You seem to have a bit of trust issues in the hiring process. So far, I have not had any issue hiring people and determining that they knew what they were talking about versus faking it. There are some basic things that you expect people to know and, if they don't know them, you expect them to behave in a certain way such as simply admit it instead of trying to BS through it. I remember an interview that I was in and I didn't know the answer to a particular technical question and I said that I didn't know. I ended up getting that job. My opinion is the personality of the person that you hire is more important than technical ability because people can learn to improve their technical ability, but people can't really improve their personality. That isn't to say technical ability isn't important, just the second thing that I look for.
Security experts have been warning about this and saying that two channel authentication (like text messages or emailing codes) is not true two factor authentication. For two factor authentication, it has to be tied directly to a device and the device cannot be changed without a enrollment process (for example, with Google Authenticator, where you see the code once and cannot retrieve it again). In this way, you either have to use a phishing mechanism to get the code or have physical access to the device. Getting access to the users phone number or email address does not allow you to get the code with two factor authentication because it is truly something you have (your device).
Just because someone announces they are going to sue, doesn't mean it is going to go somewhere. Civil lawsuits are pretty much the only way for private citizens to go against large companies and have a remote chance of hurting the company. "Tort reform is the large companies trying to making fighting them impossible or not worth the effort. Meditation in the terms and condition of every product and service imaginable along with using lobbyists and P.R. to get news like this in the press in order to make "tort reform" an issue the private citizens can get behind when in reality tort reform is designed with the SOLE PURPOSE of hurting individuals and helping large companies.
I'm in the exact same situation. I've worked in Silicon Valley and got paid significantly more than I'm getting paid now, but I went through 3 jobs in 2.5 years. I'm now at a very stable job with decent pay, annual raises, excellent insurance and vacation time, a great retirement plan, and job security. After the turnover that was part of the bleeding edge IT industry, a stable position is very nice to have. I'm also able to do a lot of IT tasks at my current job including systems administration, programming, security, etc. in an effort to keep my skills sharp. To me, happiness and stability are significantly more important than pay (obviously to a point).
It seems to me like the path to knowledge goes as follows:
1. Beginner - you know you have a lot to learn and don't know anything about the subject 2. Amateur - you think you know everything you need to know 3. Expert - you know what you know, but realize there a many things you don't know
If someone says the know everything about something, then, in general, they don't. Amateurs tend to over estimate their ability and experts tend to under estimate their ability. Knowing that there are things you don't know (and attempting to fill in the gaps when required) is the main way to become an expert in a field.
I did a similar thing with a heat gun and a non-functional PS3. I ran the heat gun over the CPU and it bought me another month of life on the unit. After 3 times of doing this and getting less and less life out of it each time, I purchased a new PS3. To my delight, the new one has been working ever since.
I am of the opinion, and have been for a while, that casual coding (i.e. coding something in your free time, not backed by hint of monetary gain) is at the heart of the problem. People code casually because it is fun to do. They don't like writing comments, documentation, or clean code. This is not to mention that these project need good people that can write this complex code and putting massive amounts of rules and coding practices is not going to attract people to code in their free time. When you have code that is backed by money and/or a company, the motivation exists to do the not fun stuff, but the required stuff to make code more secure, more easy to audit, and easier to understand. Without that type of backing, you have people hacking away writing code as quick and dirty as possible. That is the reputation that FOSS is trying to get rid of. That is the reputation that hurts its adoption rate, especially in critical and important systems. That is the reputation that the OpenSSL vulnerability drags kicking and screaming into the limelight. Unfortunately, it is a reputation that has a significant basis in reality and, in my opinion, the Heartbleed vulnerability will have lasting effects for years to come.
Yes, and then they'll get mad when the obviously unintended coupon interaction doesn't get honored, the price error order gets canceled, or the store refuses to honor the post rebate price of an item. They try to screw the system and when the system fights back they start whining about it. I've used a few questionable deals, but those NEVER get on the front page of the Slickdeals, you have to dig into the forums to find them. In every case, the company acknowledged the error and didn't honor the deal. I didn't get mad because it was expected behavior. There are also deals that seem to be too good to be true, but are actually intended as a promotional tool. There have even been deals that weren't that great, but the company ends up refusing to honor them because if the unexpected number of responses to it (those make be feel a bit upset with the company). An example of that is a company offering a free one dollar item without purchase and then later telling customers they intended for it to be with purchase and then proceed put you on their email list anyhow.
