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Comment CIT sucks, not Cornell (Score 0, Offtopic) 91

I was one of the 45,000. And although I agree that CIT is one of the most incompetent IT staffs I have ever come into contact with, keep in mind that CIT's actions do not necessarily reflect the knowledge of the general student body. I know plenty of freshmen who know more about computers than the CIT staff. It's frustrating when you call the IT department and then YOU have to explain to THEM how to fix the problem you're having with your internet connection.

So for all of you bashing Cornell: going to Cornell won't mean that you learn less about computers and security because of the IT staff being dumb. Knowledge of IT staff does not equal quality of classes when the selection process for hiring those staff members is as bad as it is. On top of that, most of the people who should be IT staff don't want to be. And at any school you'll have problems with the administration or the staff being incompetent in some way, that's just how it works.
The Internet

UK Government Abandons Piracy Legislation 155

arcticstoat writes "Following last year's reports of a scheme to 'ban' pirates from the Internet via ISPs in the UK, it looks as though the UK government has now decided to back down on the plan, saying that it hopes it won't have to apply 'the heavy hand of legislation'. The UK's Intellectual Property Minister, David Lammy, said that 'I'm not sure it's actually going to be possible,' as a result of the complexities of enforcing such legislation. Lammy also revealed that he had a different opinion on file sharers than many people in the music industry. He pointed out that there's a big difference between organized counterfeiting gangs and 'younger people not quite buying into the system'. He added that 'we can't have a system where we're talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms. People can rent a room in an hotel and leave with a bar of soap — there's a big difference between leaving with a bar of soap and leaving with the television.'"
The Internet

The Internet Is 'Built Wrong' 452

An anonymous reader writes "API Lead at Twitter, Alex Payne, writes today that the Internet was 'built wrong,' and continues to be accepted as an inferior system, due to a software engineering philosophy called Worse Is Better. 'We now know, for example, that IPv4 won't scale to the projected size of the future Internet. We know too that near-universal deployment of technologies with inadequate security and trust models, like SMTP, can mean millions if not billions lost to electronic crime, defensive measures, and reduced productivity,' says Payne, who calls for a 'content-centric approach to networking.' Payne doesn't mention, however, that his own system, Twitter, was built wrong and is consistently down."

Comment Firefighting? (Score 1) 395

There was a book I read once about firefighting. It, too, involved seek-and-destroy-style robots. Mechanical hounds with hypodermic needles filled with a powerful local sedative, if I remember correctly. And the authorities had lots of fun filming the hunt for a man who wanted nothing more than to read a few books. They even killed an innocent bystander when they lost him and didn't want to admit their loss on public television. Fahrenheit 451, remember that one?
GUI

iGoogle Users Irate About Portal's Changes 321

bhhenry sends in an InformationWeek report on a recent unannounced change in the iGoogle portal. Quoting: "Google insists that its revised iGoogle personalized home page generates better 'happiness metrics' than the old design, but a vocal group of users isn't happy about the changes." The recent change introduces what Google refers to as "canvas view," which the Official Google Blog claims "... makes iGoogle a more useful homepage and a better platform for developers." Unlike the last major change made to Gmail, there is no option to revert to the old version of iGoogle. iGoogle users are reporting that widgets and themes are broken, Gmail attachments don't work, and valuable screen space is wasted. The Personalizing Google section of Google Groups is full of thousands of complaints about this sudden and unannounced change. Many posters have have stated that they are using the Canadian or UK version of iGoogle or even moving to NetVibes.com to get their preferred layout back. It seems that Google and Yahoo are moving in lockstep in springing forced changes that users hate.

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