Do you think this problem would have occurred if a "good tech" was available? Oh, right, companies don't pay for those..."Mordac the preventer of information services" is cheaper.
Several people have said that, and it is meaningless.
The software was locked out of something it needed access to, in order to do its job. Locked out, whether it spends the next 20 minutes saying "Unable to connect to patient; retrying" or simply crashes outright...
...IS NOT RELEVANT TO THE PATIENT. Crash or retry: the patient is equally at risk.
Three courthouses. At least a dozen microphones. Hundreds of hours of recordings. And for what?
"For what?" Are you kidding? Hundreds of hours of privileged attorney-client conversations are hugely valuable, to investigators and prosecutors both. Who knows how many people have been cornered into a conviction by a little "amazing insight" into the crime, followed by a little "parallel construction."
In fact, more and more, I think the prime expertise of a typical investigator today is parallel construction--and a malicious glee in finding new data sources to feed parallel construction.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if all courthouse public areas are recorded now, nationwide, and maybe some private areas as well. Gotta watch out for those terrorists, you know. (And why haven't they already trotted that excuse out? "But judge, we wouldn't want a terrorist to put a bomb in your chambers.")
It's not a matter of Windows. The Therac-25 was using a custom real time OS, and it was involved in six radiation-poisoning accidents.
Software that doesn't recover? Nonsense. Is it really better if the software continues to run while saying, "I can't tell if the patient is dying!" for the next 5 or 10 or 20 minutes?
Automation that runs "whenever". Scans of folders that shouldn't be. Sounds like typical "blanket IT policy" to me. Regardless of what I'm doing, for example, software install will pop up and kindly give me two minutes to shut everything down before the reboot...even if I'm not there.
An accident/near-accident like in the article happens every so often...that a piece of software using Windows (or not Windows) fails or is clobbered by some automated behavior and critical functionality is lost or someone's life endangered. (Cases I can recall on Windows: A software install that endangered a patient in South Africa, I think; a blue screen reboot of a mission-critical device on an aircraft carrier.)
If your software is really critical, it needs to be treated that way. The sad truth is: that is not where we are. No one gives a care about security or reliability...just so long as the software package is secure and reliable enough to make it through the sales demo without crashing. Since no one buying software looks behind the grandiose GUI interface, it's going to stay that way.
So in the end, this case is hardly worth mentioning: "Patient might have died, news at 11." And if not that then, "Hospital settles wrongful death lawsuit, news at 11." Actually, these days, neither event would make the evening news.
...alternate James Holzer admits, "I took this job as a challenge, new heights to climb, new AFOIA requests to ignore, bury, or redact.
"But I quickly I discovered the bureaucracies were already ignoring, burying or redacting all the AFOIA requests. There were no new challenges, no mountains to climb. Frankly, the job is boring. There's nothing to be done."
This is just one small step in the "right direction" for infringement penalties; you can be sure that MPAA and RIAA are hoping and praying for a mandatory death penalty.
Snicker all you like at how lame some sites are at detecting ad blockers. But this is an arms race, and they will get better; prepare to wipe those grins right off your faces.
I get the impression you think that that Digger should simply be found--over Techdirt's unconscious body if needed--and then murdered summarily in a hail of DHS gunfire. With DHS making up the answers to any silly questions afterward.
Because, "It's not right," that DHS be impeded from dealing with Digger straightly: not by lawyers, trial, due process or any of that other law BS; and certainly not by that aggravating First Amendment.
The same place all the conservatives were when Yoo was writing memos justifying torturing people to death, and Bush was signing off on that torture.
Surely liberals are as entitled to ignore atrocities when the sign on the desk says Democrat, just as the conservatives were proud to ignore atrocities committed when the sign on the desk said Republican. "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." -Luke 6:42
At first, I didn't understand the big deal about the comment. I mean, Tea party zealots, free-staters, and other conservative idiots threaten murder and open rebellion all the time and you don't see DHS sending subpoenas for those comments.
I think what's got DHS in a twist is that they suspect Digger is a commie pinko liberal. Those are vastly more dangerous, you know.
No, I know they have some other jobs, generally speaking.
But it seems realistic to think that DoD could find four full-time persons, out of all those 1.34 million, to spend a WHOLE DAY answering each FOIA request. Wouldn't you think?
I mean, just think about it: 240 work days per year per person x 4 persons is 960 requests per year. More than enough for this overwhelming massive surging flood of FOIA requests. So DoD's inability to find four persons to deal with FOIA requests is pretty indicative of their priorities.
Law enforcement agencies have proven more willing to forgive and forget than the private sector, which often refuses to employ ex-cons under any circumstances.
"Ex-con" (ex-convict) usually refers to felony convictions and people who were imprisoned.
He was convicted of a misdemeanor and no jail, so most organizations would not consider him an ex-con. (If misdemeanor convictions make people ex-cons, then they would be unemployable after misdemeanor speeding tickets.)
