Re: Network sabotage brings down Aliant service (June 9)
I am very angry that employees of a company would do such a nasty thing. I have never supported unions and with acts like this
I will never will. They brainwash those with half a brain into doing things that are illegal, immoral and they would not do on their own. I hope the RCMP catches those responsible and I hope the judge that gets this case, treats them appropriately: as criminals. If any death was caused by the loss of telecommunications, such no access to 911, they should bring murder charges.
Tom Karoutsos
Re: Network sabotage brings down Aliant service (June 9)
If for some reason someone needed to call out to 911 for an emergency when the phone system was down due to sabotage and the person or persons died because of it there would be charges of second-degree homicide, and first-degree sabotage. All who were involved with it would have the same charge against them and then some. This is what I was told since I am not a police officer.
Larry Miller
Re: The truth about Turing (June 7)
Turing’s almost single-handed brilliance helped the Allies crack the Nazi Enigma code, saving thousands of lives. As was the case with most WWII intelligence boffins, the need for immediate secrecy and the Brits’ 30-year lid on covert operations made for an unsung hero.
Turing was a deep thinker, not scared to state his case.The Turing Test you mention reminds me of Canada’s Marshall McLuhan who stated that technology is an extension, not a replacement, of human excellence.
In the 1950’s Turing predicted that computers would evolve to a point where they would be programmed to mimic human intelligence.
Debate for and against the notion that a computer could replace or rival human thinking has continued ever since. Has technology advanced to this level of sophistication? Can we rely on computer systems to perform crucial functions in the role of final authority?
Thanks again for great articles!
Rodger Harding
Re: The truth about Turing (June 7)
Thank you for bringing back into the light the name of Alan Turing. I think that this man was ahead of his time, and performed work that was decades ahead of anyone alse, bringing ideas and concepts to light that have influence in the IT industry today.
The IT industry needs to acknowledge the contributions of this man. Not only did he teach about computing and mathematics, his life — and end of life — should teach us all about our society. It is enormously distressing to learn that the mistakes of his era pervade our society still. Let us hope that his legacy can lead us to better machines and better behaviour, both on a societal and individual level.
David Gray
Re: Ontario school system gives StarOffice a shot (May 27)
I’m a computer consultant who has also dabbled with StarOffice as an alternative (for my clients) to the expensive Microsoft Office suite which seems to be versioned up every two years with features that 99 per cent of the users will ever use.
In my testing of the retail StarOffice 6.1, it was only about 70 per cent compatible with Microsoft Office. Documents saved in different versions of Microsoft Office wouldn’t load the same under StarOffice. Formatting/fonts would be different or missing.
I wasn’t able to locate anyone who I could report issues to or ask questions. (Note: there are forums. but then you’re at the mercy of people providing assistance for free.)
In my opinion, Corel’s office suite did a much better job with MS compatibility but the costs to licence the software were a lot higher than StarOffice (but still about 50 per cent less than MS Office Professional).
Paul Wilson
Re: Ontario school system gives StarOffice a shot (May 27)
In a few words, what a waste of time.
Serge Vanasse
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