chamilto0516 - Slashdot User

Comment Sad by understandable (Score 5, Insightful) 127

by chamilto0516 on Tuesday October 06, 2009 @08:16AM (#29655429) Attached to: Thawte Will End "Web of Trust" On November 16

This saddens me but I understand it. Adoption of PKI for email in this multi-standard, multi-client fashion was just too difficult for the average email user. Yes, I usually have one or two accounts for secure messaging and I do use Thawte (I am a Notary) but it just doesn't work for most unless there is someone to walk them through. As much as I am aggravated by Lotus Notes, they self contained system (part of my aggravation) was able to pull this off 10 years ago and is still really the only app that I have seen do PKI well. Unfortunately it doesn't do a lot of other things very well.

The Right Amount of "Challenge" In IT & Gaming 103

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday August 11, 2009 @08:08AM from the inversely-proportional dept.

boyko.at.netqos writes "In an essay entitled 'An Epiphany I Had While Playing Pac-Man,' the author talks about how smart people need to find a certain amount of intellectual challenge from day to day. If they don't find it in their workplace, they'll end up playing complex, 'smart' games, like Civilization IV or Chess — and if they do find it in their workplace, they're more likely to sit down with a nice game of Pac-Man, Katamari Damacy, or Peggle. Quoting: 'When I look back on my life, and I compare the times in my life when I was playing simple games compared to the times in my life when I was playing complex ones, a pattern emerges. The more complexity and mental stimulation I was getting from other activities — usually my day job at the time — the less I needed mental stimulation in my free time. Conversely, in times when I was working boring jobs, I'd be playing games that required a lot of thinking and mental gymnastics.' The author then goes on to speculate that some IT workers might subconsciously be giving themselves more challenges by choosing to deal with difficult problems, rather than performing simple (but boring) preventative maintenance and proactive network management."

Journal Journal: Mouseovers - as bad as popups? 8

Journal by fyngyrz on Sunday September 30, 2007 @08:26PM

Is anyone else as annoyed as I am by words and phrases in web articles that pop up boxes because my mouse pointer happened to cross them, temporarily hiding the content I was reading in the first place? I didn't click on anything, and consequently, I don't want a context change. I find these annoying to the point of noting what the site is and not going back. Anyone else feel the same? Anyone have a defense of the practice?

Submission + - US copying laptop hard disks+password upon entry

Submitted by

Flo

on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:25PM

Flo writes: "According to Fefe, a German blogger, U.S. officials copy hard disks of laptops upon entry. They even insist on the disclosure of passwords so they can decrypt files. Allegedly they even take people into coercive detention to retrieve the passwords. Fefe's sources are one member of the (German) Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and one employee of SAP. He also claims to have received confirmation for this from "two other large companies"."

Copyright Law Used to Shut Down Site 206

Posted by Hemos on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:22PM from the bad-usage dept.

driptray writes "The Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian mining industry group has used copyright laws to close a website that parodied a coal industry ad campaign. A group known as Rising Tide created the website using the slogan "Rising sea levels: brought to you by mining" in response to the mining industry's slogan of "Life: brought to you by mining". The mining industry claimed that the "content and layout" of the parody site infringed copyright, but when Rising Tide removed the copyrighted photos and changed the layout, the mining industry still lodged a complaint. Is this a misuse of copyright law in order to stifle dissent?"

Submission + - Using the Web to Get the Boss to Pay More

Submitted by

Arun Jacob

on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:19PM

Arun Jacob writes: "The NYT has an interesting article — Using the Web to Get the Boss to Pay More — on online tools that can help in salary negotiations. Link here (Free registration required).

To summarise, the article talks about the websites that provide information on standard compensation packages for your position and role. Using this information, it should be easier to negotiate your pay with a fact-based approach rather than "feelings-based" approach. The sites profiled are —
Salary.com (Data available only for US)
Payscale.com (International)"

Submission + - Vista Activation crack uses Royalty OEM info.

Submitted by

Panaqqa

on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:08PM

Panaqqa writes: "Well, the keygen for Vista a few days ago turned out to be a hoax, but the Paradox Vista activator posted at keznews.com appears more legitimate. It is a full WGA crack which also allows access to Microsoft Windows updates. Enjoy — for a month or two until the big OEMs respond."

Submission + - Diebold to Withdraw from E-Voting?

Submitted by

ICA

on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:08PM

ICA writes: "It appears after years of criticism, Diebold may be ready to withdraw from electronic voting entirely. The company is concerned that this relatively small and marginally profitable unit is hurting the company's overall image."