I hate it when people have the impression that they are entitled to steal from others. I use the SlickDeals website and a lot of time they have some great deals, but if you dig deeper into the forums on that site, there is a dark side. This is my opinion, if you took a code and used it for yourself, you are stealing, but maybe the temptation was a bit too great. It is like finding a 20 dollar bill on the floor and keeping it. You know it isn't yours, but the person of irresponsible enough to lose 20 dollars so they kind of deserve it. If, on the other, you generated hundreds of codes and start selling them on Ebay, you are stealing and being a complete dick. That is like watching someone drop their wallet, pretending not to notice, picking it up when the person is out of sight, cleaning out all of the cash, and then tossing the wallet in the dumpster outside.
The fear-mongering and exaggerations are quite evident in the comments to the article. You may not agree with the premise behind the article, but the lack of net neutrality does not spell the end of the Internet or any sort of doom and gloom. Comcast still has to keep it's customer base happy enough to stick with them because unlike what some people believe there are other options nearly everywhere. I don't buy into the doomsday talk and I do agree that, similar to the IPv4 doomsday talk, there is a a lot of FUD surrounding this issue and people seem to be talking about it with their emotions and not looking at it logically.
I'm currently using a VPN when using Netflix on Comcast. In my tests, I've found the buffering takes about 4 times less time when using the VPN and the quality is significantly better. When I perform speed tests on my Comcast connection, I get around 30 Mbps download rates. My guess is that Comcast is directing Netflix connections through a shaper or fixed bandwidth pipe in order to limit the amount of data travelling over their network. I have noticed this problem within the last year or so, when I first got Comcast in my area this was not a problem and Comcast behaved just as it now does over the VPN connection.
I had been an avid Opera fan since I first started using it quite a few years ago. I used it when it was the only browser that had tabbed browsing. A feature that is now part of every browser out there. The folks behind the Opera browser were innovators. They had tabs, the speed dial, Opera link (which would sync bookmarks and other items between your browsers), and gestures years before other browsers and they fully believed in being standards compliant. When I heard they were moving away from being a browser developer to being a browser repackager, I stopped using it. They went from innovating to tagging along for a ride. I recently fired up the new version of Opera to be very, very disappointed because it was simply a repacked version of Chrome. Most of the features that I had grown to love were gone and I found no reason to continue using it.
If you haven't seen the other 50th anniversary goodies, I highly recommend them. "An Adventure in Space and Time" is basically the real-life story about Doctor Who's beginning with William Hartnell (http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/guide/50th-specials/an-adventure-in-space-and-time/) and the "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" is an amusing story about the classic doctors trying to get into the 50th anniversary special with some nice jokes for knowledgeable fans of the classic series (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m3kfy).
As a *huge* fan of Doctor Who, I don't deny the movie at all. In fact, I watched it again about a month ago and while it doesn't really fit the style of the classic episodes (which is really what made me dislike it the first time), it does fit the style of the new series. It is a very watchable movie and I do think Paul McGann makes a good Doctor. His work in the mini-sode for the 50th, makes me wish the I could see more of him as the Doctor. I honestly wish they would have gotten him to play the part that John Hurt played in the anniversary episode to prevent the confusion caused by inserting another Doctor into the mix.
The 50th anniversary episode was in all aspects for me AMAZING. It tied up a lot loose ends that were created between the classic and new series. With the prelude mini-sode with Paul McGann, we have now seen every single regeneration of the Doctor. Paul McGann has been solidly firmed up in canon, the ultimate end of the Time War has been shown, and we might even have Gallifrey back.
BTW, if you haven't seen the other 50th anniversary goodies, I highly recommend them. "An Adventure in Time and Space" is basically the real-life story about Doctor Who's beginning with William Hartnell and the "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" is an amusing story about the classic doctors trying to get into the 50th anniversary special with some nice jokes for knowledgeable fans of the classic series.
Perhaps it isn't your cup of tea, but I quite enjoy the show and the history of the show. I've watched or listened to every episode from episode number 1 and enjoy it immensely. I've seen shows that I don't like and other people do and I just assume that it just isn't my cup of tea. I've also gone back and watched those shows and liked them significantly more years later. The writing on Doctor Who is hit and miss sometimes, but I think the characters are fairly well hashed out in general. The enjoyed the Clara story from the current series and am interested to see if they do any more with it or if she will just become a normal non-mysterious companion. I liked David Tennant a bit more than Matt Smith, but I thought Matt Smith did quite well and was very quirky, like people have come to expect the Doctor to be because of the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker.