What is worth thinking about is whether or not a civilian would have gotten the same cushy deal. As I recall, Aaron Swartz was looking at 35 years for no fraud and much less abuse.
There's a very simple fix to all of this: Cable box at cost, under contract terms not to exceed 1/20th the full value monthly for two years.
So, suppose the cable box costs $50. The cable company would sell you the box at $2.50/month for 24 months, after which you pay nothing because the box belongs to you. Would also need controls on the cost of cable boxes.
That way, there's no piracy, because the cable companies control the box used, just like now.
Surely the cable companies would jump on that because it's not like they make a GIGANTIC PROFIT leasing a $50 box to the consumer for $20 a month, indefinitely.
(Realizes: That means that, so far, I've paid about $500 for my $50 box.)
Oh, wait, they do make a GIGANTIC PROFIT leasing a $50 box to the consumer for $20 a month, indefinitely. Never mind. This won't work, they'd hate it, too.
Instead, they're suggesting something more akin to the way defamation law often works, in which the speech is not removed, since that could violate the First Amendment, but you may need to pay for it
Oh, sure, that'll solve it. Right.
Because you know that when an average Joe says something Doofus Corp doesn't like, Doofus Corp is sending a bill for a licensing fee of $30,000--with an alternative of "take it down". An average Joe would never take his "infringing" speech down rather than pay a tiny little bill like that: that's pocket change to an average Joe...oh, wait, no it isn't.
In reality, all that shows is that David Lange and H. Jefferson Powell have their heads up their asses: their proposed restriction on IP law would accomplish nothing but shutting out the average Joes out of the marketplace of ideas.
To start, let's do a little reverse-engineering: 308 requests is 43% of 716, approximately.
So the entire defense department (presumably including the NSA) receives 716 FOIA requests per fiscal year? And this has totally overwhelmed the DoD's 1.34 million employees? With 1,871 employees to process each request?
I always heard government employees were lazy, but even I'm surprised.
On the post: Heart Surgery Stalled For Five Minutes Thanks To Errant Anti-Virus Scan
Re: Mission-Critical Software
Do you think this problem would have occurred if a "good tech" was available? Oh, right, companies don't pay for those..."Mordac the preventer of information services" is cheaper.
On the post: Heart Surgery Stalled For Five Minutes Thanks To Errant Anti-Virus Scan
Re: Re: IT kills - news at 11
The software was locked out of something it needed access to, in order to do its job. Locked out, whether it spends the next 20 minutes saying "Unable to connect to patient; retrying" or simply crashes outright...
...IS NOT RELEVANT TO THE PATIENT. Crash or retry: the patient is equally at risk.
On the post: FBI Found To Be Harvesting Surreptitious Recordings Around Two Other California Courthouses
Parallel construction
"For what?" Are you kidding? Hundreds of hours of privileged attorney-client conversations are hugely valuable, to investigators and prosecutors both. Who knows how many people have been cornered into a conviction by a little "amazing insight" into the crime, followed by a little "parallel construction."
In fact, more and more, I think the prime expertise of a typical investigator today is parallel construction--and a malicious glee in finding new data sources to feed parallel construction.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if all courthouse public areas are recorded now, nationwide, and maybe some private areas as well. Gotta watch out for those terrorists, you know. (And why haven't they already trotted that excuse out? "But judge, we wouldn't want a terrorist to put a bomb in your chambers.")
On the post: Heart Surgery Stalled For Five Minutes Thanks To Errant Anti-Virus Scan
IT kills - news at 11
Software that doesn't recover? Nonsense. Is it really better if the software continues to run while saying, "I can't tell if the patient is dying!" for the next 5 or 10 or 20 minutes?
Automation that runs "whenever". Scans of folders that shouldn't be. Sounds like typical "blanket IT policy" to me. Regardless of what I'm doing, for example, software install will pop up and kindly give me two minutes to shut everything down before the reboot...even if I'm not there.
An accident/near-accident like in the article happens every so often...that a piece of software using Windows (or not Windows) fails or is clobbered by some automated behavior and critical functionality is lost or someone's life endangered. (Cases I can recall on Windows: A software install that endangered a patient in South Africa, I think; a blue screen reboot of a mission-critical device on an aircraft carrier.)
If your software is really critical, it needs to be treated that way. The sad truth is: that is not where we are. No one gives a care about security or reliability...just so long as the software package is secure and reliable enough to make it through the sales demo without crashing. Since no one buying software looks behind the grandiose GUI interface, it's going to stay that way.
So in the end, this case is hardly worth mentioning: "Patient might have died, news at 11." And if not that then, "Hospital settles wrongful death lawsuit, news at 11." Actually, these days, neither event would make the evening news.
On the post: After Only Nine Months On The Job, Administration's New FOIA Boss Calls It Quits
On an alternate Earth...
