Thats the risk. Entering a nation with a laptop that hotel staff and airport staff have seen and reported on. Or buying hardware in the nation and using a new OS, new storage.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is not even bother with hardware. At all. When the threatscape calls for such extreme measures, it won't be long before any configuration you buy, build, or bring is compromised, especially as increased counter-surveillance actions mark you as the anomaly of interest.
Fly without a laptop. Arrive in the destination nation. Find a computer shop. Buy new ssd like media. Buy a new laptop that can have its installed ssd replaced.
Remove the factory ssd.
Update, install the productivity apps needed using a very secure VPN.
Use open source OS or a new copy of Windows 10.
Do all work with a VPN thats trusted and tested.
If your company demands you take their special secure "crypto" laptop, its a risk in another nation.
Do not trust any "cloud" brand, product or crypto service as other nations security services will be expecting that and have accessed it many times before.
Do not walk out of your hotel without your laptop. Staff will report that to their nations security services and the time will be used to access the laptop and plant gov malware.
On exit from that nation recycle the hardware after fully removing all data.
Do not return from any nation with any hardware or software. Ensure any uploads went to a secure VPN on an isolated secure network.
Even if the VPN fails the other nation gets nothing extra from your secure network or other projects.
Consider the same for any cell phone. Dont use the cell phone in the other nation for any normal calls or work calls. Buy a local phone only for urgent calls and give your new number via VPN. Expect all numbers called and voice prints to be fully collected by the nations security services.
If you want to take images of the trip, buy a cheap dslr or buy a much better quality cell phone. Use the card to move images to a different laptop, with a different VPN only to send images from.
Dont mix work files and another nations cell phone. Dont take the cell phone back with you. Dont mix the images with any other networks, data later.
Your recommendations include buying hardware while in another country. What the hell makes you think you can trust a foreign hardware vendor? If you're this paranoid, it would be easier to travel with known hardware and use strong encryption, hardware firewalls, and strong VPN services.
Also, more and more electronics are being made in a sealed form factor, thus there are no removable components like SSDs.
...We're at a kind of transition point for electronics anyway. Pretty soon we'll become very untethered from devices and be able to use our own information safely from anywhere without it getting compromised.
And how exactly will we become "untethered" from devices? You will need some kind of device to access your information, and devices will continue to be compromised, either by suppliers continuing to prioritize profits over secure designs, or by consumers exercising their right to not give a shit about security, and use poor practices.
One of the simplest ways to secure data would be encrypting a thumb drive. 95% of consumers don't know how to do this today, and don't care to take the time or effort to learn, regardless of the obvious benefit.
...Two incidents like this, they will never ever think of firing you.
No. They'll just realize the code is now fixed and they'll turn you into a part-time consultant, calling upon you only when something is broken. Charge whatever you want per hour; it won't replace your full-time benefits and salary.
They have the power. You have the knowledge. You can win them if you don't have any old fashioned misplaced sense of loyalty.
The misplaced sense is you assuming an employer is loyal to any employee. Nothing could be further from the truth these days.
When one is presented with two options, and chooses the better option, that isn't automatically greed.
Older people may be able to produce a higher quality product, justifying their higher price tag. But the market doesn't want to pay for the higher quality product, they are willing to accept some bugs and issues for a cheaper product. Of course they want the cheaper product to be just as good as the expensive one...but they pick the cheaper product nonetheless.
If buyers are picking the cheaper product, employers must pick the cheaper employees.
There is also quite a lot of greed in the world...but not every profitable decision is born of a vice.
The chasm between the 99% and the 1% continues to get wider and wider. That is driven by Greed.
Those who are making the business decisions are doing so in order to put more money back into their pockets. A 10-year strategic plan has turned into a 10-month plan. Executives are quick to get in, get theirs, and get out before competition consumes them, or a monopoly buys them out. Greed continues to drive reductions in force. The remaining workers are burdened with doing the work of the departed, and executives get bigger bonuses for sustaining the management mantra of doing more with less, which is now their creed. And this isn't some one-off anomaly. This is occurring everywhere, feeding the widening chasm.
Also, consumers can be rather ignorant as to what creates the ability to be cheap. A $5 t-shirt is better than the the same shirt priced at $20, not realizing the true cost was burdened in a sweat shop full of workers who represent 21st century slave labor. Yet another shining example of Greed at the helm.
