Morality vs Business

Mar 27 23:12 UTC 2002

For the Microsoft product line, ease of use was a hallmark for managers 
who offered comments. “I like how the tables are set up,” said a Naval 
Surface Warfare Center computer specialist in Indian Head, Md., adding 
that his organization plans to standardize its database configuration on 
Microsoft software. But a Social Security Administration computer 
specialist in San Francisco said upgrading Microsoft databases was tricky 
because it causes new bugs in the system. Discussing overall strategies, 
systems managers who plan to make database changes are looking for ways 
to make their systems more efficient. “We have too much data 
duplication,” said an Air Force systems manager in Mesa, Ariz., who plans 
to consolidate three databases in the next two years to make management 
easier. Consolidating databases to standardize systems is a goal at the 
U.S. Pretrial Services Agency in San Antonio, said an IT director. A 
Federal Bureau of Investigation computer specialist in Washington said 
his organization was planning to consolidate databases because “fewer are 
easier to control.”

http://www.gcn.com/21_1/knowmgmt/17695-1.html

---------

SiliconValley.com part of San Jose Mercury News - AOL backs anti-
Microsoft identity technology. 

In a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp. dominance of online 
identification technology, AOL Time Warner Inc. has joined a coalition of 
companies working to develop a competing platform.

AOL announced Tuesday that it would aid the Liberty Alliance Project, a 
group of almost three dozen companies working on an identity 
authentication and payment program that will compete with Microsoft's 
Passport system.

Liberty Alliance seeks to allow Internet users to log in once but gain 
access to various Internet resources that require authentication. 
Microsoft's Passport system already offers the same capabilities.

An AOL spokesman said the company would also continue to develop its own 
identification system, known as Magic Carpet, but would share programming 
expertise with Liberty Alliance partners ensure the systems are 
compatible.



http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/
0,14179,2816148,00.html

... Meanwhile, government watchers say a federally sponsored national ID 
would meet widespread opposition. 

"It would improve the ability to identify and track people. But I can't 
identify how much it would improve things," said Bob Inman, who served as 
director of the National Security Agency and as deputy director of the 
Central Intelligence Agency. "You can persuade Congress to act explicitly 
when you know what you'll accomplish. But I don't think law enforcement 
agencies are capable of making a case of what precisely they'd gain from 
it. And if they can't, they won't get congressional approval." 

Talk about national IDs has also moved the American Civil Liberties Union 
to get involved, while doubting the issue will be ad dressed, said Nadine 
Strossen, ACLU president. "We now have to take it seriously," she said. 


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CNET NEWS.COM - Ellison donates software for U.S. security. 

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said Tuesday that he has donated 
Oracle software to the U.S. government to create a database for national 
security. 

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Ellison has championed the need for 
the United States to create a national standard for identification cards. 
During his keynote speech at Oracle's OpenWorld customer conference in 
San Francisco, Ellison said he has delivered Oracle's 9i database 
management software to a U.S. government agency for national security, 
but he declined to give further details, such as which agency or for what 
usage. 

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-276615.html?legacy=cnet&tag=mn_hd

response 2 of 17:

Mar 27 23:33 UTC 2002

that buisnesses should represent high moral values since the government
obviously can't? 

or

fuck it, i'ma make a killin offa this.

response 4 of 17:

Mar 28 03:04 UTC 2002

That's like saying the Earth and Pluto are similar, just because they're 
both planets, (very) roughly sheroid in shape, and orbit the same sun.

Kinda like saying jp2 is like remmers.  There may be a kernel of truth, 
in the statement, but the rest of the story paints rather a different 
picture.

response 6 of 17:

Mar 28 07:46 UTC 2002

I like XiXi's (a pun) juxtaposition of the satanic Micro$oft
with IBM in these two items.  Even if the assertion about IBM
is true and it wasn't merely looking out for shareholder equity 
motivated its hard to see how the current IBM (among other things
the largest micro$oft var/OEM) can even be mentioned in the same
breath with that evil empire, Micro$oft.  Its not really that
much of a stretch to compare Mircro$oft and their regard to other
software vendors and that of the nazis.  Compare the adulation
of hitler with Gates?  The tactics are similar as is the goal.

response 8 of 17:

Mar 28 18:46 UTC 2002

        The 1920s and 1930s were also a big of big technological
change, perhaps faster than today.  It took the goverment to 
protect consumers with such things as defining can size for goods
sold in grocery stores (it was a rather new thing)--each canner was
picking different sizes, making it hard to comparision shop to 
defining the radio dial for broadcast stations --each station
radio manufacturor wanted exclusive rights to their frequencies.

        Mister, we need a man like Hebert Hoover again!

response 10 of 17:

Mar 29 16:28 UTC 2002

Yeah, but darn it, we'd know EXACTLY who they were!

response 12 of 17:

Mar 29 21:36 UTC 2002

uvCAWZnot!

response 14 of 17:

Mar 30 04:44 UTC 2002

re#9:  isn't that 'all' not 'most'?

response 16 of 17:

Apr 1 16:57 UTC 2002

Re #14: Not strictly speaking.  A couple of them were on expired 
visas.  However, they'd applied for student visas, and apparently since 
the INS is so hideously slow and understaffed it was the practice at 
the time to let people reenter the country before their applications 
were granted.  (I believe that in this case if they had filed the 
application for renewal the day they got their original visas, the INS 
*still* wouldn't have processed it by the time the visas expired.  
That's how bad it is.  It's hard to clean up illegal immigration when 
you're making it impossible to follow the rules through bureaucratic 
incompetance.  I think part of the reason the INS is so underfunded is 
that practically no one who votes has to deal with it.)