I find it interesting that this project will make use of Red Hat 6.8 to complete the COTS picture.
For other needs, the software suite has to show a high level of reliability as well. Think along the lines of DO-178* (safety/mission critical) requirements
Witness efforts with QuickSAT/XEN ( https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearc... ) and the work from Victor with GalacticSky ( http://www.galacticsky.net/ )
It's been discussed as far back as the late 50's and early 60's that we're enjoying a global warm-up following the last ice-age.
It is wonderful to see the science reach back into the historical record to try and fix the trends we're seeing though.
There are a few problems with this.
While I might agree that if you are going to charge one person sales tax to purchase thing, you really ought to charge them all...
But the sales tax system is just burdensome and nasty out there. Sales tax laws vary from state to state and even within cities! Trying to keep track of the nexus of taxation is totally a pain in the ass. And then dealing with the multiple state auditors when they come knocking on your door to prove every single piece of kit you send somewhere is properly accounted for in your taxation records...
Suppose I live in New York, and I order a widget from a company based in Arkansas, but with a DC in California, and they need to send to my current location in Colorado--on the east side of Main Street (which has a different tax rate than the west side of Main Street between 4th and Elm...).
Which sales tax do I need to pay?
At the end of the day, only larger firms will be able to afford the grief/expenditure that this level of taxation and taxation support systems requires. And only rarely does anybody get to the details where they discussion the difficulties in dealing with taxation nexus.
Actually the New York Times did get a hold of some documents back during the Vietnam War. It ended up in the US Supreme Court (look up "Pentagon Papers").
Secrecy is necessary. There is no question of that. But then KEEP IT SECRET! After 9/11 when the government got slapped for not sharing intel, they responded by letting everybody and their uncle read this stuff. That's not the way to keep secrets.
Trying to wrap your head around what intel needs to be kept and who really needs to be able to see it is a huge task. One that has not been handled well.
For some other disucssions around this topic check out the Secrecy Blog ( http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/ ).
Incorrect. The storage spanning is part of the OS itself. You can even encounter this issue when you are trying to design apps that have a larger footprint than physical memory in the device.
No hardware required. This is an OS thing.
My question is: why we didn't hear about these requirements (the internal storage is spanned onto the expansion microsd storage--with vague requirements) when the devs started getting kits and working with this almost a year ago.
So much for getting good advance info about this fantastic new product into the ether.
Nah: We'll just spew the marketing cruft instead. It's easier.
>sigh
I do not see anything in the complaint about what software (or in a more general sense: HOW) the school administrators were able to remotely take control of the webcams.
Does anybody out there have any idea what was used for this purpose? Or has anybody gotten to place hands on one of these laptops to take a look at what was loaded?
And would it have been possible for someone knowledgeable to find and defeat this software as part of a normal computer cleanup process?
How about just adding a steg file to all images consisting of 'n' kilobytes of random data before you post stuff to the interwebs.
That should mess up any such analysis, right?
The other issue with 3G rollout is that AT&T has their data network throttled back to 1.8mbps max speed (actually: they may have some places throttled up, but I don't know of at the present time).
The service itself is supposed to max out at 3.6mbps, and those of us using it keep wondering when/if they'll throttle it up.
In general, if I am using a Linux product I use it at least partially because of its rather clean non-encumbered IP position. The hope is that the GPL assists in that protection as well.
While it would be nice to be able to say "Well, if Novell (or whoever) is willingly putting IP encumbered stuff into their Linux then I don't want to use them", the reality is you can't really make that statement: the IP systems currently in play make disclosing the problematic elements a major no-no.
There has been basically one study (from 2004--New York based Open Source Risk Management will announce it has studied the Linux kernel and discovered it infringes on about 283 issued patents. Twenty-seven of those patents are owned by Microsoft.") so far that has addressed this IP problem in the kernel--the kernel, not the applications that run in that infrastructure.
Yes, we know a few of the items of interest, but 283 of 'em? And you can't exactly find the list because of the little perverse "if you knew then you willfully violated IP..." issue in patent law.
We (the Linux community in general) need to spend a little time making sure our IP is spotless against such (hopefully) groundless diatribes from the likes of Microsoft (and SCO, etc...).
Ultimately tho, companies with big pockets will always be able to sue (with cause or with malice) smaller entities and make them go away.