The work force still believes that simply getting a year older means they deserve a cushier job with more benefits and a higher salary, learning and experience not required.
This worked for a short time when the economy and population was growing exponentially, it still works for many who grow their skill set year in year out, but not so much any longer for your average Joe. In many cases it would make more sense to take a pay-cut every year. Since this concept is still so embedded in everyone's psyche, unfortunately, that is not what happens. companies just hold on to people until their salaries gets too unreasonable (or just never hire them full time) and then let them go.
I don't know what time warp you fell through, but this logic hasn't really been true since baby boomers were the ones employed.
The higher salary demand? The main thing employees are trying to sustain is that our salary keep up with the cost of living. If the cost of living were not in constant increase, then many people would be satisfied with a reasonable salary.
What is also driving many to demand higher salary is a massive increase in responsibilities and hours. Businesses are doing more with far less employees. Everyone I know these days isn't just wearing 1 or 2 hats at work. They're wearing 3 to 4 as companies lay off workers and do not replace them, demanding more from the remaining staff. Employees get more and more irritated that their companies are turning workers into slaves. They ultimately end up leaving the organization, only to find the grass is no greener elsewhere. It's pathetic, and will ultimately cause our working society to break down physically and mentally.
As far as taking a pay cut every year? I'll do that right after you enforce it for those at the top half of the org chart consuming the other 50% of the payroll burden. Let's see how well that shit works out. Also taking a pay cut every year would financially make sense if consumers were actually able to own shit in life. The concept of ownership is quickly becoming extinct in favor of Greed and the recurring revenue model. Everything is becoming a service now, with a never-ending bill attached to it. Don't assume expenses are going to go down to support a pay-cut model as the Millennial generation looks towards their senior years of employment and retirement (assuming they're not replaced by automation before then). They'll probably be facing more service-based costs than ever before in the coming decades. We all will.
The chasm between the 99% and the 1% continues to grow. UBI isn't a viable answer either, because the 1% will be tasked with funding UBI, and Greed will lobby to ensure to pay the unemployable masses a welfare pittance, and not a penny more.
Humanity still faces one main mathematical problem destroying our future; Solve for Greed.
No, I don't agree with the concept of asking for this information when crossing borders (mainly because I don't see it as an effective deterrent), but it appears that everyone is really pissed off and offended about people asking for their social media associations, as if you're really making an effort to hide yourself online.
Pro tip; It's not really difficult to figure out it's you based on the 927 selfies you posted last month as "InstaWhore69".
The irony of a generation of social media narcissists wanting to label their online associations as private and sensitive information while they do their best to get the most clicks, likes, looks, and e-friends on the planet fucking kills me.
Every single thing you've said is an empty, lazy excuse for critique that has been repeated ad nauseam by every generation preceding yours. Except for the lemmings thing, which is just a bullshit myth.
You are not, and never will be, the world-weary cynic you're straining so hard to appear to be. Everyone sees how needy you are.
Every single thing I've said has been repeated as nauseam by intelligent humans past or present who value critical thinking and leadership, and enjoy interactions with other capable humans to create a rewarding and unique life that can be reflected upon positively, and without regret.
Those who continue to oppose such activity likely are not, and never will be part of that society who actually values a rewarding life, and instead prefers following the mindless activity that drones from the masses, which often amounts to providing little or no value in the end when reflecting upon it all.
It's time that you should be able to program your car with your own codes because obviously dealerships cannot be trusted to secure them.
Nothing is stopping you from having the locks changed the day you buy it. Changing codes is normally harder, sometimes requiring changing out the computer.
Uh yeah, nothing is stopping you, except for the fact that "locks" these days are in fact codes, because many cars aren't coming with physical keys anymore. They're configured with wireless keyfobs instead. Not even an ignition key. My cars have been that way for 10 years now.
Social standing isn't the same thing as a desire to have seen a film that your friends are talking about, so that you may enjoy a conversation about it with them. It's great that you consider yourself so separate from other human beings, that making some effort to be on the same page as them is beneath you. The rest of humanity, meanwhile, is interested in a shared cultural experience - and is willing to pay a bit of money for that too.
