17 karma · joined September 30, 2010
Did he really need to go through files related to Doctors/Radiology, Debt Collectionn, Fraud Investigations, Care and Protection, HCN? Snooping through the servers beyond what was necessary was wrong.
The bigger story is the lack of security on the New Zealand servers. However, what he did was wrong and possible illegal IMHO.
I would have guessed that without an explicit license, open source is free for anyone to take/modify/reuse. After all, it is open source.
In other words, the default would be the most permissive license. You suggest it is the opposite - that without a license, the code should be considered proprietary. Can anyone more familiar with open source licenses clarify?
(Certainly, most any adequate web developer with nefarious intensions would be able to reproduce this quite easily. But why make it point-and-click easy for them?)
Macs (BSD-based) are popular at CERN as well:
Smashing Research at CERN http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/briancox/index2.html
With a Macessity LapTuk stand: http://www.amazon.com/Macessity-LAPTUKPRO-LapTuk-with-USB2-0...
And 3 external monitors usings two Kensington's USB to VGA adaptors: http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Universal-Multi-Display-Ada...
I can do a coderwall profile with photos if there is interest.
But Steve was unique. Wearing the same clothes every day made sense for Steve and that is why Steve did that, period. He wasn't concerned about fashion or trends or what others thought - he did what he felt was right. Period.
That is the lesson of the article.
Your laptop is 5 to 7 years old - do you realize how long that is in tech years? I am not sure you can run the latest Windows OS well on a 5 - 7 year old laptop.
"Intel switches have all forced me to upgrade before I wanted to."
The switch to Intel processors was very gradual and not painful at all. Apple kept PPC support for many years.
Why are you against the upgrades? If it is because of the cost associated with upgrading that is understandable. But the tech industry moves so fast and computer performance increases every year - do you really want to be using 5 - 7 year old technology?
"I've also had this conversation on HN a couple times. It often ends in multiple people expressing surprise that I'd be interested in continuing to use such old, out-of-date hardware"
Time to listen to the crowd my friend.
You CAN still use your computer to access email, write, browse, communicate, play, etc. But you can't complain when it doesn't run all software or isn't the fastest.