Overall, I think it is better to just call it something you don't enjoy then to basically troll and insult all of the shows fans by calling everything about the show bad. I will agree that some of the episodes are hit and miss, but there have been some excellent episodes and some that I haven't enjoyed very much. I've also found with shows that I really have to get into them to enjoy them to there full extent. I need to get an understanding of the characters and the setting and just the general feel of the show and writing to enjoy it. I tend to really get into a show or not watch it at all. I don't have a middle ground.
BitTorrent does NOT know your secret. They create a hash that is derived from your secret (and some other information) and use the BitTorrent protocol to publish that hash. When a device sees another device with the same hash, they start to communicate and that is how they ultimately connect with each other, but each one still needs to have the same secret key.
So if I have not shared the key with anyone else, at the very least two of my computers needs to be online at any given time, and of those at least one with the most current version?
In there being no third-party, yes, you have to have the two computers on at the same time in order for the files to sync with each other.
I've been looking for a good solution to "divorce" myself from the cloud storage trend for quite a while and I'll started using BitTorrent Sync as soon as it was announced. They also now have an Android version for testing and it also works quite well. They use a secret key for each folder shared that is generated by the software, or can be created by you. Each folder has a full access and read only key, so you can share files at two different levels. These keys can be changed anytime and it has a key delivery mechanism of one-time keys that can be more easily shared. Obviously, in order to keep your files safe, you need two locations that separate, such as home and work or you could sync your files with a friend. The features have been coming very quickly and I'm pleased by all they have added. You can choose how much you want to use the BitTorrent network (your files are always encrypted with your key though so they cannot be viewed over the network) from using their trackers, a relay server, and the DHT network, to just using the LAN and hardcoding the host IPs into the software configuration. The more of the network you use, the easier it is to access your files from anywhere. So, if you don't trust BitTorrent, then you don't have to use them. The Android application (and the iPhone one when it come out I'm sure) has some additional features, such as the ability to easy transfer files between mobile devices by simply scanning a QR code and things like that. So far, I am very pleased with this software and have been recommending it to everyone.
I had a touch screen netbook with Windows 7 on it and I loved it. I found myself trying to use the touch features on non touch surface (my other computer at home and my work computer) only to be disappointed when it didn't work. Unfortunately, the netbook was slow and not really up to par with what I wanted, so I opted for a less feature rich and less useful Android tablet. Since then, I've wanted to go back, but I cannot justify the cost. On a laptop or desktop computer, touch is NOT a replacement for the keyboard, although it is could be a replacement for the mouse if the applications are designed with a touch screen in mind.
When people doing ANYTHING, people want justification if it is something that is seen as negative and I think we have this here. While I agree that a college degree is not a necessity to being a smart and intelligent person and also that a college degree doesn't make someone a smart and intelligent person, a college degree is an important piece of paper if you want job stability and security. I used to work in Silicon Valley during the.COM boom. I dropped out of college to work there and I made decent money. The first company that I was with got acquired and downsized and I was one of the people cut. I don't know if it was because of the lack of college degree or because of inexperience, but it happened. I then turned to taking online classes and finishing my degree. The next job a got with the degree paid me 50% more money and unfortunately went out of business. I don't regret dropping out of the college, but I'm very glad that I have a college degree 13 years later. I know that I wouldn't have the job that I have today without it.
When talking about the cost, the options for obtaining an accredited college degree have not be more open than they are now. There are many accredited online degree granting options that can be done at home, while you have a full time job. In other words, you can start working AND work on your degree if you don't want to take 4+ years out of your life for college. Some of these options are quite affordable compared to the traditional college experience.
Just like "The Sharper Image" and "Circuit City," the Twinkie name will live on. It is a name that is worth probably around half a billion dollars per year to a company that is able to manage it correctly. There may be a few months in which Twinkies are off the shelves, but they'll be back.
Getting fired from a company was the best thing to happen to me. Obviously, I didn't think so at the time, but it being 12 years later makes me realize how valuable getting fired was to my life and my career. I really was in the wrong job and it got my mind straight and I starting doing stuff I enjoyed much more and even got a massive raise from my previous job on top of that. When it happened, it was pretty much out of nowhere and I was furious. I couldn't sleep for several days just thinking about how angry I was at the company. Once I got a new job and a 50% raise from the previous one, I kind of got over it. I didn't lose $100 million dollars in the deal, but the company did get purchased by a publicly traded company, so I did lose some money in the firing. Overall, my life and career are better off because of it. It taught me some valuable lessons about job security (you can always be replaced) and my career path and, looking back, I'm glad it happened.
