Wait until the US Feds cram RealID down our throats. Roosevelt was warned of the dangers of a single national ID number; which he and his supporters dismissed. It only took 65-70 years for technology to catch up to this particular nightmare.
For a company that can to so many thing so well, they can't design a mouse for (#&$(*#. I mean really, the original iMac mouse hockey puck should have had someone's head on a platter for its utter uselessness. The newer mighty mouses aren't much better, though the scroll ball is cool. Their keyboard as well suck peanuts out of yesterday's *&#&.
Easy to fix; though on a $2000 computer I expect better.
In a world of competing uses for scarce resources economics provides a non-normative way to analyze and balance those interests. Space exploration is great; so would be a cure to childhood leukemia. Don't look at it as depressing, rather as illuminating.
This is new? I had a DR contract with SunGuard 7-8 years ago that included this! They brought a trailer with machines, racks, network, &c in the event that we declared an extended disaster. All we had to do was provide a parking space, water, power, and a pair(s) of fiber.
A US and Soviet Diplomat are talking one day, when the American says "You know the difference, Ivan, between our two countries? In America, I can stand on Pennsylvania Avenue and say 'Regan is an idiot.'" The Soviet says "Our countries are not so different; I can stand in Red Square and say 'Regan is an idiot.'"
Take it one step further and save yourself some headache....instead of parallel 12V put a Transferswith/Inverter at the home's input. Keep the internal 120V wiring for convenience. With such a setup you can add generator, solar, wind, battery, or such for environmental or emergency purposes. Whole-home line conditioning is a nice option as well. You don't have to put the panels or mills in up front but it'll be a lot easier to do later.
We need to remember why the patent system was established in the fist place; it brought invention out of the shadows and brought revelation at the cost of exclusive license. Far too often in history knowledge was guilded and hoarded such that important concepts were not only lost but never expanded upon. The US patent system has been effective in this respect.
Failures include probabilistic patents (those that are intended to remain in application status and never be actually granted), software patents, business process patents, overworked/incompetent/bureaucratic patent office and examiners, and laws outpaced by technology and drafted imperfectly.
It is damn near broke. As a society we really need to have a conversation about this; a good patent system will produce good results spurring innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, and general technological development.
"Network Engineering" is by itself a rather encompassing term within which one would expect familiarity with layers 1 through 4 and a bit of the upper layers to boot. You, quite frankly, have a wide range of options open to you as far as career path:
1)RCDD/BICSI &c: Get a journeyman's electrician certificate and specialize in data wiring. More lucrative than you might think and doesn't quite require a college degree. A good wire/fiber guy is worth his weight in gold, in my experience.
2)Operations: Get your CCNA/P or like certificate and man a helpdesk. Low pay and low horizons. Avoid if possible.
3)College: Study something you are interested in and excel at it. CS and ECE are not the only paths, though perhaps the easiest, into a real career in "network engineering." I myself am an economics graduate which, at first glance, appears to have little to do with NE; economics is heavy on modeling, math and statistics, and analytical skills which dovetails nicely and you get a business background (something I do believe will become advantageous). College is a great place to participate in a ham radio group, concrete/paper canoe competition, and other associations and events that foster and nurture your inner geek. Many "NE" groups at universities hire a pool of students; seek employment with the university IT department part-time. This is a great way to really "learn" the day to day of NE and earn some coin.
I got 9 years this month doing "network engineering", and I love it. I actually am, perhaps the lucky one, since I did my first five years without a degree. Persistence, competence, and eventual promotion landed me a golden opportunity; my lack of a degree did hold me back from subsequent promotion thereafter. I cannot recommend this path to anyone as it required a fair bit of luck to pull off.
If you have the opportunity to get a college degree without breaking the bank I'd highly recommend it. Beyond the actual academic learning the social, intellectual, and general experience of university life can add real value to the degree and help you grow personally and professionally.
I fear far too many young people are beginning their careers, at least in the US, burdened by far too much debt. These are long term, and sometimes quite large, obligations; be wary and careful of how much, and particularly how you use, educational loans.
There has arisen a contention between civil liberties and 'homeland security' (a term i loath) precisely because a people cannot remain free and 'protected'. Freedom requires that the coercive and intrusive capabilities of authority are limited and restrained; 'protection' requires that they are not. Can these two interests be balanced appropriately?
I, for one, believe not. Perhaps for this reason that free people seem reflexively aggressive in foreign relation (US and GBR for example); the inability to sufficiently balance these two interests lends itself to the use of external direct force. As a free people desire that their authorities protect their interests and shield them from harm (via police, fire and rescue squads, ambulance services, and yes military) they will only allow so much intrusion upon their liberties (civil rights and liberties, privacy, dignity, &c). In order to achieve its mandate to 'protect' the citizenry the authority applies direct, sometimes extreme, force upon the external threat (be it a criminal, foreign power, bomb chucking anarchist, &c).
Unfortunately, authorities in the US have evidently determined that we have enough of neither. Rights, liberties, and simple human dignity is being lost while simultaneously a rather large and significant amount of external force is being applied.
