Re: IDRC seeks to bring Internet home to mother tongues (Dec. 10)
When it comes to fruition (or perhaps also as a test vehicle), the IDRC development should be of great interest to
our member colleges in Nepal, Bangladesh, etc.
Raymond Spencer Rodgers
Vancouver University Worldwide
Re: Teachers: We want in on IT decision-making (Dec. 1)
Your article is a good one and in the right direction.
Ahmad M. Bashir
Computer Network Operations
Niagara College
Re: Teachers: We want in on IT decision-making (Dec. 1)
So true! Too much money is wasted in schools without proper technical support. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it since so many students have better equipment at home.
Sylvia Ihnatowycz
Re: Microsoft, eh? (Nov. 28)
Do you think perhaps if there was more than $9/hr. Visual Basic jobs here at home there might be fewer top people migrating southward to find work in Redmond? Do you suppose if our wages were competitive with the U.S. instead of competitive with India that the migrating Canuck might ask such a wage as to no longer be such a steal of a deal compared to the native-born Seattleites?
Just a thought.
Gary Lawrence Murphy
Re: Microsoft, eh? (Nov. 28)
Check out ESRI in Redlands, Calif. ESRI is the world’s top developer of GIS and mapping software. Canadians are well represented in the company. You could do an interesting tie-in with COGS (Geomatics programs) in Lawrencetown , N.S.
John Macdonald
Re: Visa launches verification system in time for Christmas (Nov. 27)
To give consumers a comfort level of shopping online, they are giving the Visa card a PIN. Hmm, interesting. How is this going to make the average user feel better about shopping over the Internet? Most users don’t understand encryption, let alone https. They will think, “”If someone can hack into a site to find out my credit information, what is stopping them from getting the PIN number too?”” Then, once they have that, won’t it be that much harder to prove who was the purchaser because they used the secret code number?
Is this PIN only for use over the Internet? If so, is using a PIN over the Internet its best use?
Has anyone ever asked why using a bank card to make an Interac purchase requires a PIN but to use a credit card, only a signature is required? Would it not make sense that a PIN should be placed on credit card purchases as well? Often times, the sales person does not check the signature. When I get a new credit card, I sign my name neatly on the back of my card. However, when I am running out to buy something, especially at Christmas, my signature often does not look much like the rather neat one I took my time to do on the card. At that time, even if they do check, I have never been questioned with “”Hey, this doesn’t look the same. Can I see some ID?””
Maybe if there wasn’t so much credit card theft and fraud in general, people would have more confidence to use it over the Net.
Nancy Plante
Re: Whose project is this, anyway? (Nov. 27)
Accurately or not, I get the feeling that you think the situation you describe is unique to IT. My reaction is that this is something every other department in the organization has always faced. IT has been shielded from it because managers felt uncomfortable with IT concepts, and were thus afraid to meddle in something they knew they couldn’t understand. As you point out in your column, this is fast changing. Now IT people too will have to learn to manage their bosses, just as every other department in the organization has always had to do.
Sandy Jankowski
Re: Compal comes to Canada (Nov. 19)
I certainly hope that Compal does a better job this time on its white box notebook computers than it did with the Impulse notebooks several years ago. We recommended and sold several Impulse notebooks at the time and ended up with egg on our faces as they were totally unreliable and fraught with performance problems. Then, to add insult to injury, we were left holding the bag regarding warranty issues when Impulse went bankrupt.
Shawn Ross
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