You raise a very good point here: Are the prospective employers getting your credit "score" or a fully detailed copy of your credit report? Also, does this employer have a policy statement which describes their use (and their future refreshing of this information along with future disposal) of this potentially valuable and error-prone information about you?
The credit check appears on the face to be more useful for corruption than almost any other employer mandated check they do (drug test, background check, etc actually have a measurable purpose: what's the credit check really provide feeding into the evaluation process--that is a fair question to ask).
Another thing I have had experience with: Ask the employer if they do this check themselves, or if they hire this function out to a third party. If it's a third party, ask who it is and find out their policies to ensure *they* will take care of your personal information. In general: I don't trust companies much, and third-party investigation firms even less (think "HP and the board" here).
Had an interview with a large corporation and they wanted me to basically sign over all my rights giving them carte-blanche to grab everything on me *before* the interview even took place. To my way of thinking this was very much over the top.
Lately I even refuse to give them my SSN until after some sort of interest has been shown on both our parts. Indeed: Almost every job offer these days is conditional on passing a drug screening/background check anyway. A credit check (if appropriate) belongs in this part of the job interview/acceptance cycle. Not before.
As for if it is appropriate: I feel that the credit check is much less useful than a background check (looking for felony convictions, for example).
Respectfully.. With $1.50 being the price for sales, an effective argument can be made that the barrier to entry for someone to actually sell quantities of product goes down. In fact, hopefully this will cause the creation of more smaller content houses making the barrier to entry for films, documentaries and other content lower as well.
In terms of this being good "long term": who knows. I usually consider that "long term" would include the aging of *this* model to the point where it wasn't effective anymore either.
But if it lowers the *threat* (real? perceived? contrived?) of piracy, even for a few years, and wakes the marketing and business sides up to the fact that they DO have to compete in a changing marketplace, it is a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
I find it interesting that this project will make use of Red Hat 6.8 to complete the COTS picture.
For other needs, the software suite has to show a high level of reliability as well. Think along the lines of DO-178* (safety/mission critical) requirements
Witness efforts with QuickSAT/XEN ( https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearc... ) and the work from Victor with GalacticSky ( http://www.galacticsky.net/ )
It's been discussed as far back as the late 50's and early 60's that we're enjoying a global warm-up following the last ice-age.
It is wonderful to see the science reach back into the historical record to try and fix the trends we're seeing though.
There are a few problems with this.
While I might agree that if you are going to charge one person sales tax to purchase thing, you really ought to charge them all...
But the sales tax system is just burdensome and nasty out there. Sales tax laws vary from state to state and even within cities! Trying to keep track of the nexus of taxation is totally a pain in the ass. And then dealing with the multiple state auditors when they come knocking on your door to prove every single piece of kit you send somewhere is properly accounted for in your taxation records...
Suppose I live in New York, and I order a widget from a company based in Arkansas, but with a DC in California, and they need to send to my current location in Colorado--on the east side of Main Street (which has a different tax rate than the west side of Main Street between 4th and Elm...).
Which sales tax do I need to pay?
At the end of the day, only larger firms will be able to afford the grief/expenditure that this level of taxation and taxation support systems requires. And only rarely does anybody get to the details where they discussion the difficulties in dealing with taxation nexus.
Actually the New York Times did get a hold of some documents back during the Vietnam War. It ended up in the US Supreme Court (look up "Pentagon Papers").
Secrecy is necessary. There is no question of that. But then KEEP IT SECRET! After 9/11 when the government got slapped for not sharing intel, they responded by letting everybody and their uncle read this stuff. That's not the way to keep secrets.
Trying to wrap your head around what intel needs to be kept and who really needs to be able to see it is a huge task. One that has not been handled well.
For some other disucssions around this topic check out the Secrecy Blog ( http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/ ).
Incorrect. The storage spanning is part of the OS itself. You can even encounter this issue when you are trying to design apps that have a larger footprint than physical memory in the device. No hardware required. This is an OS thing.
My question is: why we didn't hear about these requirements (the internal storage is spanned onto the expansion microsd storage--with vague requirements) when the devs started getting kits and working with this almost a year ago. So much for getting good advance info about this fantastic new product into the ether. Nah: We'll just spew the marketing cruft instead. It's easier. >sigh
I do not see anything in the complaint about what software (or in a more general sense: HOW) the school administrators were able to remotely take control of the webcams.
