.. or can we?

I don't like the idea of having my emails, sms, etc downloaded by the police w/o warrant. I know they have some devices that download the contents of your smartphone. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, is there anything you can do to encrypt?

Slashdot has been my daily read since late 90s. I love this site. It must feel incredible to see something you've helped build grow into this.

Agreed. My wife and I have played through every character. I'm not going to say it is the best game ever made, but it has been one of the funnest games to play for us.

I'm not going to cancel my Netflix account, but I am thinking about switching to a cheaper version than I have right now. Right now I have 2 blurays + streaming. I like having access to the streaming, but I don't use it very much. I certainly am not getting $8/month of value from it. I'll probably just end up dropping streaming completely and give them less/month then I used to pay.

I understand that the streaming service is adding to expenses, but they should consider some sort of tiered usage (i.e. so many hours of streaming/month or something) otherwise it just isn't a good enough deal for casuals.

... but the first I think of is the irony that Orwell had it wrong. The govt won't have to force people to install cameras into their homes, we will do it ourselves...

Spats between hackers and international corporations is one thing. When you attack a foreign government, that starts to get awfully close to war which is a matter for governments and not their citizens.

It is also easy to imagine military and intelligence agencies behind these sorts of attacks and hiding behind their citizenry as an excuse.

This sort of thing is going to continue to escalate and I predict that lives will eventually be lost..

I have a 3D TV. Could 3D be better? Yes. Am I enjoying my 3D content? Yes. The idea that this is a "scam" is just plain silly. I'm *clearly* being tricked into paying money for something that I appreciate.

The snarky part of me wants to suggest that the author attempt to go over the IT guy's head and take it up with management so that he gets the kick in/up his ass that he deserves. The article author is wielding an overdeveloped sense of pride like an amphetamine hyped scalpel. He clearly assumes that his knowledge and intelligence rival that of the silly IT staff that don't understand his needs yet doesn't understand enough of the basic principles of IT that he is offended when IT asks him for admin privileges to the machine that he connected to the network.

If you think you have a bright idea for IT, bring the idea through the proper channels...

The current system of taxing vehicles based upon their value is ass-backwards. A brand new mini-cooper has less of an impact on the roads and the environment then a 10 year old suburban. Also, a person who drives 8,000 miles a year shouldn't be paying the same automotive taxes as a person who drives 30,000 miles a year. This is why I've thought that increasing taxes on gasoline would make a lot of sense.

I assume that there are commercial challenges/implications to doing this (although Europe doesn't seem to have a problem working these issues through) so that is why I assume they are now looking at electronic metering. I don't want any government devices tracking me (even if it is just an odometer).

In any case, tracking miles traveled doesn't address wear and tear and roads (i.e. heavier cars = presumably more wear 'n tear) and the need to promote fuel efficiency. This is why I still think taxing gas provides a better reward/punishment system without the privacy (and cost) implications of a tracking system.

Yup. The tin foil hat brigade won this round... :)

My recollection is that to have a full account w/ paypal that you need to link it to your checking account. I don't blame people for finding this to be scary -- but I guess the idea is that paypal reserves the right to try and "take back" funds from your accounts if there is a dispute. While I find this distasteful, I don't think that this has anything to do with Bradley Manning..

I have a static IP and I've ran into variants of this problem before. My ISP started implementing port 25 filtering (which is a good thing IMHO) but they set up a process by which you could exclude yourself. I think their process included some automated checks to make sure you were well behaved (i.e. not an open relay).

I've had my emails rejected before because I my static IPs were being classified as dynamic IPs by a RBL. It was a while ago so I forgot what hoops I had to jump through, but I eventually got it straightened out.

Agreed... this article doesn't really say anything that is interesting and the article summary may just be making much about a quote taken out of context or that is incomplete...

In that situation, I'd suggest:

Acquire the skills through a contract based relationship. Pay someone (or company) a very high $/hr rate so you can immediately get work done in the subject area needed. At the same time, make arrangements for your senior in-house talent to begin acquiring the skills (for example - involve them in the project so they are sitting w/ the contract resources).

Hiring someone fresh out of school and paying them $$$ more than your senior developer isn't going to work. The HR issues described in this article are significant, deep/impactful, and will easily have consequences beyond this single project.

Your staff understands that IT management will regularly look for people outside the organization to fill niche roles (i.e. you may need to hire an Exchange 2010 consultant to help you with the ugprade even if you have a decent "jack of all trades" admin in place). They know that consultants typically are well paid but that they won't be around long.

If the team members can't pick up the skills (i.e. the candidate is truly extraordinary or the skills are that niche), then things may be different ...

BTW - reading between the lines of this story gives me the feeling that the developers in question were not keeping their skill sets polished and that this may be a bigger root problem that needs to be addressed. If the organization's developers are all client-server and the organization thinks its going to need web/mobile/etc developers then it needs to send the message to its developers that they need to acquire the appropriate skills, give them the opportunity to do so (i.e. training, work projects, etc), and get rid of them and replace them with people who are committed to evolving with the technology.

Performing sysadmin functions from a phone is far from ideal and its much more likely the sort of thing we want to be able to do (because getting it working seems "fun"), but having a tool in your belt for when the sh*t really hits the fan and you aren't near a computer or a laptop is a good idea.