Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Tag: security

  • Pointless

    So I wanted to open a support ticket. However, in thinking about what I can ask for the company to do arrayed against what they are willing to offer for support, I realized… I am not going to get a resoultion for the ticket. It is functioning as designed. They are just going to tell…

  • Off the Twitter Timeline: Icons

    I laughed at reading this one. Dear Blackboard: If you include icons in your interface, they should f’ing well be clickable. Everyone but you knows this. jazzmodeus I thought this might refer to the new item icons. Jason works for Emory (doing instructional design) and taking classes at Florida State. Both use Academic Suite. So…

  • Firefox 3 and SSL Certificates

    Apparently LinkedIn.com let their SSL certificate expire this morning. Assuming they really let it expire, this is a big oops. Hopefully, someone in their Production Operations Group has been alerted to the problem and is working on getting a new one. The screenshot is from Firefox 3. In the old days, Firefox or Netscape used…

  • Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade

    Be more secure! Upgrade today. Want better functionality? Upgrade today. Save a developer! Upgrade today. The save a developer thing is the impetus for this post. The upgrade today mantra annoys me. Software rarely spends enough time in alpha and beta cycles to to identify all the issues. People have been so burned by using…

  • Has Anything Changed?

    The previous post regarding the FBI checking on whether a photographer was Middle Eastern reminded me…. The Civil Rights Movement occurred before I was born. However, my parents were afflicted by blatantly racist laws which continued for decades. State anti-miscegenation law [1] at the time prohibited White females from marrying outside of their race. Since…

  • FBI Investigates Legal Activity Also

    One of the reasons my photos sets are more full of flowers than buildings is people don’t call the FBI over pictures of flowers. While it is perfectly legal to take pictures of buildings from public spaces, it makes “victims” nervous. No one cares about flowers. I can take all the pictures I want without…

  • Not Black Enough

    Because of racial profiling, I get false positive screened for extra security screening in airports. So, I need to look more African American. Some suggestions so far: Grow out my hair and wear it in an afro / dreadlocks / cornrows. Clothing improvements: baggy jeans, Jordans, tall teeshirt or sports jersey, one stud earing, chain,…

  • Solve Problems With a Prize

    I wonder if maybe we could use the prize process to get a solution to some of our problems? Decide how much its worth and offer the money to whomever solves the problem. Right now we hire consultants. The X-Prize uses this model. Are there others?

  • Everything to Everyone

    This is intended to be a more thoughtful response to Laura regarding Course Management Systems and the need for innovation. Currently, Course Management Systems are bloatware. They got this way by trying to provide everything to everyone. One instructor wants a feature, the university presses for this feature, the CMS programmers put in the feature.…