And then there are those of us who hardly define a cultural experience as going to see yet another reboot, or a horribly predictable sequel, which is what comprises 90% of cinema entertainment these days. Discussing which piece of meat fucked the Bachelorette At First Sight last night with the Honey Boo Boo generation is not exactly what I would call enriching discussion either. Scrolling through pages and pages of endless narcissism on social media? I'd prefer to sit and actually talk with one of my friends in person. Create an experience I might actually value and remember a year from now instead of being one of a thousand Instagram posts or Tweets, buried deep in a never-see-it-again e-hole.
I see where society is now standing; down a few rungs on the cultural ladder. And I'm certainly not alone in my observations.
TL; DR - Lemmings have cultural experiences too, always ending with cliff jumping.
In this particular aspect, the Europeans GET IT. And we Americans have completely lost that concept, to the detriment of our minds, our bodies, and the working society as a whole.
You're correct here.
American workers need to start demanding that their employers respect the concept of vacation. Taking vacation is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of sanity and common sense.
But this is pure lunacy. Americans aren't going to *demand* anything of employers. Remember, Americans are perfectly happy to vote for politicians who enact policies that are ever-more-advantageous for abusive employers. It's not going to get any better here any time soon.
The pure lunacy here is assuming that Americans actually vote, or give a shit enough to recognize their capability to enact real change in their environment. They've become lemmings. Uncaring of everything unless it affects them in some direct and egregious way (like their Twitter feed getting hacked, Facebook going offline, or something equally pathetic).
Death by 1,000 cuts is an effective tactic to enact change across the masses. Has been for a very long time. Most citizens don't even notice change until it's far too late.
Some of the articles seem to indicate employees are stumbling across illegal images as part of their repair process. But they are retrieving images from slack space, which afaik is not something a best buy type repair tech would do as part of a repair. So the techs are at a minimum using forensic tools to recover data.
Exactly. Not something that is likely to be found in the standard bucket o' e-tools for a Geek Squad tech. I'd be shocked if 10% of them even know what a forensic scan was.
Also where are they billing the time for these non repair activities?...forensic scans are time consuming.
Chances are they were not billing anyone. Given the amount of time scans take, techs were probably initiating them at the end of a work day, and letting them run overnight, while everyone was technically off the clock.
ISP's can legally sell your data in the U.S., so agencies can just purchase your browsing history instead of getting a warrant.
This may be true, but the burden of proof is still outstanding as to which person in a multi-member household is responsible for questionable internet activity. Even more so if you also run a public WiFi hotspot (which could be justification for or against operating one).
It's relevant because it means that the police can avoid the 4th amendment simply by having a 3rd party examine things instead of the police doing it directly. It's another word game that's being used to gut the 4th
I don't see it as 3rd party at all. If you are under the direct employ of a law enforcement agency (contracting, consulting, or otherwise), you should be bound by all of the legalities the parent organization is bound by.
There's only one way to describe their actions here; circumventing the law. And NO law-enforcement or government official would appreciate the tables being turned on them, so the activity should NOT be acceptable in any way, shape, or form.
We're also not talking about circumventing the law against jaywalking here. This is the Fourth Amendment.
You can also time shift all movies by a year, and get them much cheaper.
And miss out on any social aspect of discussing recent movies with friends, or reading entertainment related news without things being spoiled. Granted that isn't important for everyone, but it is a big reason I see Marvel / Star Wars movies within a couple weeks of their release.
We used to call this bullshit "peer pressure". These days, you simply label it as the cost of being a member of society.
Because people with children exist, and want to watch movies without disturbing a whole cinema full of people, or having to hire a baby sitter.
Also, because home movie setups are a lot more comfortable than typical theatre setups.
Also, because people with older children exist, and 5 cinema tickets costs more than $50.
Not sure if you've noticed or not, but most movies these days are geared for the adult age group, so they don't really care what your 5x movie expenses are.
In short, fuck your ticket costs. They figure if you can afford to have children in the first place, you can afford to take them to the random Disney movie. After all, you're spending a shitload more than that just raising them.
I don't think it's going to be as big a problem as it's been made out to be every advancement prior has ended up creating new jobs or allowing new jobs to exist. Although I think we are going to have to put a lot more focus on retraining people so they can find a new job.
Change is a PITA.
The next wave is not going to be anything like history, because automation will replace human employment with solutions that will be superior in every way, including cost. Or should I say especially cost.
And it won't even take full-fledged AI to replace the rest. AI-like systems will be good enough to replace many more jobs that previously required humans.
