I've been a great admirer of Tom Standage for a number of years--and highly recommend his book _The Victorian Internet_ that describes parallels between the head-in-the-ground reactions to the invention and growth of the telegraph during the mid-19th century to that of the Internet in the late 20th century.
I have to think Standage recognizes the dissonance of his remarks, but finds himself in the role of corporate spokesperson for a magazine whose editors don't quite get the irony yet.
Of course the policies of the Economist only serve to hurt the Economist. (Don't they have an SEO consultant on staff?). And to say "we aren't going to do X because everyone else does X" is bullshit. What they are really saying is "you can get quality elsewhere; our product is for the consumer who doesn't want quality."
I used to work for a company you all have heard of. (Check my LinkedIn profile if you really care which one.) Back in the day (October 1989) our Bay Area office was destroyed by an earthquake you may also have heard about. Live and backup data within the office was destroyed. The policy at the time (now policy is very different) was not to rely on any local offsite backup facility as that could just as easily be destroyed by a quake. Rather, the office had a deal with a taxi driver to come every evening after daily backups and carry around a copy in the trunk of his cab. Next night he'd be back to swap disk packs and would carry the new copy.
The office recovered from the quake using data from the disk packs in his cab.
As to Tim's post: I'm a Democrat who has supported Obama from early on (though break with him on several issues of BestNetTech focus). Despite my general support, I agree with everything Tim wrote--something does not smell right here. They do need to recover those emails no matter what is on them.
The phrase "if you see something, say something" should be borrowed by the community on the lookout for over-zealous IP ownership claims and become a standard tool of the trade.
"So when Chief Justice Roberts suggests that a person carrying two cell phones might reasonably be suspected of dealing drugs..."
My wife carries two cell phones: a personal one with a number she's had as long as I've known her; and a Blackberry her employer provided and requires she carry.
I have been an Obama voter and fan all along, so it is completely beyond me to understand how he has ended up in charge of this Kafkaesque government we seem to currently have.
As Mike pointed out, this is correlation, not causation. And it is not at all unusual that Representatives vote more or less aligned with the lobbies that support them: most all representatives and all lobbies.
The system may be broken, but there isn't anything sinister beyond that going on here.
1. In this case the IP addresses are being triangulated with significant additional information; and
2. The security expert (Neville) was careful to note that one can't say for sure the user was John Steele; rather that it was someone who had access to his accounts (several of which were accessed from the same IP address.)
I note the "Overreaction Department" tag line on the post.
The firm is taking very reasonable steps to protect their data (and their clients' data). Agreed the security risk is the employee, not the technology. But they rightly recognize that no amount of training will completely eliminate employees mistakes, especially since the scammers keep inventing new ruses.
And the firm is taking the reasonable step of mounting a new network outside their firewall to support employee access to personal accounts. So the firm isn't trying to wall off access completely during the workday, an action that would be problematic on several dimensions.
I'd say the overreaction here is on the part of our poster, not on the part of the law firm.
Not only does one lose out on the airline looking out for you with delayed flights (as was mentioned on Twitter to Mike), but I suspect there are a few other losses as well.
1. If you do have to re-book do to missed flights or change of plans, you would get hit with a separate change fee for each leg.
2. My recollection from doing the separate leg thing in the past we that I couldn't get them to check my bags all the way through.
I was separately buying legs of a contiguous trip. Mike seems to be buying legs with stopovers, so this constraint wouldn't apply to him.
Rick rolled?
Obviously, the sign is a very well-played third party prank.
Re: Cuba
I have a son named Cuba. Complications for him is the first thing I thought of.
Not a huge fan
Since this commenting system doesn't permit me to insert images, I made my political and satirical response my profile image.
a Victorian attitude toward the Internet
I've been a great admirer of Tom Standage for a number of years--and highly recommend his book _The Victorian Internet_ that describes parallels between the head-in-the-ground reactions to the invention and growth of the telegraph during the mid-19th century to that of the Internet in the late 20th century.
I have to think Standage recognizes the dissonance of his remarks, but finds himself in the role of corporate spokesperson for a magazine whose editors don't quite get the irony yet.
