No... It can kill them. You're running an application that isn't approved, and they haven't weighed the vulnerabilities. An open port is always a target for exploitation, which is why the IT department needs to be able to audit the machine and ensure what software is installed, so they can mitigate those vulnerabilities.

I'm going to guess that if this person set up a server just say, in their office, this machine is on a network segment that may not be as firewalled-off as a data center may be. That means if something malicious does happen to this server, there's a greater chance of infection elsewhere, as well as some risk of productivity loss. Besides, the machine itself doesn't have to be the target of attack-- it can just be the jumping-off point for something bigger, once they've installed tools to probe the network.

Especially when you're in a healthcare setting, privacy is a big issue. You could conceivably have someone post patient data in a calendar appointment, even. If that connection isn't TLS encrypted, and the devices not properly managed, it just takes one theft of a device sitting in a coffee shop to result in a serious breach of privacy and patient trust, even if the thief doesn't access the data that might be contained on the device.

You should have mentioned that in the first place. Yes, you can keep a child quiet and calm in a new and intriguing environment without handing them some device like an iPod. Parents have done it for years. You have a special circumstance where you've found an approach that works that might honestly be ill-advised for others.

There's a difference between "open" and "modular"-- "modular" simply means interchangeable components, and implies nothing about who is capable or authorized to do it. Conversely, just because something is "open", that doesn't mean it's going to be trivial to yank out one component and replace it with another, just because one has the source code or schematics for it.

Have you really been paying attention to the latest Windows OS's? Server 2008 isn't "monolithic"-- if you look at Server Core, there's not even an "explorer" to run. There's just a command shell, sitting on top of the Windows kernel.

I'm not a fanboi, but I do give credit where credit is due-- It's been a long time since Windows was as monolithic as you are suggesting. It is just as modular as any other OS now-- they just don't provide the users the opportunity to change the shell or other components. In this sense, it's perfectly reasonable to say that there's a modified Windows kernel, and WP7 just has a different interface to that kernel, same as iOS, or Android.

Not true. If you put in 3rd party RAM, they just expect you to take it out or put in the OEM RAM before they troubleshoot it. And it makes sense-- you go and buy some "high density" crap RAM from PriceWatch that isn't guaranteed to work with the chipset on the machine, it's just standard practice to make sure that it isn't causing the problem.

Actually, the new Windows Phone 7 is supposed to be pretty slick...

Sorry that's just not true. Computer companies are bound by the terms of their warranties to make sure their hardware works. If you've installed another OS, or wiped what was there, they still have to troubleshoot and/or replace parts.

I think he was comparing Doom, saying it was released 3 years after Ultima VI.

Actually... There are public waves. You can search for waves with a "Public" attribute on them, that anyone can follow.

...No.

It's called integration. If you're going to participate in a certain society, then you have to follow that society's norms. It doesn't matter what YOUR culture follows, you're participating in a DIFFERENT culture now.

Take your hypothetical island. Would I have legal recourse if someone was murdered, being it's not against the law? Probably not. But, I'm not longer in MY society, where outright murder is illegal. But, you mean to tell me there's still not repercussions and negative consequences to an act like murder, theft, or fraud?

Take murder. You have no idea what that person could have had planned. The victim could have been on his/her way to pick up a sick relative. The victim could have been the bread winner of a household, and now that family is going to struggle.

Theft: You took a resource that didn't belong to you. The rightful owner of that resource now is inconvenienced, if not put through outright hardship by not having that item. Steal money from that person; that may have been their food money, or rent money. Now that person is potentially hungry or out of a home. Fraud can be placed in the same category, because it is essentially theft by deception.

THAT is the part that defies culture. There are repercussions to the action, and generally it's someone else losing out because you've done something dishonest, rather than working through conventional means to get your due. If a culture doesn't recognize that the action is dishonest, fine, but I really doubt that the victims who have the act perpetrated upon them are going to be so peachy with what happened.

As for this particular group of people, they were interfacing with a culture that frowns upon theft and fraud. As such, THEY were wrong. Using your own logic, they attempted to force their beliefs that theft and fraud was OK, which conflicted with the culture they were contacting. That imposition of beliefs is wrong.

...Not to me. Theft is theft. You're taking a resource from someone else that you didn't work for, and that you haven't earned. You have no idea what that $10 could have been allocated for-- you may have just taken $10 that was going to go to you anyways, out of a charity, perhaps. There's really no reason for it.

With as little faith as I have in humanity, I still do feel like there are enough resources out there that you don't have to steal in order to survive. There is enough charity (I don't mean charitable organizations, just people willing to give and to help) that you can get by.

I've never understood this rationale. How is theft in the Ukraine any different from theft anywhere else? I'm sure many people make an honest living there, just like every other country. You can't put a "cultural" spin on fraud or theft.