This will happen, because humans have become too expensive. They get sick, make mistakes, need sleep, get stressed, might quit, or even die. If a cheaper solution is out there, you better damn well believe Greed will demand it.
...It's about users being willing to give up customization they don't care about to have a more efficient experience.
Speaking of what people don't care about, in exchange for a little efficiency they're giving up control and destroying every shred of privacy with it. This is what people are actually giving up, so let's drop the sales pitch already.
It would be a different argument if next-gen technology were not doing this, but that is not the case, and it never will be. The profit genie is out of the bottle, and monetizing your digital soul is the way business is done today, whether you like it or not.
Personally I can't wait until ubiquitous Amazon Echo-type devices make even cell phone screens a bit unnecessary.
Well, at least you've clarified how you feel about privacy being unnecessary. Welcome to your future. I hope you like it, 'cause if you don't, the masses don't care anyway.
"...it suggests certain behaviors instead. "In the end people decide," says Essential."
People decide? That's a laugh. People are more manipulated by what someone or something else tells them more than ever, to the point where they absolutely rely on it. Can't date without running it through a profiling engine. Can't eat at a restaurant without reviewing the opinions of several million taste buds first. Can't buy products without validating that purchase with a strangers opinion. Create a friendship or relationship from scratch? No way. It must be suggested or recommended by a network of friends of friends first.
TL; DR - A human engaging in cognitive thinking? What the fuck for? - The Future
...So, say I go on vacation and actually manage to relax (as opposed to the usual vacation and still managing projects). And then get the benefit of coming back to every one one of my projects in an emergency state and on fire. And everyone gets "all yelly." Any stress that I relieved on the week off now all shows up at once.
If your absence from a project creates this kind of turmoil, then I sure hope you're doing the right thing and demanding more money every time you step away and take some time off.
This is the modern American workplace. I do not wish this upon my children. We don't take a vacation because it is actually less stressful to just keep working.
If this is truly something you do not wish upon your children, then continuing to support it sure as hell ain't the answer. The only thing this will get you is early retirement due to premature death, which is why I say you go for the money grab. Would be easier to try and retire out of that life than deal with the never ending stress until it kills you.
...for replacing computer hardware every 2-3 years that too is mostly a Microsoft Windows thing. The Windows registry bloat, file system fragmentation, system library migrations effecting installed applications, and lets not forget the need for virus protection looking at every bit and byte moving around inside the OS and the horrible Windows Update system. They replace the computer to start fresh.
I was actually referring to the real limitations forcing users to replace computing devices every 2-3 years; non-removable batteries and vendor support. This of course is by design to maximize revenue.
And for that reason, we should expect this hardware longevity trend to continue. If the battery starts lasting longer, then vendors will simply stop pushing firmware or security updates and make the device "outdated" in order to maximize revenue.
Here's a good example. I bought one of those "smart" Blu-Ray players less than 4 years ago. Vendor stopped pushing firmware updates to it long ago, so now almost all of the "smart" capability is no longer supported or functional. There's absolutely zero reason for me to replace the unit when it still functions perfectly as a Blu-Ray player but if I want other functionality, I'm now forced to upgrade it. It's pathetic.
Greed will always win, and not give a shit about prematurely filling landfills pointlessly.
The simple fact is that if I'm gone for a day, the amount of work I come back to is more than a day's worth.
Wow. Ever wonder what's going to happen when you die? All that work, just piling up while you're abusing the shit out of your sick time attending your own funeral.
Or perhaps you'll force yourself to go into the workplace with a highly contagious virus, and infect half the workplace. Maybe even send one of two co-workers to the hospital. You know, because your Inbox can't afford even a single day of you not attending to it.
Vacation is provided to employees for a reason, and should not be merely dismissed due to workload. Put another way, if your mentality were to become infectious, there would be no such thing as a day off. For anyone. Ever. Talk about a path to an early grave.
Slashdot Mirror
Thats the risk. Entering a nation with a laptop that hotel staff and airport staff have seen and reported on. Or buying hardware in the nation and using a new OS, new storage.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is not even bother with hardware. At all. When the threatscape calls for such extreme measures, it won't be long before any configuration you buy, build, or bring is compromised, especially as increased counter-surveillance actions mark you as the anomaly of interest.
