Ah, but do you own a pocket protector? -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Phil Payne Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 12:21 PM To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU Subject: Pod slurping?
> Probably needs updating a bit Technology's a bitch. (That will probably get me another SnottyGram from Bell Helicopter's firewall for "inappropriate sexist language". Seufz.) Didn't the CIA ban Furbies a while back? I now find I carry - pretty much by default - a huge memory capacity: a) I always carry a digital camera. I used to carry a Leica M4 rangefinder, but it was heavy and obtrusive. I now carry an Oregon Scientific DS6639 - no moving parts and incredibly reliable. It currently has a 128MB SanDisk flash card in it. b) When I'm travelling, I like to make notes without having to pick up a pencil and paper. I use a Hitachi DVR-100 - I like it because the form factor is flat, so if I keep it in a shirt pocket it doesn't twist around and I can find the operating buttons to take a verbal note without having to look or grope. 1GB. c) I also carry an MP3 player - a Packard-Bell AudioDream 1GB. d) The Nokia Communicator - the 9210i I use supports a maximum 128MB flash card, so there's one in there. e) For spurious reasons (calls within cellular networks can be free, but between networks expensive) I also have a Siemens S65 cellphone donated by my daughter. It was some weeks before I discovered that this thing also has a 64MB flash card in it. So I'm walking around with something over 2GB of storage on my person. One thing most of the above devices have in common is a mini-USB attachment. I'm walking into sites with the capacity of several 3390s inadvertently concealed about my person. BTW - I don't need to carry the USB cable. They're standardised and I'll find one in the next cubicle. When the 1.4MB stiffie was the largest storage device you could carry, people were paranoid about you taking them in. At least one major site had a "dirty" PC at the entrance - all stiffies had to be inserted into the A drive and virus-checked. And it was a one-way system - you could by all means take a stiffie in - but you were not allowed to take it out again. With 3G cellphones, it gets worse. You can suck stuff off a PC into a 256MB SanDisk flash card, squirt it into the ether, chuck the card into a nearby shredder and vacate the premises. IMO this is the nastiest of the security exposures. Did you ever try to walk out of a data centre with a 10" 3420-style self-loader under your arm? The Spanish Inquisition was a breeze compared to those security checks. The Guide Goodie tape (a.k.a. CBT) was a nightmare when it arrived - day-long meetings about what was on it and what threats might be presented. Virus control on foot. We have lost the glass-house discipline, and I think we are the poorer for it because the philosophy used to percolate. The glass house no longer sets the standards, and that's not good. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