Does anybody out there have any idea what was used for this purpose? Or has anybody gotten to place hands on one of these laptops to take a look at what was loaded?
And would it have been possible for someone knowledgeable to find and defeat this software as part of a normal computer cleanup process?
How about just adding a steg file to all images consisting of 'n' kilobytes of random data before you post stuff to the interwebs. That should mess up any such analysis, right?
The other issue with 3G rollout is that AT&T has their data network throttled back to 1.8mbps max speed (actually: they may have some places throttled up, but I don't know of at the present time).
The service itself is supposed to max out at 3.6mbps, and those of us using it keep wondering when/if they'll throttle it up.
Here's the link for the 3G coverage map for AT&T...
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
How about an article on that neat analysis framework Fermi (and others) use for the terabytes of data they generate and have to sift through?
http://root.cern.ch/ (large scale repository for data analysis)
And how would you use Postgres for something like that anyway? Maybe something like:
http://www.greenplum.com/ (biggy-sized Postgres based data warehousing)
In general, if I am using a Linux product I use it at least partially because of its rather clean non-encumbered IP position. The hope is that the GPL assists in that protection as well.
d =472901
x patentpaper.pdf
s p
While it would be nice to be able to say "Well, if Novell (or whoever) is willingly putting IP encumbered stuff into their Linux then I don't want to use them", the reality is you can't really make that statement: the IP systems currently in play make disclosing the problematic elements a major no-no.
There has been basically one study (from 2004--New York based Open Source Risk Management will announce it has studied the Linux kernel and discovered it infringes on about 283 issued patents. Twenty-seven of those patents are owned by Microsoft.") so far that has addressed this IP problem in the kernel--the kernel, not the applications that run in that infrastructure.
Yes, we know a few of the items of interest, but 283 of 'em? And you can't exactly find the list because of the little perverse "if you knew then you willfully violated IP..." issue in patent law.
We (the Linux community in general) need to spend a little time making sure our IP is spotless against such (hopefully) groundless diatribes from the likes of Microsoft (and SCO, etc...).
Ultimately tho, companies with big pockets will always be able to sue (with cause or with malice) smaller entities and make them go away.
A few nice links:
Willfullness issue (just an abstract):
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_i
The OSRM position paper on IP issues in Linux (minus the specifics of course... )
http://www.osriskmanagement.com/pdf_articles/linu
Another piece from D. Ravicher (of OSRM/PubPat fame) re: Ballmer's comments:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1729908,00.a
You raise a very good point here: Are the prospective employers getting your credit "score" or a fully detailed copy of your credit report? Also, does this employer have a policy statement which describes their use (and their future refreshing of this information along with future disposal) of this potentially valuable and error-prone information about you?
The credit check appears on the face to be more useful for corruption than almost any other employer mandated check they do (drug test, background check, etc actually have a measurable purpose: what's the credit check really provide feeding into the evaluation process--that is a fair question to ask).
Another thing I have had experience with: Ask the employer if they do this check themselves, or if they hire this function out to a third party. If it's a third party, ask who it is and find out their policies to ensure *they* will take care of your personal information. In general: I don't trust companies much, and third-party investigation firms even less (think "HP and the board" here).
Had an interview with a large corporation and they wanted me to basically sign over all my rights giving them carte-blanche to grab everything on me *before* the interview even took place. To my way of thinking this was very much over the top.
Lately I even refuse to give them my SSN until after some sort of interest has been shown on both our parts. Indeed: Almost every job offer these days is conditional on passing a drug screening/background check anyway. A credit check (if appropriate) belongs in this part of the job interview/acceptance cycle. Not before.
As for if it is appropriate: I feel that the credit check is much less useful than a background check (looking for felony convictions, for example).
Respectfully..
With $1.50 being the price for sales, an effective argument can be made that the barrier to entry for someone to actually sell quantities of product goes down. In fact, hopefully this will cause the creation of more smaller content houses making the barrier to entry for films, documentaries and other content lower as well.
In terms of this being good "long term": who knows. I usually consider that "long term" would include the aging of *this* model to the point where it wasn't effective anymore either.
But if it lowers the *threat* (real? perceived? contrived?) of piracy, even for a few years, and wakes the marketing and business sides up to the fact that they DO have to compete in a changing marketplace, it is a good thing.