Fly without a laptop. Arrive in the destination nation. Find a computer shop. Buy new ssd like media. Buy a new laptop that can have its installed ssd replaced. Remove the factory ssd. Update, install the productivity apps needed using a very secure VPN. Use open source OS or a new copy of Windows 10. Do all work with a VPN thats trusted and tested. If your company demands you take their special secure "crypto" laptop, its a risk in another nation. Do not trust any "cloud" brand, product or crypto service as other nations security services will be expecting that and have accessed it many times before. Do not walk out of your hotel without your laptop. Staff will report that to their nations security services and the time will be used to access the laptop and plant gov malware. On exit from that nation recycle the hardware after fully removing all data. Do not return from any nation with any hardware or software. Ensure any uploads went to a secure VPN on an isolated secure network. Even if the VPN fails the other nation gets nothing extra from your secure network or other projects. Consider the same for any cell phone. Dont use the cell phone in the other nation for any normal calls or work calls. Buy a local phone only for urgent calls and give your new number via VPN. Expect all numbers called and voice prints to be fully collected by the nations security services. If you want to take images of the trip, buy a cheap dslr or buy a much better quality cell phone. Use the card to move images to a different laptop, with a different VPN only to send images from. Dont mix work files and another nations cell phone. Dont take the cell phone back with you. Dont mix the images with any other networks, data later.
Your recommendations include buying hardware while in another country. What the hell makes you think you can trust a foreign hardware vendor? If you're this paranoid, it would be easier to travel with known hardware and use strong encryption, hardware firewalls, and strong VPN services.
Also, more and more electronics are being made in a sealed form factor, thus there are no removable components like SSDs.
...We're at a kind of transition point for electronics anyway. Pretty soon we'll become very untethered from devices and be able to use our own information safely from anywhere without it getting compromised.
And how exactly will we become "untethered" from devices? You will need some kind of device to access your information, and devices will continue to be compromised, either by suppliers continuing to prioritize profits over secure designs, or by consumers exercising their right to not give a shit about security, and use poor practices.
One of the simplest ways to secure data would be encrypting a thumb drive. 95% of consumers don't know how to do this today, and don't care to take the time or effort to learn, regardless of the obvious benefit.
...Two incidents like this, they will never ever think of firing you.
No. They'll just realize the code is now fixed and they'll turn you into a part-time consultant, calling upon you only when something is broken. Charge whatever you want per hour; it won't replace your full-time benefits and salary.
They have the power. You have the knowledge. You can win them if you don't have any old fashioned misplaced sense of loyalty.
The misplaced sense is you assuming an employer is loyal to any employee. Nothing could be further from the truth these days.
When one is presented with two options, and chooses the better option, that isn't automatically greed.
Older people may be able to produce a higher quality product, justifying their higher price tag. But the market doesn't want to pay for the higher quality product, they are willing to accept some bugs and issues for a cheaper product. Of course they want the cheaper product to be just as good as the expensive one...but they pick the cheaper product nonetheless.
If buyers are picking the cheaper product, employers must pick the cheaper employees.
There is also quite a lot of greed in the world...but not every profitable decision is born of a vice.
The chasm between the 99% and the 1% continues to get wider and wider. That is driven by Greed.
Those who are making the business decisions are doing so in order to put more money back into their pockets. A 10-year strategic plan has turned into a 10-month plan. Executives are quick to get in, get theirs, and get out before competition consumes them, or a monopoly buys them out. Greed continues to drive reductions in force. The remaining workers are burdened with doing the work of the departed, and executives get bigger bonuses for sustaining the management mantra of doing more with less, which is now their creed. And this isn't some one-off anomaly. This is occurring everywhere, feeding the widening chasm.
Also, consumers can be rather ignorant as to what creates the ability to be cheap. A $5 t-shirt is better than the the same shirt priced at $20, not realizing the true cost was burdened in a sweat shop full of workers who represent 21st century slave labor. Yet another shining example of Greed at the helm.
The work force still believes that simply getting a year older means they deserve a cushier job with more benefits and a higher salary, learning and experience not required.
This worked for a short time when the economy and population was growing exponentially, it still works for many who grow their skill set year in year out, but not so much any longer for your average Joe. In many cases it would make more sense to take a pay-cut every year. Since this concept is still so embedded in everyone's psyche, unfortunately, that is not what happens. companies just hold on to people until their salaries gets too unreasonable (or just never hire them full time) and then let them go.
