When outsourcing IT (I can't talk about other business functions), it has often been that not only does the lowest bidder wins, but the C-Suite then wash their hands of IT and consider the job done.

And that's the kicker.

What comes back to hurt the company in the end is:
- IT often is the only record of business knowledge accross business functions (eg, the how and why things are done. Often, the company is in such a rush to demonstrate the unicorn-like savings that the IT are out before the new guys come in.
- New requirements cost money. No external provider is going to do something that costs money or takes more time for free. Suddenly C-suite farts into a bottle cost actual money, so don't get implemented. Sadly, new requirements like challenge-response identity verification (secret questions), get left of the table.
- Performance metrics, as measured externally (to the service provider) cost money, and rely on someone knowing (a) what to measure (b) how to measure it and (c) how that relates to the service provided. So, see all of above, mostly doesn't get done.

Sigh. IT Outsourcing is a great way to bring in skills in the short term. It can even take over specific functions. But you need to retain internal control with someone that knows what the service delivers. It is never going to serve a business well to outsource the whole function.

To summarise the summary: You need to pay the going rate for someone that cares and goes a good job, or you are going to have a lot of grief. Pay peanuts, get hacked.

Truth is : Petro-Dollars.

Price for barrels of oil traded in $US. I read that the real reason for the gulf war wasnâ(TM)t WoMD but rather that Iraq was threatening to trade in Petroleum-Euros instead. Might even be true.

Now, if BRICS or another consortium of countries start trading in another currency, the $US-peso will crash.

25 minutes of ads means I wonâ(TM)t ever set foot in a cinema again.

I think you'll find that indentured servitude is necessary for the health of the nation. Previously, it was based on skin colour. Now, it is a self-selcting voluntary group, which is morally, far superior way of doing it.

There are three basic Huxley-like categories.

1 - Those that volunteer to be educated, basically, the Alphas. These types go to school and have a good time for 3 - 5 years. There are obviously nepo-babies that can skip the queues and need not worry about money (and never would have anyway). Then there are those that sell their souls to get in and worse to pay for the education.

Should they make it to the end, they get to donate 10 to 20 years hard labour to pay for debts and another 20 to 30 living in fear of not having health insurance.

2 - Then there are those that are the Betas. For them, there is the military, or increasingly rarely, the cadet branch of the clergy. Dodge bullets and nukes for a number years and if they make it out with all body parts intact, can skip a few of the less important queues. Furthering the aims of the political classes is a great sacrifice. I mean, who wouldn't jump at the chance to serve the King of Mine's a Lager (sic)?

3 - Finally, those that grow up really poor, and don't even make it through the 7 to 10 years of state enforced mis-education, get to sell drugs. Or be Police. The Epsilons. These guys keep the wheels of commerce moving, while taking care of the other members of the proletariat. Keeping them afraid and asleep. It would be a tragedy for the political classes is the proles were to discover their strength and rise up and seize the billionaires yachts, private planes and other means of production.

Only with these three classes can the proper aims of your lords and masters be fulfilled. Remember, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength and War is Peace.

At least, this might crack down on a bunch of shadow IT. We've all seen it, users link up free/paid solution that are off ITs supported roadmap. Put on the departmental credit card.

Then it breaks and they turn to IT to fix it. And all the compliance and security risks that brings. (If its your personal data, find, go nuts. Company data, less so).

Now it will probably need to be raised to Administrators, so they can say things like "What? Why? When?" and "You're fire-trucking kidding me, right?"

However, as others have pointed out, a little open standards would be a good thing.

Also note that just because it isn't Microsoft, doesn't mean its good. It could be, but nah. All of the big 3 (AWS, Azure and Google) have proprietary extensions on top of open source/standards - look great, until its time to move. Then you are in a jail of your own making.

MS may not be the least worst, but it isn't the most least worst either. (Ok, can I take my pill and coffee now, I need to wake up? I picked the wrong day to quit drinking coffee)

At least in the UK, there is the legal assumption that a computer cannot make mistakes. It is rebuttable in court, but the onus would be on the accused.

Which is of course, a load of fetid dingo's kidneys. This type of presumption lead to the Post Office scandal.

Time for this presumption to go the way of the dodo.

Of course, yeah, UK or no, or Australia, NZ, RSA or just about anywhere, but especially in the US, I'd go directly to an ambulance chasing lawyer. Hopefully a good one. Who smells a fat fee for a reasonable comission.

It certainly might help if the hacker groups were named something like
Pimply ballsack group
Small penis brigade
Lumpy vagina team
Instead of coolish nicknames, like cozy bear.

Or a Fez. Fezs are cool.

But ⦠but, isnâ(TM)t it like this?

âoeIf you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fearâ.

"If Windows was so bad and insecure then why does corporate America use and trust to secure their data and run their apps?"

Because of a committent to backwards compatibility. So long as one doesn't jump of MS fad of the week, Windows programs just keep working. (ok mostly, but not always).

VB for Applications (some monster Excel or Access program) mostly just work between versions. And compiled apps.

So a one time investment in Line of Business apps can deliver value of multiple decades.

(Yes, there are exceptions, 16 bit apps no longer work in 64 bit Windows, for example, but probably can be ported easily. Relying on a specific framework will probably mean unsupported at one point as well).

As Yoda might say "The Corporate World USES Windows, but trust, it does not*

More scarily, the President could probably say "you can do what you want to any court deputies, just stop them, do what you have to, I'll pardon you". All legal protections for anyone acting on behalf of the court count for very little against an armed mob protected by presidential immunity.

It will be economics that does this president in. The masses (via pensions) and the 1% haven't started to feel the stock market pressure ... yet. Stock market down leads to lack of confidence, less investment, less jobs, leading to declining property prices ... and so on. Give it 6 months and most Blue Tie and Red Tie politicians start to look at the mid-terms. Only then might they grow balls.

This is the foot in the door to the end of offline backups.

Backups that are on your own PC hardware, that you control.

Backup your device? That will be 20 beer tokens a month payable to Apple.

No need to let Big AI steal from copyrighted material (mostly Big Hollywood).

Big Hollywood (looking especially sideways at you, house of mouse), been stealing from Public Domain for years. Go to the source and skip the middleman.

Of course stealing from Public Domain and stopping new works from entering Public Domain, but I digress.

Can we just ... leave them there?

I mean, its not like we will be any worse off without these parasites on earth?

Damn