered internet? Makes perfect sense if you think about it.
Apologies if I'm sounding too cynical, but when I see articles like this and the one on whistle-blowers today it's hard to remain very optimisitc about our future.
Clippy has detected another plane approaching....FAST. What would you like me to do?
Turn Left
Turn Right
Dive
I don't see any planes. Send a bug report to Microsoft.
When I read the headline I thought that maybe Johnny Depp would be replacing Tom Hanks in the leading role.
Anyway, it's good to see more pirating. Remember that every blow stricken for pirates is a blow against Global Warming.
Okay, you owe me a new monitor as I just spewed Diet Coke all over mine reading that :)
Actually, we used to have a school teacher named Ms. Spellaburg that we called Ms. Spell for short.
Then there was the ditzy IT Dept. secretary who was constantly sending people off in the wrong direction. We took to calling her Ms. Information until the PHB heard it and made us stop.
Brazil already has these
" Google Results: 1 - 10 of about 6,360,000 for "MS Cracks" "
Nothing to see here, please move along now.
Smells funny in here. Are you making french fries or calling your Mom?
Someone with points please mod the partent post up.
This is a very important point that has been missing from nearly every recent discussion I have seen regarding the NSA. We have such short memories in this country that we forget that this agency was only allowed to become so powerful with the strict limitation (as stated in the directive) that it was expressly prohibited from using such intelligence against US citizens. The power mongers in office have abused the FUD created by 9/11 to broaden their own power base in the name of national security and create yet another bloated beaurocratic monstrosity called "Homeland Security".
Instead of fixing what was broken with our intelligence community prior to 9/11, we've created this mess. Somewhere deep in a cave, Osama and his minions are laughing at us because we have played right into their hands.
It's just another one of those fly by night companies.
"news for birds" - stuff that chatters
(ducks) (twice)
Well at least you can get a hard copy of your transaction record when using an ATM.
One of the most vocal arguments in my state (Florida) and others has been that there is no audit trail for voting records using these machines. There have been arguments and law suits but the audit trail proponents seem to lose each and every time. Could this be due to the fact that the judges hearing these cases are by and large elected using these very same systems?
Not that I'm cynical or anything (sarcasm).
...the more they stay the same.
Every example I looked at contained dupe articles, damnit!
Oh wait, nevermind.
I respectfully disagree. The simple act of counting licenses requires legal advice? Come on, can't we do anything in this country without involving an attorney anymore?
The knee-jerk reaction to contact a lawyer for anything and everything in the US is the main reason for our being by far the most litigious society in the world. This serves nothing except the legal community and is an impediment to our overall progress and productivity. As I said, a simple phone call to one of this person's superiors at MS probably would have been enough and the issue would have been defused then and there.
I am no MS apologist, but this was not an 'intimidation campaign' by Microsoft. It was an arrogant and abrasive employee who thought way too much of herself and who needed to be put back in line. I stand by my remarks.
Good points. I thought the article might be a troll until I saw it was written by CW's editor in chief and then I became puzzled. I mean, it talks about one instance at one company where there was probably a little bit of ego brusing and some pissing contests going on. This was IMHO a personality conflict, not an intimidation crusade by Microsoft. The company owner must be a golf buddy of the author.
Seriously, if there were numerous reports of MS staffers showing up on company's doorsteps toting baseball bats, this would be news. But this situation is not. At my company, we have an Enterprise Agreement with MS which gives them the right to come on sight and audit our usage. We true-up at the end of each year based on what we're actually using and everyone goes home happy.
In this case, the guy in question should have just escalated this with Microsoft's management and tried to speak with someone more reasonable. The fact that he decided to call a lawyer first makes me think he was a little nervous about something he might have overlooked. Just my 2 centavos.
Curried Tang
Try telling that to James Brown
Good God, y'all, HUH!