I don't know what time warp you fell through, but this logic hasn't really been true since baby boomers were the ones employed.
The higher salary demand? The main thing employees are trying to sustain is that our salary keep up with the cost of living. If the cost of living were not in constant increase, then many people would be satisfied with a reasonable salary.
What is also driving many to demand higher salary is a massive increase in responsibilities and hours. Businesses are doing more with far less employees. Everyone I know these days isn't just wearing 1 or 2 hats at work. They're wearing 3 to 4 as companies lay off workers and do not replace them, demanding more from the remaining staff. Employees get more and more irritated that their companies are turning workers into slaves. They ultimately end up leaving the organization, only to find the grass is no greener elsewhere. It's pathetic, and will ultimately cause our working society to break down physically and mentally.
As far as taking a pay cut every year? I'll do that right after you enforce it for those at the top half of the org chart consuming the other 50% of the payroll burden. Let's see how well that shit works out. Also taking a pay cut every year would financially make sense if consumers were actually able to own shit in life. The concept of ownership is quickly becoming extinct in favor of Greed and the recurring revenue model. Everything is becoming a service now, with a never-ending bill attached to it. Don't assume expenses are going to go down to support a pay-cut model as the Millennial generation looks towards their senior years of employment and retirement (assuming they're not replaced by automation before then). They'll probably be facing more service-based costs than ever before in the coming decades. We all will.
The chasm between the 99% and the 1% continues to grow. UBI isn't a viable answer either, because the 1% will be tasked with funding UBI, and Greed will lobby to ensure to pay the unemployable masses a welfare pittance, and not a penny more.
Humanity still faces one main mathematical problem destroying our future; Solve for Greed.
"...Another labor attorney even suggests tech firms are hiring younger workers because they ask for lower salaries and less time off.
Kudos to TFS for cutting through the bullshit to identify the real reason ageism exists.
I grow tired of looking for other excuses when it's rather obvious what the cause is.
Greed.
And no, there does not appear to be an escape from that.
No, I don't agree with the concept of asking for this information when crossing borders (mainly because I don't see it as an effective deterrent), but it appears that everyone is really pissed off and offended about people asking for their social media associations, as if you're really making an effort to hide yourself online.
Pro tip; It's not really difficult to figure out it's you based on the 927 selfies you posted last month as "InstaWhore69".
The irony of a generation of social media narcissists wanting to label their online associations as private and sensitive information while they do their best to get the most clicks, likes, looks, and e-friends on the planet fucking kills me.
Every single thing you've said is an empty, lazy excuse for critique that has been repeated ad nauseam by every generation preceding yours. Except for the lemmings thing, which is just a bullshit myth.
You are not, and never will be, the world-weary cynic you're straining so hard to appear to be. Everyone sees how needy you are.
Every single thing I've said has been repeated as nauseam by intelligent humans past or present who value critical thinking and leadership, and enjoy interactions with other capable humans to create a rewarding and unique life that can be reflected upon positively, and without regret.
Those who continue to oppose such activity likely are not, and never will be part of that society who actually values a rewarding life, and instead prefers following the mindless activity that drones from the masses, which often amounts to providing little or no value in the end when reflecting upon it all.
It's time that you should be able to program your car with your own codes because obviously dealerships cannot be trusted to secure them.
Nothing is stopping you from having the locks changed the day you buy it. Changing codes is normally harder, sometimes requiring changing out the computer.
Uh yeah, nothing is stopping you, except for the fact that "locks" these days are in fact codes, because many cars aren't coming with physical keys anymore. They're configured with wireless keyfobs instead. Not even an ignition key. My cars have been that way for 10 years now.
Social standing isn't the same thing as a desire to have seen a film that your friends are talking about, so that you may enjoy a conversation about it with them. It's great that you consider yourself so separate from other human beings, that making some effort to be on the same page as them is beneath you. The rest of humanity, meanwhile, is interested in a shared cultural experience - and is willing to pay a bit of money for that too.
