You left out the whole.... are people who aren't IT punished when they do IT jobs? Practicing medicine without a license is a crime, do they want to make it a crime to modify the settings for a firewall or system settings without a license?

IT is a pretty broad category, but let's break it down into a few smaller categories:
Hardware Developers, including firmware
Software Developers including OS and Network
Administrators of Software and OS and Network
Management for Suppliers who release, maintain, and support Products
Management of Users who Approve, Purchase, and Manage those who use the Hardware, OSs and Software

We already have a case where Developers and Administrators are held accountable to their Management if they don't follow Management's processes and directions.

Developers of hardware may have little to no ability to upgrade or make significant updates to a product once it's released. Their products are often used well beyond their expected life. And unlike software, hardware is not generally something that can be made and distributed for free, so most often the hardware is going to come from some company or business entity, and what happens once that entity no longest exists.

Software including OSs will often have updates but these updates often require downtime to apply and often a cost associated with the purchase of updates, as well similar risks of a company going out of business. Unlike hardware, there are many applications that are available for free with no warranty or support.

Administrators would be a logical place but having done support for far too many years I have lost count of the times I have had a secretary or someone else call because their Admin was on vacation or out sick, etc... and they needed help doing something. I have also been an Admin and provided management with a set of options with costs and benefits for different things and they may often choose a cheaper option knowing the risks. So, while you could hold administrators to a higher standard you would also need to ensure they had more power and/or some way to indemnify themselves when overruled or someone else makes changes they didn't approve, etc...

This leaves us with Managers who already are held accountable, via Higher Management and/or owners or Government.

yes, but you are doing most of the spitting....so not claiming you shouldn't wash it only saying that most of the contaminates are coming from yourself. Obviously if you were talking with someone who was spitting all over you then you need consider the possibility that they may be infected.

Seriously,

The fabric masks are not blocking the virus but water droplets that carry the virus Now I didn't consider that the water droplets may dry out and virus may then be propelled outward but if you're infected and not showing symptoms then you're likely expelling them anyway. If you aren't actually infected then there is nothing really being gained by washing it more often.

The biggest risk I think would be if you share the mask, otherwise wash when it's dirty.... is my take.

I haven't seen anything about how they are planning on Tracking and Tracing. There are really three main ways I can see it being done.
1) They can centrally log where everyone is and then run database queries on the back end.... I won't touch that and often have my GPS turned off so it's unlikely to help even if I do use it.

2) Have every unit transmit it's identification code and then when someone is caught they have a list of contacts they can use to trace down.... Might use this but this requires everyone to register with some type of identifiable information or it just devolves into the 3rd option which I would certainly use.

3) Every unit transmits it's ID to any unit within the effective range with a date/time log. When someone is Found they can broadcast their code and all the units which have that person's ID in their log get flagged with a message along the line of: "You're being contacted because you came in contact with an individual at 'Date/Time' and we would like you to contact us because of "Message."

The 1st option is too open for abuse, the second is mildly open to abuse.... we want to know who was in contact with our bank robber leading up to the robbery.

The 3rd option could be used in the same manner, but the bank robber's partners or the other AA members can see when the contact was and the message and make at least some kind of informed consent about if they want to phone in.

Yes, it's the same data is saved in options 2 and 3, except for option 3 there is no need to tie that ID to a person... you have the person and get the ID from them and just use the application to send out a message that says.,... the person was infected and you met them at such and such date/time. This allows the other person to decide to come forward or not. Even if the authorities steal the list of IDs from the suspect's app, all they have are decentralized IDs.

But I can't imagine any government actually using option 3 without deciding that the ID should be a phone number or other traceable ID, or without using a centralized database, etc...

If you do the virtual desktop correctly, they have basically the same delays as being there in person, the screen refresh and human ability to notice and interpret. They will be able to record the screen/session so could technically still copy the code but it would require a lot of work, but a NDA should help.
The locked down desktop should provide them all the access they need. You can decide if you want to allow them to print or not.

Just image that they are using Xwindows and exporting their displays back to their own computers.

No, it can not. The problem is science long ago became a buzzword and has since been used for many things which is not science at all. The entire scientific process is about observations and experimentation and developing repeatable and predictable experiments which can be used to prove or disprove theories which are used to explain the behavior. If you can't create a repeatable and predictable experiment then it's not really science.

This isn't to say that theories can not be used to potentially explain past events and much of science is done trying to do just that, but as soon as you make a claim that some past event *MUST* have been caused by some previous event you have left the realm of science. It may be the best theory and there may not be any other understood cause but unless you have a reliable observation you can never be certain. Therefore much of science is also based on assumptions which is fine as long as you understand that they are just that... they are unproven assumptions.

