[Info-vax] One possible market for VMS: secure credit card

[David Froble]

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> JF Mezei  <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote:
>> However, i was refering more to stores using computers to process
>> transactions and send them to the credit card processor. This is where
>> most of the compromised database events seem to happen. So more robust
>> OS and applications would be welcome there.
> 
> I don't think a more robust OS would be a bad thing in any way, especially
> in that sort of application.  But I'd think that paying employees a living
> wage so they didn't have to steal address databases from their employers 
> to pay their rent might be more effective at solving the central vulnerability.
> --scott

Just had a discussion with my ex today on this subject.

No employer wants to be an employer.  But they have needs, and are 
willing to pay to have those needs met, if it's economically feasible. 
However, if it's not economically feasible, then the endeavor will not 
survive.

Each job is worth so much.  Pay less, and it's not fair to the employee. 
  Have to pay more, and you either have to raise prices, or close the 
business.  If you raise prices, it all comes around, and the employee 
will in time want more because his prices have risen.

Now, there have been people, companies, and such that have misused 
employees.  There have also been organizations that have abused employers.

Take a labor union for example.  Time for an election.  One candidate 
says "we're making good money, and the company cannot afford any more". 
  Another candidate says "I'll demand higher wages in the next 
contract".  Guess who gets elected.

Then there is the issue of "a fair day's work for a fair day's pay". 
Some people take pride in doing a good job, and accept the 
responsibility of seeing things happen as they should.  At the other end 
of the spectrum you have those who will do anything to not do the job. 
And those in between.

My dad worked at a small shop that built electrical transformers.  Until 
the last few years there was no union.  The owner knew his employees. 
He knew their families.  If not every day, at least several time a week 
he walked thru the factory and talked to his people.  Not about the job. 
  About his life.  "How are you doing Joe?  How's your son David doing? 
  Is he over that illness?"  He cared about his people, and he paid fair 
wages.

Of course, sooner or later some hotheads get a union started.  Under the 
union, the last 2 years before my dad retired, he was worse off than 
before the union.

It's rarely black or white, usually some shade of grey.

It's like the guy I had, who was off for 2 years with hepatitus C, and 
during that time I paid his health insurance premiums.  Didn't have to. 
  I thought is was the right thing to do.  About 4 months after he came 
back, I had a cash flow problem.  He didn't get a paycheck on the day he 
thought he should, and promptly quit.

The moral of the story, sooner or later the BOSS is going to be a SSOB 
(double SOB).  Some people think a boss should just start out that way.