If you want to submit your comments as "Concerned Global Citizens", the Canadian Copyright Policy Branch has a Web Form
.
I don't know if the Canadian government cares what citizens of other countries think, but I don't believe that we will ever get any real Copyright Reform until we convince our respective governments to stop being so myopically nationalistic.
No, Solaris 10 does not come with the source, although it is licensed under a Free/Open Source license that is approved by the FSF, but not GPL compatible.
Solaris 10 is the "official" Sun supported Solaris, whereas, according to the Wikipedia, "OpenSolaris is an open source project created by Sun Microsystems to build a developer community around the Solaris Operating System technology."
I remember the eighties and the Cold War very clearly, as well. It was a scary time, but I don't see any evidence that governments, or even individuals, have become any more rational in the last two decades. If anything, now might be a scarier time. People are more informed, but don't seem to evince more intelligence or common sense.
In the eighties, discussion of nuclear disarmament was everywhere. I went to marches. They told me in school that any day now we'd probably all get blown up by the USSR and we couldn't do anything except complain to our government who didn't seem to give a F&*$ if the world ended.
But that's all ancient history, now, which is what makes now more scary, in my opinion. A threat that no one talks about, a problem that no one acknowledges, and, as you pointed out, a whole generation of people that don't remember or seem to care is a "Bad Thing".
As for the Dooms Day clock, perhaps it has outlived its usefulness, but I don't think so. As a metaphor, it is still valid. A more modern take would be to get a digital Dooms Day clock, have a Web site where people can put in their estimations of the "time", and average the results to move the clock. Or, perhaps, it could give an automated time based on people's threat assessment scores of relevant news items, similar to the SlashDot system.
I completely agree with this, although I would also say that the addition of biometric verification - such as a fingerprint scanner on the usb encryption token - would add an additional layer of security at a reasonable price and convenience point. These are already available for purchase, and I don't think it would be overly onerous to implement them.
My bank - Bank of America - claims to have "above industry standard" security for online banking, but to be quite honest, it's pretty lax. They added a mandatory "sitekey", which is a picture that you choose that shows up after you put in your ID and before you put in your password, that supposedly foils phishing. It's not too bad, but it could be a lot more secure.
Too be honest, I'm more worried about my bank's employees leaving their laptops with my personal info on them lying around. Why do they have my data on their laptops, anyway?
Re:How About a Computer Mom?
on
IT and Divorce?
·
· Score: 1
Thanks very succinctly put, and I wholeheartedly agree on all points. My spouse is a coder/sys admin and all around computer geek, and I am a technical writer. We have two young children that we are home schooling, and last year we started a business together. Just like all those long hours at corporate jobs, but for a lot less cash.;) We've been married for six years, and the only thing that's wrong with our relationship is that we're broke and tired all the time, but I think that taking charge of our own economic future now will (hopefully) mean that in the future we'll have time and money, and if not, it's certainly an adventure.
There are many desktop projects that are working to make GNU/Linux friendly to the novice - KDE probably being the most obvious, as well as many distros that target beginners, end-users, and those who just don't find the spooky inner workings of their OS to be appealing. I am not a developer, and I have been using GNU/Linux since 2000. Currently, I use Gentoo, with KDE on my laptop and desktop; my kids (3 & 5) use KDE on their computer; and my entire freelance writing bussiness is run on free software. The only fault with the community is that it's too divided and too political. When newbies ask which distro is user-friendly, a flame war ensues, and when they ask why *they* should use Linux, they get a manifesto in reply, or, even worse, get told that they shouldn't, because it's too hard, and too scary, and only for gurus, anyway. I've used MS Windows, Mac OS and OSX, and GNU/Linux, and Linux is by far the best. It's logical, it's safe, it has all they software I need, the tech support is free and knowledgable, and it's free, which is the best part, because freedom and money are both very important to me.
-AK
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mohandas Gandhi
Slashdot Mirror
If you want to submit your comments as "Concerned Global Citizens", the Canadian Copyright Policy Branch has a Web Form
.I don't know if the Canadian government cares what citizens of other countries think, but I don't believe that we will ever get any real Copyright Reform until we convince our respective governments to stop being so myopically nationalistic.
No, Solaris 10 does not come with the source, although it is licensed under a Free/Open Source license that is approved by the FSF, but not GPL compatible.
Solaris 10 is the "official" Sun supported Solaris, whereas, according to the Wikipedia, "OpenSolaris is an open source project created by Sun Microsystems to build a developer community around the Solaris Operating System technology."
I remember the eighties and the Cold War very clearly, as well. It was a scary time, but I don't see any evidence that governments, or even individuals, have become any more rational in the last two decades. If anything, now might be a scarier time. People are more informed, but don't seem to evince more intelligence or common sense.
In the eighties, discussion of nuclear disarmament was everywhere. I went to marches. They told me in school that any day now we'd probably all get blown up by the USSR and we couldn't do anything except complain to our government who didn't seem to give a F&*$ if the world ended.
But that's all ancient history, now, which is what makes now more scary, in my opinion. A threat that no one talks about, a problem that no one acknowledges, and, as you pointed out, a whole generation of people that don't remember or seem to care is a "Bad Thing".
As for the Dooms Day clock, perhaps it has outlived its usefulness, but I don't think so. As a metaphor, it is still valid. A more modern take would be to get a digital Dooms Day clock, have a Web site where people can put in their estimations of the "time", and average the results to move the clock. Or, perhaps, it could give an automated time based on people's threat assessment scores of relevant news items, similar to the SlashDot system.
I completely agree with this, although I would also say that the addition of biometric verification - such as a fingerprint scanner on the usb encryption token - would add an additional layer of security at a reasonable price and convenience point. These are already available for purchase, and I don't think it would be overly onerous to implement them.
My bank - Bank of America - claims to have "above industry standard" security for online banking, but to be quite honest, it's pretty lax. They added a mandatory "sitekey", which is a picture that you choose that shows up after you put in your ID and before you put in your password, that supposedly foils phishing. It's not too bad, but it could be a lot more secure.
Too be honest, I'm more worried about my bank's employees leaving their laptops with my personal info on them lying around. Why do they have my data on their laptops, anyway?
Thanks very succinctly put, and I wholeheartedly agree on all points. My spouse is a coder/sys admin and all around computer geek, and I am a technical writer. We have two young children that we are home schooling, and last year we started a business together. Just like all those long hours at corporate jobs, but for a lot less cash. ;)
We've been married for six years, and the only thing that's wrong with our relationship is that we're broke and tired all the time, but I think that taking charge of our own economic future now will (hopefully) mean that in the future we'll have time and money, and if not, it's certainly an adventure.
There are many desktop projects that are working to make GNU/Linux friendly to the novice - KDE probably being the most obvious, as well as many distros that target beginners, end-users, and those who just don't find the spooky inner workings of their OS to be appealing.
I am not a developer, and I have been using GNU/Linux since 2000. Currently, I use Gentoo, with KDE on my laptop and desktop; my kids (3 & 5) use KDE on their computer; and my entire freelance writing bussiness is run on free software.
The only fault with the community is that it's too divided and too political. When newbies ask which distro is user-friendly, a flame war ensues, and when they ask why *they* should use Linux, they get a manifesto in reply, or, even worse, get told that they shouldn't, because it's too hard, and too scary, and only for gurus, anyway. I've used MS Windows, Mac OS and OSX, and GNU/Linux, and Linux is by far the best. It's logical, it's safe, it has all they software I need, the tech support is free and knowledgable, and it's free, which is the best part, because freedom and money are both very important to me.
-AK
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then
you win."
- Mohandas Gandhi