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IT

Submission + - Your IT Infrastructure: A House of Cards (infoworld.com)

snydeq writes: "Deep End's Paul Venezia takes up a topic many IT pros face: 'When you've attached enough Band-Aids to the corpus that it's more bandage than not, isn't it time to start over?' The constant need to apply temporary fixes that end up becoming permanent are fast pushing many IT infrastructures beyond repair. Much of the blame falls on the products IT has to deal with. 'As processors have become faster and RAM cheaper, the software vendors have opted to dress up new versions in eye candy and limited-use features rather than concentrate on the foundation of the application. To their credit, code that was written to run on a Pentium-II 300MHz CPU will fly on modern hardware, but that code was also written to interact with a completely different set of OS dependencies, problems, and libraries. Yes, it might function on modern hardware, but not without more than a few Band-Aids to attach it to modern operating systems,' Venezia writes. And yet breaking this 'vicious cycle of bad ideas and worse implementations' by wiping the slate clean is no easy task. Especially when the need for kludges isn't apparent until the software is in the process of being implemented. 'Generally it's too late to change course at that point.'"
Patents

Submission + - Nero Files Antitrust Case Against MPEG-LA (osnews.com) 1

hkmwbz writes: German technology company Nero AG has filed an antitrust complaint against the MPEG-LA, the company that manages the H.264 patent pool. Nero claims that the MPEG-LA has violated the law and achieved and abused 100% market share, by, among other things, using "independent experts" that weren't independent after all, not weeding out non-essential patents from the pool (in fact, it has grown from the original 53 to more than 1000), and retroactively changing previously agreed on license terms. The MPEG-LA is run by patent trolls, so the group's behavior is not entirely unexpected.
Technology

Submission + - HP Explains Why Printer Ink Is So Expensive (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: 'There's a perception that [printer] ink is one of the most expensive substances in the world,' says Thom Brown, marketing manager at HP. Well, yeah, writes Robert Mitchell. One might get that feeling walking out of a store having spent $35 for a single ink cartridge that appears to contain fewer fluid ounces of product than a Heinz ketchup packet. Brown was ready to explain. He presented a series of PowerPoint slides aptly titled 'Why is printer ink so expensive?' I was ready for answers. The key point in a nutshell: Ink technology is expensive, and you pay for reliability and image quality. 'These liquids are completely different from a technology standpoint,' Brown says, adding that users concerned about cost per page can buy 'XL' ink cartridges from HP that last two to three times longer. (Competitors do the same). The message: You get value for the money. No getting around it though: Ink is still expensive, particularly if you have to use that ink jet printer for black and white text pages.
Privacy

Submission + - Why Online Privacy Is Broken (threatpost.com)

Trailrunner7 writes: One of the more trite and oft-repeated maxims in the software industry goes something like this: We're not focusing on security because our customers aren't asking for it. They want features and functionality. When they ask for security, then we'll worry about it. Not only is this philosophy doomed to failure, it's now being repeated in the realm of privacy, with potentially disastrous effects. A quick search of recent news on the privacy front reveals that just about all of it is bad. Facebook is exposing users' live chat sessions and other data to third parties. Google is caught recording not only MAC address and SSID information from public Wi-Fi hotspots, but storing data from the networks, as well.

But the prevailing attitude among corporate executives in these cases seems to be summed up by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who famously said this not too long ago: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
If you look beyond the patent absurdity of Schmidt's statement for a minute, you'll find another old maxim hiding underneath: Blame the user.

You want privacy? Don't use our search engine/photo software/email application/maps. That's our data now, thank you very much. Oh, you don't want your private chats exposed to the world? Sorry, you never told us that.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Xbox 360 for one of my Slashdot friends 3

Hi all.

I have an extra Xbox 360 Core system that I would rather sell to one of my Slashdot friends than some random dude on an auction site.

Email your best offer in the $700 range to me at upstandingpatriot@yahoo.com

I also request that whoever gets it from me sends a pic back of you or your kid playing it so I get some joy out of the hours I stood waiting in line in the cold while sick :)

Comment How can you think about this NOW?! (Score -1, Offtopic) 370

User Journal

Journal Journal: TGIF 2

I hope your Friday is going well!

User Journal

Journal Journal: Damn Slashdot janitors 1

For some reason the janitors have my home IP or subnet blocked from posting comments so I was unable to comment and participate in the MNF pick'em last nite.

Instructions: Post a comment below expressing your disgust with a particular way this site is run

User Journal

Journal Journal: Winner of this week's NFL pick'em & Pick'em for MNF tonite! 1

Work Account (that is me) won this week's NFL pick'em challenge 6-4, besting the 2nd place finisher ShadowWrought.

Pick'em for tonite's Monday Night Football game but be sure to include the total # of points scored. Whoever picks the winning team and has the point total closest to the real total (going over is OK, this is not the Price Is Right) wins.

Monday, October 31, 2005
9:00 pm
Baltimore 2-4
Pittsburgh 4-2

User Journal

Journal Journal: Pick 10 NFL teams to win this weekend 2

Comment below before 1pm Eastern time on Sunday October 30th with 10 teams you think will win.

That is, out of the 13 Sunday games listed below, pick who you think will win in 10 out of the 13 games.

The Slashdotter with the highest % of being correct wins!

I'll announce the winner Monday morning!

All times are US/Eastern

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