I disagree with you on certifications and I guess your entire attitude about IT in general. I will proudly say that is have the CISSP and a CCNA certifications. My employer paid for the CISSP because it looks good to our clients and I learned some stuff in the process. Speaking of critical thinking, do you think the way you don't even give people with certifications a chance passes the fairness test or the relevancy test? In addition, you make a huge assumption about people with certifications, that they are naive and easily scammed, and claim that the evidence is that they have a cert. You smell of personal bias and that is counter to the "essential critical thinking skills" of which you speak.
I once had a DVD drive that didn't support the disc check that was done to ensure you had an authentic disc in the drive. I tried to fix this via Internet searches and posts on the game makers support site, but without success. I'm thankful for the people that cracked this kind of DRM because without it I wouldn't be able to play my legally purchased games. Plus, since I had opened the package, the stores wouldn't take it back and the game maker wouldn't help me either assuming that I was trying to do something nefarious. Saying this, the DRM for this game will be cracked and we will be free to play it on any computer we want without worrying about hardware changes. The worse the DRM, the harder the hacking community will work to bypass it. In my opinion, when DRM becomes noticeable to the consumer it has crossed the line.
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You seem to have a bit of trust issues in the hiring process. So far, I have not had any issue hiring people and determining that they knew what they were talking about versus faking it. There are some basic things that you expect people to know and, if they don't know them, you expect them to behave in a certain way such as simply admit it instead of trying to BS through it. I remember an interview that I was in and I didn't know the answer to a particular technical question and I said that I didn't know. I ended up getting that job. My opinion is the personality of the person that you hire is more important than technical ability because people can learn to improve their technical ability, but people can't really improve their personality. That isn't to say technical ability isn't important, just the second thing that I look for.
Security experts have been warning about this and saying that two channel authentication (like text messages or emailing codes) is not true two factor authentication. For two factor authentication, it has to be tied directly to a device and the device cannot be changed without a enrollment process (for example, with Google Authenticator, where you see the code once and cannot retrieve it again). In this way, you either have to use a phishing mechanism to get the code or have physical access to the device. Getting access to the users phone number or email address does not allow you to get the code with two factor authentication because it is truly something you have (your device).
Just because someone announces they are going to sue, doesn't mean it is going to go somewhere. Civil lawsuits are pretty much the only way for private citizens to go against large companies and have a remote chance of hurting the company. "Tort reform is the large companies trying to making fighting them impossible or not worth the effort. Meditation in the terms and condition of every product and service imaginable along with using lobbyists and P.R. to get news like this in the press in order to make "tort reform" an issue the private citizens can get behind when in reality tort reform is designed with the SOLE PURPOSE of hurting individuals and helping large companies.
Examples, please. I'd like to hear cases of people suing solely on the basis of being offended and winning those cases.
I'm in the exact same situation. I've worked in Silicon Valley and got paid significantly more than I'm getting paid now, but I went through 3 jobs in 2.5 years. I'm now at a very stable job with decent pay, annual raises, excellent insurance and vacation time, a great retirement plan, and job security. After the turnover that was part of the bleeding edge IT industry, a stable position is very nice to have. I'm also able to do a lot of IT tasks at my current job including systems administration, programming, security, etc. in an effort to keep my skills sharp. To me, happiness and stability are significantly more important than pay (obviously to a point).
It seems to me like the path to knowledge goes as follows:
1. Beginner - you know you have a lot to learn and don't know anything about the subject
2. Amateur - you think you know everything you need to know
3. Expert - you know what you know, but realize there a many things you don't know
If someone says the know everything about something, then, in general, they don't. Amateurs tend to over estimate their ability and experts tend to under estimate their ability. Knowing that there are things you don't know (and attempting to fill in the gaps when required) is the main way to become an expert in a field.
I did a similar thing with a heat gun and a non-functional PS3. I ran the heat gun over the CPU and it bought me another month of life on the unit. After 3 times of doing this and getting less and less life out of it each time, I purchased a new PS3. To my delight, the new one has been working ever since.
