I like your post, Dave, and can relate. I think a lot of people on Slashdot have been in similar positions.

It can be difficult to balance the "I know what I'm doing" arrogance with restraint when necessary. What I do is try and remember that there's some possibility I'm wrong and don't want to be too embarrassed. That seems to make people more willing to help me too when I call tech support myself.

That's the impression I got of the original poster when reading his missive about his experience with his hosting provider. It seems like he knows what he's doing and is very smart but he's not being reasonable.

If your provider wants access to logs without root, maybe you can just allow them access via ftp to the log files or some reasonable compromise? I think that would foster a more cooperative relationship with your hosting provider than the hostile one the poster has now.

An ounce of cooperation can go a long ways to helping people solve problems, especially if you turn out to be right in the end anyway.

I might ask for more evidence that the provider actually rooted the server before pronouncing judgment. I'm not saying that the person posing the question is lying, but simply because I don't have enough evidence either way.

Highly intelligent people tend towards a sometimes unreasonable paranoia and sometimes make conclusions (i.e. my server was rooted to look at the logs) that are not exactly true.

That said, I don't know either way really. It could be argued one way or another. If I were a provider, I might even insist upon the ability to access systems running on my network simply because of liability concerns as the provider. I as the provider can't be allowing untoward activity on my network.

That all said, and without actually proclaiming judgment one way or another, in the end if you're not happy with your provider for any reason, whether reasonable or not, you should just leave them and find a new one.

I like your post but can't mod. +1!

The guy writing this article is some loony activist one man army who's been arguing this issue since at least 2004. Who knows his motivations, but let's not read into this article as though it's some sort of concerted effort that Washington Legislators are taking seriously.

I don't think the guy who writes this article really understands tax law. Neither do I really, but atleast I'll admit it. It seems to me that I remember Tax Avoidance being perfectly legal and accepted. I really think he misunderstands the idea that there's some existing tax law to be enforced that applies to Microsoft's actions. The software is licensed out of NV, hence, NV law applies. There are major jurisdictional issues inherent in taxation law and so far as I can tell as a layman, there's nothing afoul of any regulation going on here.

If there were, you can be sure Washington State would have their hands in Microsoft's pockets already.

That's kind of why most corporations are incorporated in Delaware, too. There's jurisdictional issues being blatantly ignored by this person in order to make a point and that is not justified.

That all said, I did some more reading and it looks like this guy has barked up this tree before.
http://crosscut.com/2008/02/02/microsoft/11167/
which was posted to Slashdot back then
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/04/1520219
and a followup with his anti-arguments to the posts from Slashdot back then.
http://www.idealog.us/2008/02/top-reader-excu.html

Oh and 2004 too:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/01/2137228&tid=109

You'll notice, a year ago, he supposedly already addressed all the issues everyone here could possibly present. Unfortunately, he's also completely ignored the one about the constitutionality of taxation and jurisdiction and focuses more on wishy washy sort of justification arguments made that appeal more to a sense of right or wrong, rather than the case law regarding jurisdictional tax issues.

Career campaigner on this issue, hey Jeff? Too bad you've wasted 5 YEARS on this subject and you're never going to get anywhere because Microsoft is DOING NOTHING WRONG.

Hello

I read your post with interest because my career is in this specific area of IT. I work for an IT firm which provides services to small, medium and large business, and I must admit it does make me very happy we have built our reputation as a business to be 100% trusted by customers who have very large annual revenues. We gain that trust through tireless service and offering our customers value they simply cannot achieve with hired staff. One of our core values is in that we can accomplish equivalent (and better) work as an on-site IT resource for a lower price, and also offereing a level of service to SMB that they are unfamiliar with because they cannot afford full time IT staffing and/or have previously worked with a one-man IT shop.

This value proposition is bolstered only by customer references and the trust our customers place in us. They gain this trust because they work with the same people every day. It is very important you trust your IT provider. In finding an IT provider you can trust, you should look for a company which has a very low turnover in technicians, a place that values the people and sees them as more than a resource. This may be a golden goose in your area, I am not sure, but we are that type of company and that is why we gain the customer's trust. Most of our customer's, I would say, trust us way more than rank and file employees. After all, we do have the "keys to the castle" so to speak, and are trusted to maintain permissions to important resources such as HR information, revenues and, well, everything. The only other people with access to this information are officer's of the company.

The point is, you have to trust them. There's really no option. Just do a good job finding a partner you can trust; value personality traits, employee retention and honesty over cost and certifications.

exactly. The alternative is that GM goes completely out of business and is no longer a going concern, and then the liability of cleanup still falls on government, if it ever got done at all.

So, there's not really good news anywhere in all this. I hate it just as much as anyone else, but we need to be practical.

I can tell from reading his blog post that Mike is very excited to be wrapped up in this whirlwind affair of being the first person in the world to ever catch a meteorite through a telescope, the guy is absolutely giddy in his writing and awe of the world wide attention. It has a sort of innocence about it that is rather charming. It absolutely comes through in his writing, reading it makes me smile from how genuine it comes across. He's in for some fun and exhausting times for the next few days. he must be having a hard time sleeping and all that, how exciting for him, way to go mike!

I take a general offense to the nature of this article, presenting this as though it is some sort of surprise. Researches along time ago classified people into 3 groups and this is merely genetic confirmation of the original findings. They classified people in 3 groups a long time ago, I suppose this is DNA confirmation of the initial categories: Negroid, Mongoloid, Caucasoid.

non-PC names these days I suppose, but that's what they were called.

The carterfone and that whole line of reasoning has nothing to do with the iphone on competitor networks. I'm not sure what point is trying to be made, like as if the iPhone being able to work on Verizon would lead to some amazing innovation we're missing out on because of an exclusivity deal? I don't think I follow that one. I just don't get it, sorry. It's apples and oranges

Why in the world are you being so aggressive? I merely said the JPL because they are experts and would know the answer to your question. I read the damned article, I know Herschel is an ESA project, but guess who else uses explosive bolts?

Quit being a know it all, jackass. you don't.

I'm sure there's some good reason pal, you can find it out when you join the JPL. I do not know but it's a good question nonetheless.

not showing up to your trial does not make you automatically guilty, but it does make it terribly difficult to defend yourself against accusation.

The court still goes through the same process to determine damages or guilt. The plaintiff still has to present a case and request damages/compensation. The court just doesn't get to see any defense, so it more or less means guilty unless the plaintiff's case has no merit even on their own evidence.

are you retarded or just trolling? Your post indicates a very large ignorance about what SIP trunking is.

pushing daisies was amazing and it wasn't until the show was canceled and i started looking around that i even realized who fuller was, but have since recognized that I have long enjoyed his work without knowing who he was.

Now I know who to credit for all the entertainment that I really liked (Voyager, Season 1 heroes, Pushing daisies...)

It's a shame that pushing daisies didn't make it. I think the show was a huge victim of the writer's strike. The shortened first season killed the audience and it never recovered. it's been very disappointing for my wife and I because the shows we can watch and enjoy together are few and far between, and this was one we both really liked.

We also both really liked Heroes Season 1, but Season 2 was a complete disaster and neither of us watch it any more. It's weird how it all seems to be about fuller's presence or absence (in hindsight).

They hired Fuller for writing on Heroes again, but I think it's too late. They should just kill the show.

Oh well.