Unless I missed it.. the article doesn't seem to mention WHY they want to see what's behind the 50character password. What does his hard drive contain that's so bloody important?

> "Maybe if he catches enough reckless drivers..." Not sure how that's possible. Private citizens don't have any power to "enforce" traffic laws. Even if all he did was record camera-radar evidence.. he'd have to submit it to the local Gov to get them to enforce it, and it seems like they've already proven themselves incompetent to enforce it. So, I'm not sure what the solution is here. At some point/level, you HAVE to get the local government to either cooperate or be competent at producing a solution to the problem. In a city of millions, private citizens don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of micro-managing traffic.

That's been my experience (relying on Combofix as my favorite/first scanner)... up until about a month ago, we started seeing rootkits and malware infections that were significantly more complex and sophisticated than anything I've ever seen. I've got 2 systems on my bench right now that are infected with some sort of MBR (Master Boot Record) rootkit. I've thrown every utility I can possibly find at them and not made much forward progress at all. Avira AntiVir Rescue CD seems to have gotten me a foothold (allowing me to identify hidden files).. although I had to use another custom BartsPE bootable CD to delete those files. .... GMER is also a very valuable rootkit detector, and their MBR.exe utility is a lifesaver.

The biggest hurdle I've always run into while trying to build "community" at work.... is getting everyone to genuinely be interested in the same goal (of "building community"). You've got people of different ages, different technical education levels, different cultural backgrounds,etc,etc.... trying to get them all to agree and actively participate in a shared-goal of community building.. will be difficult. I think this is probably why you see the most popular answers/solutions in this thread revolve around: 1.) alcohol.. and 2.) Food.. .and sometimes 3.) breakrooms (casual environments) and video games. Because those simple solutions have less possibility of "going wrong" (although they definitely still can). Without knowing your company personally.. I think its going to be hard for us to give good practical effective advice. Depending on the size of your company, you may just want to sit back (as others in this thread have suggested) and let the social groups form themselves (and humans are naturally bent to do) without trying to force it to much. I'd have to agree with the popular opinion that the best you can hope for is seeding the ground and simply trying to encourage potential (instead of forcing community on people).

My previous job was in a K-12, and my current job is in a municipal city gov.... in both cases, I use my own money to buy the small things I need (office supplies, paper towels, Flash Drives, etc). The main reason is because if I buy it myself, I get exactly what I want, and I get it as soon as I need it. If I use the "official" process of using my purchase card or writing a Purchase Order.. it could takes weeks and multiple copies of paperwork to approve something simple. I (and more importantly the people I provide support to) don't have time for inefficient bureaucratic processes.

> "Because almost everyone that 'likes' the iPhone is blindly following the popular crowd and not actually evaluating how crappy the phone is for themselves." Hyperbole much?.... I like my iPhone..I'm not "blindly following" anyone. I use it for basic stuff (phone calls, SMS, Twitter/Facebook and websurfing).. and it does all of those things pretty much flawlessly. (I've been a Windows guy for almost 20yrs )

> "but the simple fact is that it is common for competent programmers to lack the requisite communication skills for writing useful documentation." I'd be willing to argue that "lacking the requisite communication skills" would negate the title of "competent programmer". Yes.. I realize programming skill(s) and documentation skill(s) are two different arenas.. and being a great programmer does not necessarily mean you are naturally great at documentation. However---- it would be my opinion that part of your job as a programmer should be an ability to explain and describe what you've done - in such a manner that a lesser skilled person can follow/understand. How's that old saying go: "The only way to really know something - is to teach it to someone else."

I see your point (No, I'm not parent-commenter) .....BUT it reminds me of the old adage: "Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should." Is it great that Linux is free and anyone can modify or create a new Distro to suit their exact needs?.. Yes.. thats awesome and I support it fully. Does that freedom mean that we need 400 different Linux distrubutions? (I don't think so). It's the same logic you could apply to Government. If you want to make Government something that people actually like and want to get involved in--- you focus on making LESS laws, not MORE laws. Linux is the same way. If the Linux crowd ever wants to be "king of the (desktop) hill" (which seems to be the nut they wanna crack).. then they need to make things more streamlined and less confusing. If you are a younger member of the Linux crowd, I urge you to pick a project already in development - and help make it better.. instead of adding some new project.

There used to be a time when I believed that...... but I've stopped. One of the biggest reasons why is I spent 3 years working in a K-12 school district where (as you can imagine) the resources were low (to non-existent) and the challenges/demands placed daily upon me were "impossible". I learned rather quickly that if I was ever going to hope to keep things running there - that I had to spend part of my time each day educating users about prevention issues. On any given day I would talk to computer-illiterate (and sometimes english-illiterate) users from Janitors and cafeteria workers.. to teachers (any grade K-12).. to finance officers, administrators and super-superintendents. All of them had different knowledge levels.. but if you adapt the way you communicate to each person, and spend just a little time educating them about how safe computing practices will save the School District money and make their lives easier----most of them WILL listen. The only things that are "impossible" are the things you've already made up your mind "can't be done".

I had a system last week infected with "Windows Police Pro"... I was able to remove it in about an hour.... (not easy.. but also not difficult - just using the combination of tools I mentioned above).. and got the User back up and working. *shrug* I don't claim to be a "genius"... but I do have years of experience.. and I've been doing IT Admin/support for long enough that my intuition (about how a system is behaving) is usually correct.. and I can be pretty effective when I'm "in the zone".

In the organization I work for.. we are using Mcafee VirusScan Enterprise + AntiSpyware Enterprise 8.5.0i....... I've noticed (almost on a weekly basis).. machines infected with various kinds of spyware (antivirus2009, AlphaAV, and other names) and Mcafee seems incompetently clueless about detecting it. If I install MalwareBytes on the box.. and start a "Full Scan" (using MalwareBytes)... as it goes through touching files on the hard drive only THEN does Mcafee popup and say "Hey, you are infected with XXX " I don't know WHY that is... we seem to have the current Mcafee scan engine and dat files... I chalk it up to corporate level antivirus just not being able to keep up with the fastpaced changes to spyware. I decided to never rely on a single protection product. If I suspect a machine is acting weird (even if it does have up to date Antivirus).. I scan it with Malwarebytes and NOD32's free online scan. I don't think this is strictly a fault with Mcafee.. I think any tool used by itself will miss something... thats why a combination approach is best. (and hey.. if you do some testing and can find patterns of Mcafee not fully protecting you - that might be ammo/fodder to go back to your bosses (or Mcafee rep) and push some buttons.

"almost impossible" = hyperbole Antivirus2009 is actually pretty easy to remove (relatively speaking, when compared to other modern spywares and rootkits). In fact, in many coworkers machines, if they hands-off the keyboard/mouse fast enough (dont click on any popups)... all you really have to do is reboot the computer. (of course, I still do scans with multiple tools just to make sure its clean). Using a combination of tools (Malwarebytes, Spybot S&D, GMER, NOD32 online scan,etc... I've found I can clean almost 100% of machines with no ill after effects)

Over the years I've also spent quite a bit of time on social sites like Slashdot, Fark, Metafilter, Digg,etc.... but now spend the majority of my time on Reddit. I actually like the design (its simple, efficient and useful). But the beauty of Reddit is the organized structure of the sub-reddits. If I'm short for time, i can just quickly browse the frontpage. If I have more time, I can browse my favorite sub-reddits where people know me. The commenting system is easy on the eyes and easy to follow. and the userbase is a nice balance of attitudes.