"But I quickly I discovered the bureaucracies were already ignoring, burying or redacting all the AFOIA requests. There were no new challenges, no mountains to climb. Frankly, the job is boring. There's nothing to be done."
On the post: UK Gov't Pushing For 10-Year Jail Sentences For Copyright Infringement Based On ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One small step
On the post: Reddit's Technology Subreddit Ponders Banning Wired & Forbes For Blocking Adblock Users
Lame ad-blocker detection
On the post: Homeland Security Wants To Subpoena Us Over A Clearly Hyperbolic Techdirt Comment
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Because, "It's not right," that DHS be impeded from dealing with Digger straightly: not by lawyers, trial, due process or any of that other law BS; and certainly not by that aggravating First Amendment.
On the post: Australian Gov't Commission: Copyright Is Copywrong; Hurting The Public And Needs To Be Fixed
Re: News from the FAA
On the post: Obama Administration's Expansion Of Domestic Spying Powers Dwarfs The 'Good Old Days' Of Bush And John Yoo
Re:
Surely liberals are as entitled to ignore atrocities when the sign on the desk says Democrat, just as the conservatives were proud to ignore atrocities committed when the sign on the desk said Republican. "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." -Luke 6:42
On the post: Oregon DOJ Encourages Surveillance Of First Amendment Activities; Acts Surprised When Agents Do Exactly That
Re:
On the post: Homeland Security Wants To Subpoena Us Over A Clearly Hyperbolic Techdirt Comment
Digger....Liberal
I think what's got DHS in a twist is that they suspect Digger is a commie pinko liberal. Those are vastly more dangerous, you know.
On the post: Defense Department Screws Over FOIA Requester Repeatedly, Blames Him For 'Breaking' The FOIA Process
Re: Re: 1871 employees per request
But it seems realistic to think that DoD could find four full-time persons, out of all those 1.34 million, to spend a WHOLE DAY answering each FOIA request. Wouldn't you think?
I mean, just think about it: 240 work days per year per person x 4 persons is 960 requests per year. More than enough for this overwhelming massive surging flood of FOIA requests. So DoD's inability to find four persons to deal with FOIA requests is pretty indicative of their priorities.
On the post: Court Upholds Sentence For Ex-Cop Who Abused Law Enforcement Database Access
Ex-con not so much
He was convicted of a misdemeanor and no jail, so most organizations would not consider him an ex-con. (If misdemeanor convictions make people ex-cons, then they would be unemployable after misdemeanor speeding tickets.)
What is worth thinking about is whether or not a civilian would have gotten the same cushy deal. As I recall, Aaron Swartz was looking at 35 years for no fraud and much less abuse.
On the post: Congress Scolds The FCC For Making The Cable Set Top Box Market More Competitive
Simple fix
So, suppose the cable box costs $50. The cable company would sell you the box at $2.50/month for 24 months, after which you pay nothing because the box belongs to you. Would also need controls on the cost of cable boxes.
That way, there's no piracy, because the cable companies control the box used, just like now.
Surely the cable companies would jump on that because it's not like they make a GIGANTIC PROFIT leasing a $50 box to the consumer for $20 a month, indefinitely.
(Realizes: That means that, so far, I've paid about $500 for my $50 box.)
Oh, wait, they do make a GIGANTIC PROFIT leasing a $50 box to the consumer for $20 a month, indefinitely. Never mind. This won't work, they'd hate it, too.
On the post: Techdirt Reading List: No Law: Intellectual Property In The Image Of An Absolute First Amendment
In small bills, please
Because you know that when an average Joe says something Doofus Corp doesn't like, Doofus Corp is sending a bill for a licensing fee of $30,000--with an alternative of "take it down". An average Joe would never take his "infringing" speech down rather than pay a tiny little bill like that: that's pocket change to an average Joe...oh, wait, no it isn't.
In reality, all that shows is that David Lange and H. Jefferson Powell have their heads up their asses: their proposed restriction on IP law would accomplish nothing but shutting out the average Joes out of the marketplace of ideas.
On the post: Lawsuit: CBP Took $240,000 From Man And Refused To Respond To His Forfeiture Challenge Until It Had Already Processed It
Stealing process
On the post: Defense Department Screws Over FOIA Requester Repeatedly, Blames Him For 'Breaking' The FOIA Process
1871 employees per request
So the entire defense department (presumably including the NSA) receives 716 FOIA requests per fiscal year? And this has totally overwhelmed the DoD's 1.34 million employees? With 1,871 employees to process each request?
I always heard government employees were lazy, but even I'm surprised.
On the post: The Proper Channels For Whistleblowers Are Still A Joke
Re: Way to attract the best talent
On the post: Paper That Couldn't Be Bothered To Report On Local Police Misconduct Fires Off Editorial Insulting Writer Who Actually Did
Re:
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