Of course the policies of the Economist only serve to hurt the Economist. (Don't they have an SEO consultant on staff?). And to say "we aren't going to do X because everyone else does X" is bullshit. What they are really saying is "you can get quality elsewhere; our product is for the consumer who doesn't want quality."
That approach never works in the long term.
Mendoza Line
If "New Coke" is the Mendoza Line of marketing stupidity, this is a notch beyond that catastrophe.
I sure hope they can field.
World's second oldest profession?
So Scott Brown can't legally lobby. But he can use his connections to drum up lobbying business for Nixon Peabody.
So that means he is pimping lobbyists.
Perhaps it will clarify things if Lessig explains it this way.
Backups. We don't need no stinkin' backups.
I used to work for a company you all have heard of. (Check my LinkedIn profile if you really care which one.) Back in the day (October 1989) our Bay Area office was destroyed by an earthquake you may also have heard about. Live and backup data within the office was destroyed. The policy at the time (now policy is very different) was not to rely on any local offsite backup facility as that could just as easily be destroyed by a quake. Rather, the office had a deal with a taxi driver to come every evening after daily backups and carry around a copy in the trunk of his cab. Next night he'd be back to swap disk packs and would carry the new copy.
The office recovered from the quake using data from the disk packs in his cab.
As to Tim's post: I'm a Democrat who has supported Obama from early on (though break with him on several issues of BestNetTech focus). Despite my general support, I agree with everything Tim wrote--something does not smell right here. They do need to recover those emails no matter what is on them.
This is something
The phrase "if you see something, say something" should be borrowed by the community on the lookout for over-zealous IP ownership claims and become a standard tool of the trade.
Facebook
Jurors aren't supposed to friend other jurors on Facebook? What's the logic behind that?
This remark is just ignorant
My wife carries two cell phones: a personal one with a number she's had as long as I've known her; and a Blackberry her employer provided and requires she carry.
Her employer? The US Federal Government.
Suspension of the rules
If I remember correctly from time I worked in the House, bills scheduled on the suspension calendar are unamendable on the House floor.
Missed the Target
I had no idea Target sells CDs. I guess it makes sense they do, though.
But so what they don't carry this one; so much easier to pre-order from Amazon anyway and just have it show up at my door.
Re:
CHAOS is probably the better name.
Re:
Yes. Just as they did with the investment banking sector.
Re: Treason
I logged in to say this as well.
I have been an Obama voter and fan all along, so it is completely beyond me to understand how he has ended up in charge of this Kafkaesque government we seem to currently have.
Correlation
As Mike pointed out, this is correlation, not causation. And it is not at all unusual that Representatives vote more or less aligned with the lobbies that support them: most all representatives and all lobbies.
The system may be broken, but there isn't anything sinister beyond that going on here.
Sometimes it's a fine line between the two...
Staffer? I think it more likely this was drafted by a lobbyist.
Re:
Two things, Mr. Coward,
1. In this case the IP addresses are being triangulated with significant additional information; and
2. The security expert (Neville) was careful to note that one can't say for sure the user was John Steele; rather that it was someone who had access to his accounts (several of which were accessed from the same IP address.)
Comment from the Irony Department
I note the "Overreaction Department" tag line on the post.
The firm is taking very reasonable steps to protect their data (and their clients' data). Agreed the security risk is the employee, not the technology. But they rightly recognize that no amount of training will completely eliminate employees mistakes, especially since the scammers keep inventing new ruses.
And the firm is taking the reasonable step of mounting a new network outside their firewall to support employee access to personal accounts. So the firm isn't trying to wall off access completely during the workday, an action that would be problematic on several dimensions.
I'd say the overreaction here is on the part of our poster, not on the part of the law firm.
Two other disadvantages of separate leg bookings
Not only does one lose out on the airline looking out for you with delayed flights (as was mentioned on Twitter to Mike), but I suspect there are a few other losses as well.
1. If you do have to re-book do to missed flights or change of plans, you would get hit with a separate change fee for each leg.
2. My recollection from doing the separate leg thing in the past we that I couldn't get them to check my bags all the way through.
I was separately buying legs of a contiguous trip. Mike seems to be buying legs with stopovers, so this constraint wouldn't apply to him.