TaliesinWI - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Cisco should be careful (Score 1) 117

by TaliesinWI on Sunday January 11, 2009 @06:48PM (#26410601) Attached to: Cisco Mulls Adding Verbal Interview To CCIE Exams

I don't know if Cisco still does this but at one point you would get a plethora of accents not because of outsourcing but because they were bouncing your call to whatever call center was currently between 9 AM to 5 PM local time. So if you're in Chicago at 4 AM and you call the support line you're going to get someone in Australia. Basically allowed them to have only one shift of support spread out around the world rather than keeping a particular call center running 24/7.

Submission + - Want fair use rights? Use a VHS tape

Submitted by Village_Troll on Monday May 21, 2007 @10:02AM

Village_Troll writes: Ars Technica has an interview up with Marybeth Peters, head of the US Copyright Office, in which she explains why her office has so far failed to grant a DMCA exemption for DVD ripping—even though the CSS encryption used on the discs makes presumed "fair use" rights impossible to exercise. "According to Peters, the exemptions only exist to give users access to material that is lawful for them to use and that they cannot get in any other way. While the first part of that test does apply to backing up DVDs or watching them under Linux, the second part generally does not. People don't really just want fair use, Peters says, they want to "crack a code in order to make fair use of content, but the content, for the most part, they can get in an unencrypted format. But they don't really want that." Much of the material on DVDs can be obtained from other sources — VHS tapes, for instance." VHS tapes? Um, no thanks.

Submission + - Ogg's time has come -- again.

Submitted by OurNewOverlord on Monday May 21, 2007 @09:19AM

OurNewOverlord writes: Michael Calore at Wired magazine reports on the launch of PlayOgg.org, "The time may be ripe for Ogg Vorbis to truly shine. According to Chris "Monty" Montgomery, creator of Ogg and founder of the Xiph.org Foundation which oversees Ogg's development, such big-name backing has been a long time coming." Wired News had previoualy predicted a surge in interest around Ogg Vorbis following recent patent lawsuits over use of the MP3 format. Calore says, "If you're willing to say goodbye to your iPod's soul, as you know it, you can add Ogg support yourself by installing Rockbox, an open-source firmware replacement."

Submission + - Spy Drones take to the sky in the UK

Submitted by Novotny on Monday May 21, 2007 @09:16AM

Novotny writes: The Guardian and various other sources are reporting that 'the UK's first police "spy drone" has taken to the skies'. Originally usd in military applications, these drones are being put into use as a senior police officer warns the surveillance society in the UK is eroding civil liberties. In the UK, there are an estimated 4.2 million surveillance cameras already, and you are on average photographed 300 times a day going about your business. Is there any evidence to suggest that this increasingly Orwellian society is actually any safer?

Slashdot Top Deals