And then there are those of us who hardly define a cultural experience as going to see yet another reboot, or a horribly predictable sequel, which is what comprises 90% of cinema entertainment these days. Discussing which piece of meat fucked the Bachelorette At First Sight last night with the Honey Boo Boo generation is not exactly what I would call enriching discussion either. Scrolling through pages and pages of endless narcissism on social media? I'd prefer to sit and actually talk with one of my friends in person. Create an experience I might actually value and remember a year from now instead of being one of a thousand Instagram posts or Tweets, buried deep in a never-see-it-again e-hole.
I see where society is now standing; down a few rungs on the cultural ladder. And I'm certainly not alone in my observations.
TL; DR - Lemmings have cultural experiences too, always ending with cliff jumping.
In this particular aspect, the Europeans GET IT. And we Americans have completely lost that concept, to the detriment of our minds, our bodies, and the working society as a whole.
You're correct here.
American workers need to start demanding that their employers respect the concept of vacation. Taking vacation is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of sanity and common sense.
But this is pure lunacy. Americans aren't going to *demand* anything of employers. Remember, Americans are perfectly happy to vote for politicians who enact policies that are ever-more-advantageous for abusive employers. It's not going to get any better here any time soon.
The pure lunacy here is assuming that Americans actually vote, or give a shit enough to recognize their capability to enact real change in their environment. They've become lemmings. Uncaring of everything unless it affects them in some direct and egregious way (like their Twitter feed getting hacked, Facebook going offline, or something equally pathetic).
Death by 1,000 cuts is an effective tactic to enact change across the masses. Has been for a very long time. Most citizens don't even notice change until it's far too late.
Some of the articles seem to indicate employees are stumbling across illegal images as part of their repair process. But they are retrieving images from slack space, which afaik is not something a best buy type repair tech would do as part of a repair. So the techs are at a minimum using forensic tools to recover data.
Exactly. Not something that is likely to be found in the standard bucket o' e-tools for a Geek Squad tech. I'd be shocked if 10% of them even know what a forensic scan was.
Also where are they billing the time for these non repair activities?...forensic scans are time consuming.
Chances are they were not billing anyone. Given the amount of time scans take, techs were probably initiating them at the end of a work day, and letting them run overnight, while everyone was technically off the clock.
depends, what if you said there was a problem with the trunk latch and you wanted him to look at it?
"Hi, my CD drive isn't working. Oh and while you're at it, can you take a look at my unallocated drive space?", said NO ONE EVER.
ISP's can legally sell your data in the U.S., so agencies can just purchase your browsing history instead of getting a warrant.
This may be true, but the burden of proof is still outstanding as to which person in a multi-member household is responsible for questionable internet activity. Even more so if you also run a public WiFi hotspot (which could be justification for or against operating one).
It's relevant because it means that the police can avoid the 4th amendment simply by having a 3rd party examine things instead of the police doing it directly. It's another word game that's being used to gut the 4th
I don't see it as 3rd party at all. If you are under the direct employ of a law enforcement agency (contracting, consulting, or otherwise), you should be bound by all of the legalities the parent organization is bound by.
There's only one way to describe their actions here; circumventing the law. And NO law-enforcement or government official would appreciate the tables being turned on them, so the activity should NOT be acceptable in any way, shape, or form.
We're also not talking about circumventing the law against jaywalking here. This is the Fourth Amendment.
You can also time shift all movies by a year, and get them much cheaper.
And miss out on any social aspect of discussing recent movies with friends, or reading entertainment related news without things being spoiled. Granted that isn't important for everyone, but it is a big reason I see Marvel / Star Wars movies within a couple weeks of their release.
We used to call this bullshit "peer pressure". These days, you simply label it as the cost of being a member of society.
Enjoy the brainwashing.
Because people with children exist, and want to watch movies without disturbing a whole cinema full of people, or having to hire a baby sitter.
Also, because home movie setups are a lot more comfortable than typical theatre setups.
Also, because people with older children exist, and 5 cinema tickets costs more than $50.
Not sure if you've noticed or not, but most movies these days are geared for the adult age group, so they don't really care what your 5x movie expenses are.
In short, fuck your ticket costs. They figure if you can afford to have children in the first place, you can afford to take them to the random Disney movie. After all, you're spending a shitload more than that just raising them.
I don't think it's going to be as big a problem as it's been made out to be every advancement prior has ended up creating new jobs or allowing new jobs to exist. Although I think we are going to have to put a lot more focus on retraining people so they can find a new job.
Change is a PITA.
