Kansas City Star | 08/27/2006 | Hot fuel for you, cold cash for big oil:
As a liquid, gasoline expands and contracts depending on temperature. At the 60-degree standard, the 231-cubic-inch American gallon puts out a certain amount of energy. But that same amount of gas expands to more than 235 cubic inches at 90 degrees, even though consumers still only get 231 cubic inches at the pump.
This is old news. The only reason that I am posting it is because it has to do with the contractor who is handling the improperly programmed People First Employment Portal.
Offshore outsourcing cited in Florida data leak
Employees who worked for the state during the 18-month period between Jan. 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004, may be affected, according to an e-mail message sent to all state employees on March 16. The state’s Department of Management Services (DMS), which oversees the People First system, estimates that 108,000 current and former state employees may be affected by the data breach, although that estimate could change as the department’s investigation into the matter continues.The e-mail was sent after a subcontractor of outsourcing service provider Convergys Corp. improperly allowed subcontractors in India to index state personnel files, said DMS spokeswoman Tiffany Koenigkramer. The offshoring was done as part of Convergys’s nine-year, $350 million contract to manage the state’s personnel work.
This looks not to be Convergys Corp’s fault. The simple to remedy problem with the People First Portal; however, is their fault. I emailed them to no avail.
I followed the the advice of a user of digg, Sillywampa, on Digg’s entry about my earlier post on Florida’s People First Job Portal and emailled PeopleFirst@dms.myflorida.com about this issue. Here is what I wrote:
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Found this from:Hugg / The American Voting System: HACKED
Watch this video, and I think that you too will be convinced that we need to have a paper trail in our elections. Not even just a paper trail that is printed out at the end of the day at each polling station. We need to have each voting machine print our vote in front of our very own eyes. We then need to be able to confirm that the information is indeed correct, and then place it in a locked ballot box.
I remember the first time that I used one of those machines I remarked to one of my friends how I did not trust them. This is coming from someone who has been working in IT all my life. Now my friend knows that I was not just being paranoid!
Update: I wrote a post about an email I sent to the State of Florida and the response I received. This was suggested by Sillywampa on Digg. Thanks Sillywampa for the email address.
The State of Florida’s People First job portal is still running an outdated script that locks out users of alternative browsers from applying to state jobs. The only supported browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
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The GPLv3 license is in the works. One of the provisions is to restrict software from using DRM. This, argues Linus Torvalds, is not the job of a license. He is against these new provisions. The article below goes on to defend the license.
I have been deeply against DRM for some time. Linus Torvald’s objection to the license really makes me think. He is the one who got the linux operating system going. I respect his point of view, and am not sure on which side of the fence I stand about the license itself. I am still against DRM.
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Treehugger: Lessons to Learn From BP’s Latest Misstep
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the US will spend an additional $24 million per day on oil imports as a result of the increased prices that were prompted by the BP shutdown. The science-based nonprofit organization also determined that if all the cars and trucks on US roads gained one extra mile per gallon, the 400,000 barrels produced daily at Prudhoe Bay would be irrelevant.
The state of healthcare in our nation has been in bad shape for quite a while. I will elaborate more on that in a future post. Free Software Magazine brought a new issue to my attention.
The debate between proprietary vs non-proprietary software has been raging on for as long as I can remember. In this article the debate enters the healthcare arena.
Your data or your life | Free Software Magazine:
Intracare is the publisher of a popular practice management system called Dr. Notes. When some doctors balked at a drastic increase in their annual software lease, they were cut off from accessing their own patients’ information.
The Bush Administration is really blowing it. Is that news?
Feds threaten to sue if Maine probes Verizon ties to NSA - Boston.com
How horrible is this? Teenage control and deterrent products for shops and homes Compound Security Systems Mosquito
The Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent is the solution to the eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls and around shops. The presence of these teenagers discourages genuine shoppers and customers’ from coming into your shop, affecting your turnover and profits.
What is this world coming to?