Submission + - US Air finds database hard to swallow!

Submitted by bbsguru on Monday March 05, 2007 @11:58AM

bbsguru writes: Anyone who has ever tried to combine two IT departments following a takeover or merger knows a version of this story:

The 2005 merger of US Air and West Holdings Group finally got to the point of combining flight reservations systems, with calamitous results.

FTA: "US Airways' kiosks at Charlotte and four regional hubs couldn't communicate with the reservation network for several hours after the systems were unified as part of a 2005 merger of the two airlines, causing lines and missed flights."

Submission + - Which Is In Most Need Of An Overhaul?

Submitted by

kaellinn18

on Monday March 05, 2007 @11:35AM

kaellinn18 writes: "1) The Patent Process 2) Copyright Law 3) The Election Process 4) Military Hierarchy/Branches 5) CowboyNeal's '86 Ford Escort"

Submission + - You can give this new computer a bath

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday March 05, 2007 @11:32AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Doctors and techies collaborated on a new computer for healthcare workers to use to track patient data, but they can also dunk the thing in a bucket of disinfectant to clean off the germs. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/030507-compu ter-bath.html"

Submission + - Free Solar coming soon or is CitizenRE vaporware?

Submitted by AmericanInKiev on Monday March 05, 2007 @11:30AM

AmericanInKiev writes: CitizenRE is a new Multi-level-marketing concept (or Pyramid Scheme depending on the reader) which promises to install Solar Energy on your roof for FREE. In short you agree to pay the same price for energy as today, and CitizenRE will install a solar system on a rental basis. If this sounds too good to be true, bear in mind they have over 7,000 "customers", 700 "affiliates", but have so far failed to install even a single system. Is this celebrity-backed pyramid scheme the "Moses" that will lead the chosen ones to the promised land and free them from the bonds of evil energy companies and solar installers? or does CitizenRE mark the entrance of faith-based solutions to mitigate the collective guilt of fossil fuel. You decide.

Submission + - E-auction Company Uses Patent to Sue Nashville PD

Submitted by Synistar on Monday March 05, 2007 @10:11AM

Synistar writes: GovDeals, an Ebay-like government auction company, is using a patent that they were awarded on a "tiered method for auctioning government assets over a computerized network, such as the Internet"to sue the Nashville Police Department . Apparently GovDeals was rejected in their bid to become a contractor for the city government. They warned the city that they were in process of obtaining a patent and that the city would be in violation of it if they did not hire GovDeals. When they lost the bid and were awarded the patent they then turned around and sued the Police Department for violating it. So were patents intended as a means to wrangle government contracts and punish those who don't hire you?

Submission + - Why the RIAA is Bad - In a Nutshell

Submitted by

JeremyDuffy

on Monday March 05, 2007 @08:02AM

JeremyDuffy writes: "This is probably the best summary of who the RIAA is and what they stand for that I've ever heard:

The RIAA is like the Prohibitionists of old. In their view, the law cannot allow for something completely reasonable such as legal circumvention because it could be abused. Millions of people are thereby punished. Yet this is not how a civil society typically functions. Life is full of potentially dangerous products, services, and ideas. It's up to individuals to take responsibility for their actions, because we all know that catering to the lowest common denominator does not give birth to a free society, let alone an intelligent one. Yet the RIAA will stop at nothing to make sure that you and I never have the chance to make such decisions for ourselves.
By "legal circumvention", he refers to the the practice of circumventing Data Rights Management (DRM) for legal purposes such as making personal backup copies, educational uses, and other Fair Use practices. The RIAA is against it because they know that all it takes is one user with a DRM-free copy to post a song online for it to be shared everywhere in the world."

Submission + - Wireless Net Neutrality

Submitted by monkey_dongle on Sunday March 04, 2007 @08:24PM

monkey_dongle writes: NPR "On The Media" had an interesting broadcast this weekend about how wireless providers are crippling handsets in order to maintain control over their customers and revenue streams, all at the expense of innovation and lower prices. Columbia University law professor Tim Wu wrote a paper on this issue and presented it to a Federal Trade Commission hearing on Internet access this month.

(NPR OTM-http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2007/03/ 02/04)

(Professor Wu abstract-http://www.timwu.org/log/archives/92)
(Professor Wu paper-http://www.newamerica.net/files/WorkingPaper 17_WirelessNetNeutrality_Wu.pdf)

Also, the Washington Post has a story on this here — http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content /article/2007/02/08/AR2007020802169_pf.html)

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