It gets more complicated when theories build on each other because while it can be very helpful it is often easy to lose sight of the base assumptions or worse get into cases where your basis of support is a circular argument that theory A proves Theory B which proves theory A though almost never as simple as two theories.

My idea has always been to just make sure that the cost of the visa to the company includes the cost of sending 3 Current Residents to though an educational program to enable them to qualify for the position. When faces with paying college tuition for 3 others, plus the cost of the person they hired... the difference between in cost is unlikely to favor using the visas for cheap labor.

I have had progressive glasses for more years than I care to think about. But I am near sighted so can read without them. My first glasses had small bifocals in the inside bottom corner and that worked when everything you needed to see was either near (reading distance) or far away. The problem is a computer screen is in between and what progressive lens do is give a smooth transition between near and far, so for any distance you can look though some part of your glasses and have it in focus.

If you only need reading glasses and can see the monitor without your glasses then maybe you can skip them when using the computer, but if you need them to view the monitor but not distances greater then talk with your optometrist and get a prescription that uses the top part for a monitor and then decide if you want a lower corner for reading or not.

Yes and No. Java may automate memory management but it can't read your mind and if you don't understand memory management it can't help you. I have seen java code and programmers who merrily go on allocating object after object and then run out of memory and complain that java isn't doing its job. Java and most of your GC code will going a very good job of taking care of the details but you still better have some idea of memory management. Even standard C will automatically manage your memory if you stick with automatic variables which get put on the stack.

If you don't know if that object you created still needs to be around, then how do you expect Java or any GC to know if it should be kept or discarded. The GCs use algorithms to determine if an object can still be reached but while they may be getting better they are limited. So, while Java may take care of the details, you had better know about memory management.

The problem I see is that no matter what key(s) are used. If they are known then they are known and there is nothing to stop someone from using them early. How many people set the time on their systems ahead of the actual time to test something, what would stop them from doing it to break a code? Every wonder why the night sky would look like in 1 million years... if someone calculated the values for the key then knowing that the key was a starry sky a millions years from the future, then someone could look up the same for the key.

The idea that no one ( living ) knows the exact nature of the key, ie... the lock will for some time after 60 years would have another issue in that the code would need to check checked each second ( or 1/10 of a second, etc... ) and if something happens that a the key is skipped then it will be lost forever. The best idea so far is to generate a key which requires X out of Y samples to solve and then hope that at least X survive to the desired time and that no more than X-1 get released early.

There is a basic point missing in that expected grade distribution is very much dependent upon if you are trying to teach a subject to mastery or teach a subject the students limits of understanding. Ie. what is your philosophy of education?

If you are teaching a class covering a subject which can be mastered, then there is no reason everyone should not master the material and get an 100% baring lazyness.

An example would be written test for a drivers license, is there really any reason everyone who takes it should not get 100%?

If you are teaching to a scale, then you don't really care how much absolute material is transferred and your tests are designed to not to measure the material taught in the class as much as then general subject matter which the class covers, and they are designed to test the level of understanding of the subject as a whole with an emphasis on trying to prevent anyone from mastering the test.

Most of your Engineering classes.

Since encryption can use either private keys or public keys, the only reason to ask for a public key is because you aren't in direct communications with someone in order to securely exchange a private key. Public keys are used for more than just encrypting data, so if you have a public key you want it as public as possible. Since there is also a secret key behind the public key, it's either set up as a fully automatic process that would decrypt your data as soon as it was received or it is saved in encrypted form and only a small group can decrypt it.

So, where a company feels like they need secure encryption they may often have multiple public keys, sometimes tied to a department or even an individual, but in all cases if they have a public key they publish it. If you don't see one listed then they don't have a public key in place for at least that group. Check for the group that handles security concerns and they may have a public key, but unless that is where you want your data to do,,, I wouldn't use it,.

-Robert

Please See: http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6

You do all recall that all the Romance languages are based on Roman, but they were once all dialects of Roman. Welcome to America, we we have all kinds of regional and local dialects.

But he doesn't seem to realize (at least not stating) what of the original data provided was intended to be encrypted and what of the original data was just along for the ride.

Ie. Is his credit card number being sent in e-mail or only his name and address ( which will be posted on the outside of any package he receives from them via any postal system, and read by everyone from the order fillers to the person that drops it off at his residence )

Maybe he has a 'secure' phone number, what information is being sent in plain text via e-mail that he thinks should be secured better? On the Other hand, he only needs to provide 'valid' data for which they need to fulfill their business transaction. So, if they don't need to physically send him anything, get a PO Box and use some alias at the PO. Box. Get a 'burner phone', between P.O. Box and non-attached phone number, they shouldn't have any real information to leak, unless they go thought a court somewhere.