Vandan, first I appreciate your response. The debate/discussion surrounding climate change is currently too uncivilized for truth to associate herself. I am a layman, economist by trade, geek by choice; that said:
This drives directly to my question. I can see, patently, that good data exists about the long term trends. Long term cycles and trends can and do, though not always, exhibit short term variation. Separating the two is in fact one of the great challenges for economists in analyzing data. Economists, though, generally deal with much more recent and sufficient data. Lucky us.
Interpreting the past is hard be it history, economics, or (in my estimation) climate science because the data is generally insufficient; we only have a certain number of data points within our set; we cannot directly observe the events in question; we rely upon what is left to us in books, writing, ruins, and yes ice cores. Is that sufficient data to make projections such as the Stern, IPCC, and other such reports?
Climate change is happening, has been happening, and appears likely to happen again (if the data I'm familiar with and my interpretation is correct). How accurately can we separate man's impact, if any, from natural variation (assuming we know something about the natural short-term variation, if any)?
I'm in a confused climate about the whole thing. I can only follow the science so far before the bounds of my own knowledge take hold.
That's really the part about climate change I don't understand: "We're seeing changes that would have taken tens of thousands of years in previous changes take tens of years instead." My understanding, at least, is that reliable weather data on a tens of years scale is only available for the last several hundred years.
Long term trends can exhibit high variability (above and below the trend) in the short term. We know in the past that over its history the earth cooled and warmed cyclically; we know the "larger trends" such as Ice Ages, Interglacials, &c. But what do we know about the short term variation around those trends.
My guess is it's close to little if anything.
But I don't know. If someone wants to comment on this particular topic I'd be appreciative.
One of the great obstacles in this debate is the mix of definitions and concepts. Global warming/cooling and climate change are natural processes. We aren't going to stop those (at least at our current technology level). Man-made or induced warming or change we can. But, often, when speaking both sides use "change" and "warming" to reference anthropogenic phenomenon. I can dispute the impact of man while still recognizing the impact of change or warming. All too often, greens appear quick to identify those who are skeptical of man's net impact as denying that change is taking place. Simple fact is that earth's climate varies quite remarkably in both the short term and long term. What has to be shown, with confidence, is that man is causing a deviation from the natural rhythm and cycle of climate variation.
Skepticism of anthropogenic climate warming and denying climate change are very different things.
Frankly, it appalls me that everyone assumes that scientists are unmotivated agents. They are just as susceptible to greed, avarice, deception, groupthink, and "doin's a' transpirin'" as anyone.
Slashdot Mirror
ministry of peace, love, and the rubber glove.
12.3? 12.4? SXH? SXI? I'm sure it is the IP Enterprise Edition of some flavor.
You, sir, are qualified for any number of management jobs...good luck! Dilbert's ghost.
Wait until the US Feds cram RealID down our throats. Roosevelt was warned of the dangers of a single national ID number; which he and his supporters dismissed. It only took 65-70 years for technology to catch up to this particular nightmare.
For a company that can to so many thing so well, they can't design a mouse for (#&$(*#. I mean really, the original iMac mouse hockey puck should have had someone's head on a platter for its utter uselessness. The newer mighty mouses aren't much better, though the scroll ball is cool. Their keyboard as well suck peanuts out of yesterday's *&#&. Easy to fix; though on a $2000 computer I expect better.
In a world of competing uses for scarce resources economics provides a non-normative way to analyze and balance those interests. Space exploration is great; so would be a cure to childhood leukemia. Don't look at it as depressing, rather as illuminating.
This is new? I had a DR contract with SunGuard 7-8 years ago that included this! They brought a trailer with machines, racks, network, &c in the event that we declared an extended disaster. All we had to do was provide a parking space, water, power, and a pair(s) of fiber.
Huh?
Old Cold War Joke:
A US and Soviet Diplomat are talking one day, when the American says "You know the difference, Ivan, between our two countries? In America, I can stand on Pennsylvania Avenue and say 'Regan is an idiot.'" The Soviet says "Our countries are not so different; I can stand in Red Square and say 'Regan is an idiot.'"
Take it one step further and save yourself some headache....instead of parallel 12V put a Transferswith/Inverter at the home's input. Keep the internal 120V wiring for convenience. With such a setup you can add generator, solar, wind, battery, or such for environmental or emergency purposes. Whole-home line conditioning is a nice option as well. You don't have to put the panels or mills in up front but it'll be a lot easier to do later.
We need to remember why the patent system was established in the fist place; it brought invention out of the shadows and brought revelation at the cost of exclusive license. Far too often in history knowledge was guilded and hoarded such that important concepts were not only lost but never expanded upon. The US patent system has been effective in this respect. Failures include probabilistic patents (those that are intended to remain in application status and never be actually granted), software patents, business process patents, overworked/incompetent/bureaucratic patent office and examiners, and laws outpaced by technology and drafted imperfectly. It is damn near broke. As a society we really need to have a conversation about this; a good patent system will produce good results spurring innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, and general technological development.
"Network Engineering" is by itself a rather encompassing term within which one would expect familiarity with layers 1 through 4 and a bit of the upper layers to boot. You, quite frankly, have a wide range of options open to you as far as career path:
1)RCDD/BICSI &c: Get a journeyman's electrician certificate and specialize in data wiring. More lucrative than you might think and doesn't quite require a college degree. A good wire/fiber guy is worth his weight in gold, in my experience.
