This holiday, I want to stress the need to give thanks. It isn’t often that we reflect on the past and what was done and we hardly ever look to the future and give thanks to it (I know it hard to be thankful for things and events we haven’t experienced yet). But it is important to do so lest we lose sight of what is really important in the world. I know I have many things to be thankful for and for the first time, I’m going to list them all and say a little thank you for having those that I am thankful for. For the first in this series, which will run all season long, gives thanks to and for my mother. Continue reading ‘What I’m Thankful For: Mom’
Archive for the 'Philosophy' Category
This year, millions of voters will become disenfranchised from the voting process. I believe that it will be worse than the 2000 and 2004 elections when Florida had its own debacle and Ohio was just downright corrupt. The confusion, fraud, and general frustration will be felt by so many more this year as electronic voting is used for the first time on such a large scale.
Its only a matter of time until everyone is voting electronically. Its a natural progression of our industrialist nation to go from manual counting to a more automated process with computers assisting now more than ever. Not only are results supposed to be more accurate (no hanging chads the debates that come with that insanity) and not prone to the corruption that plagued the Ohio voting system in 2004. In fact, if done well, results could filter in immediately drastically altering the political landscape. Imagine a world where someone could vote at 9am and by 11am know how their candidate is doing. And how cool would that be if at noon, the underdog could rally the populace and possibly sway the election in his or her favor! But computers are designed and coded by people who make mistakes. Therefore, no voting system programmed by people is perfect - especially on the first try.
If they are anything like most computers out there, the possibility of a system crashing is real. Diagnosing the problem could take a highly skilled technician hours if it can be fixed on the spot at all. Problems could come from defective hardware, software, data lines, power outlets, improper installation, unexpected actions from the users, and so much more. All you need is a single Blue Screen of Death to disenfranchise a voter. Add up all the BSODs and you’ve got yourself massive chaos, anger, and resentment that will last forever - well after election day.
Lets not also forget that the new technology will confuse many people who have never seen or used a computer before. Think about all the elderly citizens who have always flipped a lever, punched a card, or even wrote down their vote who now have to touch a screen to vote. Hell, even people who use computers often enough still could find themselves confused at the unfamiliar. I am extremely computer savvy and I pick up logic very easily but if I am not prepared for a new system, I am handicapped at how fast I can select the man or woman to represent me. Furthermore, I might not be confident I did it correctly and may question whether or not my vote was registered. I would hope that there is visual output to help the user in that but who knows if everyone will pick up on that.
But worst of all is the possibility of downright fraud from hackers. Many studies, tests, and other analysis have a large number of people doubting the integrity of the systems. In labs, some of these systems have been proven hackable in seconds! Think about how massive the fraud could be!! I can see the calamity now… A state who almost always votes red suddenly finds 100% of their population voting blue. The effects would be disastrous - entire elections could be ruled corrupt and invalidated! If I were politicians, I’d be very worried about young activist hackers out there changing the results - its not hard to find someone with the skills and will to do just that.
I’ll admit that my fears are based on the unknown. I haven’t seen these systems yet and when I do, I’ll be nervous to use them. And I can’t let my fears unnecessarily delay the inevitable. But I do feel that these systems are not what we need today and I would ask that their use be delayed until they are thoroughly tested - no crashes and no chance of fraud. I know I doubt the integrity of these systems because the community hasn’t seen the source code. They haven’t seen demonstrations. And they haven’t been given assurances that it will work better than previous, manual, systems.
I bet the code will never be willingly released. Companies have money on the line and don’t want their intellectual property open for others to copy - and I can understand that. But they risk ruining their chances for more business if their systems fail or get hacked. It would be a good PR move to somehow get people looking at their code and testing it on a massive scale to reduce software bugs, improve usability, and completely prevent hacking.
Until that happens, however, I cannot say I welcome this new technology. When the software is perfected, I look forward to voting and bettering a system that isn’t perfect. But I wouldn’t want to replace an ok solution with a worse one.
I got my self all riled up with that last post! I started out telling everyone I began using Flock on Windows XP again and it ended up getting me pissed off at things that don’t work. I’m IM’ing with my best friend talking about mobile phones and, somehow, it let me to ranting about shit not working again!
See, he got a new phone. A cool new Linux based phone from Motorola and he’s loving it so far. He always does his research on things like this and he’s usually happy with his purchases (Although the RAZR didn’t last long 
). Anyway, I’m interested in this phone, myself, because I’m not happy with my SLVR either.
Don’t get me wrong, the SLVR is a good phone. It dials all the numbers well enough and the calls sound good; I’ve never complained that the reception is bad - its rather good for Cingular, really. But the iTunes thing doesn’t work perfectly; some songs don’t play right and with some songs, the art work is wrong. Every now and then, I need to restart the phone to fix some speaker/microphone problems. Oh, and you know the deal with the SLVR… only 100 songs without hacking it.
And I don’t want to hack it to get 1000+ songs on there. And I don’t want to reboot the phone to fix the speaker. I certainly expect all the songs I copy to it play perfectly. The artwork thing I can careless about because I can hear the song to tell what it is - I don’t need the cover art to identify the song so its only a minor annoyance. But the point is that it doesn’t work like its supposed to and I want it to work the way it was marketed and presumably programmed (even if it was done poorly). The SLVR isn’t my first Cingular phone that didn’t work the way I expected, however.
I signed up for the service when I got the MPx220. Its a Windows Mobile phone that I liked for about 45 days. It needed a reboot almost every other day. The speakers sucked and it would turn off at random; I fixed that last one by folding a post-it note between the phone and battery to force the contacts closer to one another because they sometimes separated). The only thing that I liked about the phone was the reason I got it: perfect synchronization between MS Outlook and the phone. Dialing worked well too and as I dialed the numbers or the letters with the keypad, the right contacts came up; selecting the right contact was just as easy with the dial pad.
