[Info-vax] Free Pascal for VMS ?

[Dave Froble]

On 5/23/2018 7:45 PM, seasoned_geek wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 23, 2018 at 1:29:07 PM UTC-5, johnwa... at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
>> The actual maximum GDPR penalty is
>> "Up to €20 million, or 4% annual global turnover – whichever
>> is higher." (lots of places to look it up).
>>
>>
>> Interesting times ahead.
>
> John,
>
> Thanks, I forgot to include the 4% clause, or at least I must have. I
> thought I cut and pasted that entire block. That is 4% of global
> __gross__ income, not net income.
>
> Yes, the GDPR, first of many such laws to come, when fully enforced,
> will necessitate the Keller MBA mentality of using the cheapest piece
> of shit off a Walmart shelf to run your company then have it operated
> by the lowest wage worker found anywhere on the planet change to
> focus, once again on quality.
>
> In the 1970s and 1980s businesses believed, and rightly so, their
> software systems provided a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
> Their custom written systems allowed them to conduct business in ways
> competitors could not.

Perhaps some of those using computers back in the day still believe 
their custom applications continue to provide that competitive edge.  I 
know it's so for our customers.

> Then we had the rise of the worthless cookie cutter (notably Keller)
> MBAs. They weren't going to start off in the mail room and learn what
> a company actually did, THEY WERE MANAGEMENT! This necessitated every
> company being the same, otherwise these MBAs would be, justifiably,
> unemployed. Thus came the rise of OTS and totally untested "Turn the
> Knob" software in an effort to make every company be the same so that
> the output of the MBA mills could find employment. MBAs from Keller
> are the management equivalent of H1-B workers for those not from
> America.

What we got was the billy boy toy, called a PC.  Those that started 
using computers when the PC became available never had a clue about good 
software, they looked only at price.  Usually, you get what you pay for.

Now, PCs and such did fill some niches, such as word processing, 
spreadsheets, games, and more.  The problem is that the new adopters had 
no clue to any difference between office productivity and betting the 
business.

Of course, there were those selling into this market, promising 
everything, as long as it was the same as what everyone else got.

I firmly believe we are better off with the proliferation of computers, 
tablets, phones, and such.  I also believe there are some lines that are 
sort of blurry.

> This race to the bottom started in the 1990s and has continued to
> this day. Filling data centers with worthless x86 computers running
> free/low cost operating systems with known 8-lane wide security holes
> hoping to avoid prison when the big breach happens.

Consider that some of today's applications are perhaps worth the HW used 
to provide them.  Facebook and such can empower people.  Just don't bet 
the farm on such.

> While GDPR doesn't hand out prison time (at least what I read) that
> 4% of gross hit will bring lots of shareholder lawsuits and potential
> criminal charges for corporate malfeasance.
>
> http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-corporate-malfeasance-11689.html
>
>  Partway down this page is an interesting phrase.
>
> https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/malfeasance
>
> " the plaintiff must prove that the defendant owed a duty of care,
> that the duty was breached in some way, and that the breach caused
> injury to the plaintiff."
>
> The GDPR establishes "duty of care" responsibility for any business
> collecting any personal data about E.U. citizens. It also establishes
> that "injury" is having that data stolen or misused. A plaintiff now
> just has to establish a breach happened.
>
> In days of old with "free subscriptions" we all played the game. To
> get your "free" subscription you would use different street name
> spellings or misspell your own name just enough so you would still
> get the magazine, but, could later identify who sold your info based
> on the address used by the junk mail.
>
> Between now and 18 months from the day the E.U. first turns a
> corporation upside down to shake out its pockets using this GDPR,
> expect most non-EU countries to establish a similar law. I expect
> many will take the GDPR verbatim, just changing its name and all EU
> references.

I'm wondering, do any of those people running the EU have to stand for 
election?  Perhaps Britian saw the problems under the promises.  It 
seems some of them feel they can legislate anything they want.  It seems 
some of them have no concept of reality.

While I'm all for protecting people, shutting down their livelihood sure 
isn't in the best interest of people who's jobs are lost.  Squeeze 
business too hard, and you don't get more blood, you get a corpse.

> Why wouldn't they? It's a lottery ticket promising to balance the
> government's budget for a few years.

Yep!  Squeeze 'em until there is no more blood.

> What was Google's gross income last year? Do you think every country
> in the world wouldn't like 4% of that when they only thing they had
> to prove is a breach "causing injury" to their citizens?
>
> What was Apple's gross income last year? How much would 4% of that
> be?
>
> What would Equifax be looking at for a fine had the U.S. adopted and
> implemented a version of that law __before__ their massive breach
> happened?
>
> Inside of the next three years, the biggest selling point any OS can
> have is a TCP/IP Software Appliance and a removal of all *nix socket
> and IP libraries. It will end the game of whack-a-mole trying to find
> and patch vulnerabilities in thousands of applications which perform
> their own network communications.
>
> The first company to have its corporate pockets lightened under this
> law will be the tipping point. There will then be two classes of
> operating systems as far as companies and boards of directors are
> concerned.
>
> 1) Operating Systems with a TCP/IP Software Appliance 2)
> non-strategic operating systems to be purged from operations.
>
> Equifax can be thankful their breach happened before this law/rule
> went into effect. There are quite a few U.S. citizens who also hold
> E.U. member passports, particularly those of Irish descent. Not that
> long ago Ireland instituted a policy (perhaps it is an old policy I
> just found out about last year) where if your mother was an Irish
> citizen, no matter where you were born you were also an Irish citizen
> as far as obtaining a passport went. I had a friend actually do that
> last year. He was born here and lived here all his life, but he got
> his Irish passport last year after filling out some minimal
> paperwork.
>
> Paying a 20 million Euro fine would be a tough nut to crack for
> smaller companies, the kinds of companies which we used to sell to in
> my DEC VAR days. Many of them didn't have $10 million in assets at
> the time.
>
> Even a B2B only business could run afoul of GDPR if your customers
> are E.U. based and corporations have citizen status. Here is
> something of a mind numbing definition for American corporations.
>
> https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode46a/usc_sec_46a_00000802----000-.html
>
>  I don't know if the E.U. or any member nation has a similar
> definition.
>