The next wave is not going to be anything like history, because automation will replace human employment with solutions that will be superior in every way, including cost. Or should I say especially cost.
And it won't even take full-fledged AI to replace the rest. AI-like systems will be good enough to replace many more jobs that previously required humans.
This will happen, because humans have become too expensive. They get sick, make mistakes, need sleep, get stressed, might quit, or even die. If a cheaper solution is out there, you better damn well believe Greed will demand it.
...It's about users being willing to give up customization they don't care about to have a more efficient experience.
Speaking of what people don't care about, in exchange for a little efficiency they're giving up control and destroying every shred of privacy with it. This is what people are actually giving up, so let's drop the sales pitch already.
It would be a different argument if next-gen technology were not doing this, but that is not the case, and it never will be. The profit genie is out of the bottle, and monetizing your digital soul is the way business is done today, whether you like it or not.
Personally I can't wait until ubiquitous Amazon Echo-type devices make even cell phone screens a bit unnecessary.
Well, at least you've clarified how you feel about privacy being unnecessary. Welcome to your future. I hope you like it, 'cause if you don't, the masses don't care anyway.
"...it suggests certain behaviors instead. "In the end people decide," says Essential."
People decide? That's a laugh. People are more manipulated by what someone or something else tells them more than ever, to the point where they absolutely rely on it. Can't date without running it through a profiling engine. Can't eat at a restaurant without reviewing the opinions of several million taste buds first. Can't buy products without validating that purchase with a strangers opinion. Create a friendship or relationship from scratch? No way. It must be suggested or recommended by a network of friends of friends first.
TL; DR - A human engaging in cognitive thinking? What the fuck for? - The Future
...So, say I go on vacation and actually manage to relax (as opposed to the usual vacation and still managing projects). And then get the benefit of coming back to every one one of my projects in an emergency state and on fire. And everyone gets "all yelly." Any stress that I relieved on the week off now all shows up at once.
If your absence from a project creates this kind of turmoil, then I sure hope you're doing the right thing and demanding more money every time you step away and take some time off.
This is the modern American workplace. I do not wish this upon my children. We don't take a vacation because it is actually less stressful to just keep working.
If this is truly something you do not wish upon your children, then continuing to support it sure as hell ain't the answer. The only thing this will get you is early retirement due to premature death, which is why I say you go for the money grab. Would be easier to try and retire out of that life than deal with the never ending stress until it kills you.
...for replacing computer hardware every 2-3 years that too is mostly a Microsoft Windows thing. The Windows registry bloat, file system fragmentation, system library migrations effecting installed applications, and lets not forget the need for virus protection looking at every bit and byte moving around inside the OS and the horrible Windows Update system. They replace the computer to start fresh.
I was actually referring to the real limitations forcing users to replace computing devices every 2-3 years; non-removable batteries and vendor support. This of course is by design to maximize revenue.
And for that reason, we should expect this hardware longevity trend to continue. If the battery starts lasting longer, then vendors will simply stop pushing firmware or security updates and make the device "outdated" in order to maximize revenue.
Here's a good example. I bought one of those "smart" Blu-Ray players less than 4 years ago. Vendor stopped pushing firmware updates to it long ago, so now almost all of the "smart" capability is no longer supported or functional. There's absolutely zero reason for me to replace the unit when it still functions perfectly as a Blu-Ray player but if I want other functionality, I'm now forced to upgrade it. It's pathetic.
Greed will always win, and not give a shit about prematurely filling landfills pointlessly.
...and it's not because I love work.
The simple fact is that if I'm gone for a day, the amount of work I come back to is more than a day's worth.
Wow. Ever wonder what's going to happen when you die? All that work, just piling up while you're abusing the shit out of your sick time attending your own funeral.
Or perhaps you'll force yourself to go into the workplace with a highly contagious virus, and infect half the workplace. Maybe even send one of two co-workers to the hospital. You know, because your Inbox can't afford even a single day of you not attending to it.
Vacation is provided to employees for a reason, and should not be merely dismissed due to workload. Put another way, if your mentality were to become infectious, there would be no such thing as a day off. For anyone. Ever. Talk about a path to an early grave.
We are human, not robots.
And there's why they're trying to replace you with robots right now.
Sigh. Can't even argue with this fact. The sad reality is Greed is insatiable. Not even the impact of humans being unemployable will stop it.