So the MPx220 sucked. The SLVR sucks. I’ve tried the T-Mobile MDA , too. IT SUCKS WORSE THAN THE MPX220!! The rebooting doesn’t happen as often but I still have to do it. Dialing sucks because you need to use a stylus to dial (my fingers are too large to hit the touch screen accurately). Its also really large. I’m willing to try the Motorola Q or the Treo 700w but I’m afraid I’ll run into Windows Mobile issues again on top of their own device related issues. My cell phones don’t work the way they are supposed to and it pisses me off!
So far, on my list of things that suck and don’t work right we have:
- Windows XP
- Windows Mobile
- Motorola MPx220
- Motorola SLVR
- Motorola Q (From what I’ve heard)
- Treo 700w (From what I’ve heard)
- OpenOffice
- Ubuntu (for lack of software… not code)
- Flock (for not working with extensions and the memory leak)
- All these “betas” out there today - all of Web 2.0, basically
- WordPress 2.04 (still no spell checker)
- 80% of the plug-ins I’ve downloaded (most are done for 1.5 or have their own “beta” bugs)
- All Dell computers (especially their laptops)
- All Compaq/HP computers (same as dell, just with even more junkware)
- Linksys Wireless routers
- TiVo
- Apple laptops (From what I’ve read)
The few things that I can think of that work well enough to highly recommend them to someone else are:
- iPods
- Blackberrys
THAT’S IT!
Everything else sucks because the quality isn’t there. Why can’t people make quality products anymore? Were the always crappy and I was too young to notice? When can I get something that doesn’t suck?
I just want something to work the way its supposed to!
By accident, I stumbled upon some sensitive information found in the personal laptop of one of my colleagues. By accident, I mean snooped around for, and by stumbled upon, I mean saw the obvious sensitive files in question in plain site on the user’s Desktop. The file in question was a diary of sorts dating back over two years where the guy - who handles money for the company - admitted to being unstable.
He admitted to being a cocaine addict, a womanizer, a binge drinker and eater. He also talked about his emotional problems and how he can’t seem to keep it together. He mentioned a few times the troubles he was having at his other places of work. He wrote as if he was using stream of consciousness to pen it and it felt very erratic. His browsing history showed he visits escort sites every night - can’t tell if he’s giving them “business” or not. He just seemed to be losing it as he wrote it all.
Now I’m in a quandary. Do I keep the guy’s cocaine habit a secret? Do I silently offer to see he gets help in rehab (if he still has this problem)? Do I talk to my boss and let him deal with the guy? Do I keep quiet because I shouldn’t be going through his personal files anyway? Does it matter that it was a personal laptop that the guy asked me to look at (to clean a virus off of it).
For those who don’t know, I’m the sys admin for a very small company - less than 25 people - and everything funnels through me. I know everyone’s passwords (although I’m trying to change that). I know the contents of their hard drives - personal and professional. I track their browsing habits and filter content all while keeping a log of that activity. I monitor IM conversations for illegal activity using random searches on keywords (thankfully, the software does that for me so I can trust the randomness). I fix personal laptops and I travel to their homes to fix personal computers. I’ve removed spy ware and I’ve even been asked to remove someone’s porn so their significant other didn’t find it. I am truly master of my IT domain and I see everything - and they try to hide it too. But I see questionable emails and other content through my security systems.
I know that under the law and under company policy that all electronic transmissions are considered property of said company and are not considered private. Most techies would agree with me that there is no anonymous activity on the web or at work anymore (if there ever was in the first place). Sure, you can fake or hide a little but the bottom line remains this: don’t do anything you don’t want someone to find out about. Period. And as the admin, I can - and do - scan for activities that government regulators would take offense to. I make sure some employees don’t steal intellectual property by emailing files out over the unsecured internet. You get the idea.
If the content were of child pornography, the answer would be obvious. I’d report it to my superiors and the cops would be called in to take the guy away. But I didn’t find that. I found someone’s diary and read it. And it was scary shit. I don’t feel safe around the guy believing he could lose it at any moment - that he could come back from a binge and be high on coke. I also worry that a certain amount of money is entrusted to him and he, not thinking clearly, could lose a large portion of it easily.
So my question is this: What is the greater good? Philosophers have been battling that question for ages and although many have tried, no one has come up with the answer. There may never be an answer but I can’t think about that now. My greatest good question has to be answered. Is it better to respect one’s privacy - which I value very much as a person and as an American - or better to protect the firm and, quite possibly, the guy in question from himself? Should I rat the guy out and tell my boss, I’ve got this guys confession and admit I snooped through his shit? Should I try to talk to the guy myself? Or should I respect the guy’s property and privacy and let it be?
Now I don’t feel comfortable being around the guy anymore but I don’t think he’s prone to violence. It’s only if he’s under the influence that I worry about my safety and the safety of my coworkers. I also question the safety of these “escorts” if he does frequent their, um, companionship. But it could turn out to be a red herring - nothing at all to worry about - and I could be looked upon as a snitch or a snoop; I am and comfortable about that. But I want to make sure that if I expose that fact, I’m doing it for a really good reason.
Is this a good enough reason? What would other admins do? What is the greater good? The guy’s privacy or the other stuff I talked about? Are the safety, money, reputation, and the guy’s career less important than privacy? Or is, in this case, it worth telling others about the spying and exposing this person’s behavior for the firm and its people while sacrificing his right to personal privacy on personal equipment?
What is the more ethical way to handle the situation?