2)Operations: Get your CCNA/P or like certificate and man a helpdesk. Low pay and low horizons. Avoid if possible.
3)College: Study something you are interested in and excel at it. CS and ECE are not the only paths, though perhaps the easiest, into a real career in "network engineering." I myself am an economics graduate which, at first glance, appears to have little to do with NE; economics is heavy on modeling, math and statistics, and analytical skills which dovetails nicely and you get a business background (something I do believe will become advantageous). College is a great place to participate in a ham radio group, concrete/paper canoe competition, and other associations and events that foster and nurture your inner geek. Many "NE" groups at universities hire a pool of students; seek employment with the university IT department part-time. This is a great way to really "learn" the day to day of NE and earn some coin.
I got 9 years this month doing "network engineering", and I love it. I actually am, perhaps the lucky one, since I did my first five years without a degree. Persistence, competence, and eventual promotion landed me a golden opportunity; my lack of a degree did hold me back from subsequent promotion thereafter. I cannot recommend this path to anyone as it required a fair bit of luck to pull off.
If you have the opportunity to get a college degree without breaking the bank I'd highly recommend it. Beyond the actual academic learning the social, intellectual, and general experience of university life can add real value to the degree and help you grow personally and professionally.
I fear far too many young people are beginning their careers, at least in the US, burdened by far too much debt. These are long term, and sometimes quite large, obligations; be wary and careful of how much, and particularly how you use, educational loans.
There has arisen a contention between civil liberties and 'homeland security' (a term i loath) precisely because a people cannot remain free and 'protected'. Freedom requires that the coercive and intrusive capabilities of authority are limited and restrained; 'protection' requires that they are not. Can these two interests be balanced appropriately?
I, for one, believe not. Perhaps for this reason that free people seem reflexively aggressive in foreign relation (US and GBR for example); the inability to sufficiently balance these two interests lends itself to the use of external direct force. As a free people desire that their authorities protect their interests and shield them from harm (via police, fire and rescue squads, ambulance services, and yes military) they will only allow so much intrusion upon their liberties (civil rights and liberties, privacy, dignity, &c). In order to achieve its mandate to 'protect' the citizenry the authority applies direct, sometimes extreme, force upon the external threat (be it a criminal, foreign power, bomb chucking anarchist, &c).
Unfortunately, authorities in the US have evidently determined that we have enough of neither. Rights, liberties, and simple human dignity is being lost while simultaneously a rather large and significant amount of external force is being applied.
Vandan, first I appreciate your response. The debate/discussion surrounding climate change is currently too uncivilized for truth to associate herself. I am a layman, economist by trade, geek by choice; that said: This drives directly to my question. I can see, patently, that good data exists about the long term trends. Long term cycles and trends can and do, though not always, exhibit short term variation. Separating the two is in fact one of the great challenges for economists in analyzing data. Economists, though, generally deal with much more recent and sufficient data. Lucky us. Interpreting the past is hard be it history, economics, or (in my estimation) climate science because the data is generally insufficient; we only have a certain number of data points within our set; we cannot directly observe the events in question; we rely upon what is left to us in books, writing, ruins, and yes ice cores. Is that sufficient data to make projections such as the Stern, IPCC, and other such reports? Climate change is happening, has been happening, and appears likely to happen again (if the data I'm familiar with and my interpretation is correct). How accurately can we separate man's impact, if any, from natural variation (assuming we know something about the natural short-term variation, if any)? I'm in a confused climate about the whole thing. I can only follow the science so far before the bounds of my own knowledge take hold.
That's really the part about climate change I don't understand: "We're seeing changes that would have taken tens of thousands of years in previous changes take tens of years instead." My understanding, at least, is that reliable weather data on a tens of years scale is only available for the last several hundred years.
Long term trends can exhibit high variability (above and below the trend) in the short term. We know in the past that over its history the earth cooled and warmed cyclically; we know the "larger trends" such as Ice Ages, Interglacials, &c. But what do we know about the short term variation around those trends.
My guess is it's close to little if anything.
But I don't know. If someone wants to comment on this particular topic I'd be appreciative.
One of the great obstacles in this debate is the mix of definitions and concepts. Global warming/cooling and climate change are natural processes. We aren't going to stop those (at least at our current technology level). Man-made or induced warming or change we can. But, often, when speaking both sides use "change" and "warming" to reference anthropogenic phenomenon. I can dispute the impact of man while still recognizing the impact of change or warming. All too often, greens appear quick to identify those who are skeptical of man's net impact as denying that change is taking place. Simple fact is that earth's climate varies quite remarkably in both the short term and long term. What has to be shown, with confidence, is that man is causing a deviation from the natural rhythm and cycle of climate variation. Skepticism of anthropogenic climate warming and denying climate change are very different things. Frankly, it appalls me that everyone assumes that scientists are unmotivated agents. They are just as susceptible to greed, avarice, deception, groupthink, and "doin's a' transpirin'" as anyone.