Sadly, it's more a matter of economic expediency and politics than anything or at least that's the way I see it. Think about it: The great so-called Conservative/Republican Richard Nixon was the one who took the historic trip to China in order to establish official relations with them. Our government subsequently lobbied heavily on behalf of China in order to obtain "Most Favored Nation" trading status for them. We gave them Coca-Cola and McDonalds and they gave us cheap commodities. This is the same China that was supplying guns and ammunition to the Viet Kong who were busy killing our soldiers. And the same China that entered into the arms race and sided with the former USSR and against the US and the UK in nearly every significant issue brought up in the United Nations during the cold war.
Why do we have all of this? Politics and economics. We like buying our nick nacks at Walmart for a quarter of what it cost (in real dollars) 20 years ago. I believe that adjusted for inflation, many many goods are available for much less than even that now. Part of this is due to improvements in manufacturing processes, but in a large part it is also due to cheap (read slave) labor. And we as consumers don't cherish basic human freedoms as much as we do having our cheap commodities. We could start voting with our (Euro or US) dollars, but until this happens don't expect anything to change.
It's easy for us to speak out against the oppresion in (insert third world country name here) when there is no economic or political consequence of doing so. We (both as a people and as a government) aren't going to do so if the cost is too dear. It's the politics of expediency and it's also a sad commentary on our character.
You're right. I mean can you imagine the goatse guy in 3D? (shudder)
Assuming your user name is for real and not a joke or a troll, I would start by asking these questions of your current administration.
After years of relative isolation from the West, public unrest, and overwhelming social and economic problems, the old USSR basically fell of its own weight. Some people thought Communism (Socialism more properly) was dead then, but obviously it's not by a long shot. Reagan got the credit for this, but in my mind it was more a matter of timing and economics.
In contrast, there are numerous social and economic factors in China that allow it to not only survive, but prosper as a totalitarian state. If we really want to protest the way things are going in China, why not just boycott all of their products that are by and large produced by what amounts to slave labor? If you seriously think that this will happen, I have some swamp land in Southern Florida that I think might interest you.
Chineese? WTF is that, like Chinese cheeze or something?
Okay sorry but that just irrated the hell out of me, especially after seeing it 6 times. I'll go back to being Mr. Non-Spell-Checker-Person now.
"As in years past, honorees will be limited to five word acceptance speeches."
I would like to thank
Seriously though, nice to see NPR getting some props.
Well, I for one read it as 'Slimey'.
Oh wait, that's their lawyer. Nevermind.
"Besides, where do you live that your electricity is petroleum generated? The vast majority in the US comes from coal."
Within eyesight of my building in Fort Lauderdale we have a petroleum fueled station that powers much of this area. There are nuke plants further to the North and South of us, but ours here still burns fuel. There are no coal mines anywhere near here and the land is very flat so hydroelectric power is not an option.
Needless to say, we're not happy about oil prices going up as this not only affects us at the pump, it's also passed along to us by our local electric provider monopoly so we see it on our power bill as well. And we're still footing the tab for the hurricanes damage to the infrastructure here last year. I am not happy about my electric bill lately, I can assure you.
"Come home, plug it in and voila, all charged. Imagine being able to have a small solar array in your backhard to charge it with too."
This has been my point when discueesing electric powered vehicles. IF you can plug it into a renewable source (such as solar) and get it to charge in a reasonable time frame (and with a system that doesn't cost you a fortune), then you've got something. But I live in an area where the vast majority of our electricity comes from petroleum powered generators. If I'm charging my car only using house current, am I not in the end actually the cause of a net greater use of fossil fuel? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
"These aren't random complaints from unhappy researchers," Newman said, referring to the comments from Kornbrust and Cerrudo. "They need to admit their procedures aren't working and seek help getting it fixed."
/. community for help. So what advice can you give to 'Larry'?
This Week on Ask Slashdot...
'Larry' has a company that sells database software and he's trying to get developers to release security patches that are both trouble free and actually fix security holes and other problems...and then finally get them to do all of this on time.
"Microsoft isn't good at security. We're good at that and I don't think sending a memo is going to help," 'Larry' states. Now he's turning to the