I am of the opinion, and have been for a while, that casual coding (i.e. coding something in your free time, not backed by hint of monetary gain) is at the heart of the problem. People code casually because it is fun to do. They don't like writing comments, documentation, or clean code. This is not to mention that these project need good people that can write this complex code and putting massive amounts of rules and coding practices is not going to attract people to code in their free time. When you have code that is backed by money and/or a company, the motivation exists to do the not fun stuff, but the required stuff to make code more secure, more easy to audit, and easier to understand. Without that type of backing, you have people hacking away writing code as quick and dirty as possible. That is the reputation that FOSS is trying to get rid of. That is the reputation that hurts its adoption rate, especially in critical and important systems. That is the reputation that the OpenSSL vulnerability drags kicking and screaming into the limelight. Unfortunately, it is a reputation that has a significant basis in reality and, in my opinion, the Heartbleed vulnerability will have lasting effects for years to come.
Yes, and then they'll get mad when the obviously unintended coupon interaction doesn't get honored, the price error order gets canceled, or the store refuses to honor the post rebate price of an item. They try to screw the system and when the system fights back they start whining about it. I've used a few questionable deals, but those NEVER get on the front page of the Slickdeals, you have to dig into the forums to find them. In every case, the company acknowledged the error and didn't honor the deal. I didn't get mad because it was expected behavior. There are also deals that seem to be too good to be true, but are actually intended as a promotional tool. There have even been deals that weren't that great, but the company ends up refusing to honor them because if the unexpected number of responses to it (those make be feel a bit upset with the company). An example of that is a company offering a free one dollar item without purchase and then later telling customers they intended for it to be with purchase and then proceed put you on their email list anyhow.
I hate it when people have the impression that they are entitled to steal from others. I use the SlickDeals website and a lot of time they have some great deals, but if you dig deeper into the forums on that site, there is a dark side. This is my opinion, if you took a code and used it for yourself, you are stealing, but maybe the temptation was a bit too great. It is like finding a 20 dollar bill on the floor and keeping it. You know it isn't yours, but the person of irresponsible enough to lose 20 dollars so they kind of deserve it. If, on the other, you generated hundreds of codes and start selling them on Ebay, you are stealing and being a complete dick. That is like watching someone drop their wallet, pretending not to notice, picking it up when the person is out of sight, cleaning out all of the cash, and then tossing the wallet in the dumpster outside.
The fear-mongering and exaggerations are quite evident in the comments to the article. You may not agree with the premise behind the article, but the lack of net neutrality does not spell the end of the Internet or any sort of doom and gloom. Comcast still has to keep it's customer base happy enough to stick with them because unlike what some people believe there are other options nearly everywhere. I don't buy into the doomsday talk and I do agree that, similar to the IPv4 doomsday talk, there is a a lot of FUD surrounding this issue and people seem to be talking about it with their emotions and not looking at it logically.
I'm currently using a VPN when using Netflix on Comcast. In my tests, I've found the buffering takes about 4 times less time when using the VPN and the quality is significantly better. When I perform speed tests on my Comcast connection, I get around 30 Mbps download rates. My guess is that Comcast is directing Netflix connections through a shaper or fixed bandwidth pipe in order to limit the amount of data travelling over their network. I have noticed this problem within the last year or so, when I first got Comcast in my area this was not a problem and Comcast behaved just as it now does over the VPN connection.
I had been an avid Opera fan since I first started using it quite a few years ago. I used it when it was the only browser that had tabbed browsing. A feature that is now part of every browser out there. The folks behind the Opera browser were innovators. They had tabs, the speed dial, Opera link (which would sync bookmarks and other items between your browsers), and gestures years before other browsers and they fully believed in being standards compliant. When I heard they were moving away from being a browser developer to being a browser repackager, I stopped using it. They went from innovating to tagging along for a ride. I recently fired up the new version of Opera to be very, very disappointed because it was simply a repacked version of Chrome. Most of the features that I had grown to love were gone and I found no reason to continue using it.
If you haven't seen the other 50th anniversary goodies, I highly recommend them. "An Adventure in Space and Time" is basically the real-life story about Doctor Who's beginning with William Hartnell (http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/guide/50th-specials/an-adventure-in-space-and-time/) and the "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" is an amusing story about the classic doctors trying to get into the 50th anniversary special with some nice jokes for knowledgeable fans of the classic series (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m3kfy).
As a *huge* fan of Doctor Who, I don't deny the movie at all. In fact, I watched it again about a month ago and while it doesn't really fit the style of the classic episodes (which is really what made me dislike it the first time), it does fit the style of the new series. It is a very watchable movie and I do think Paul McGann makes a good Doctor. His work in the mini-sode for the 50th, makes me wish the I could see more of him as the Doctor. I honestly wish they would have gotten him to play the part that John Hurt played in the anniversary episode to prevent the confusion caused by inserting another Doctor into the mix.
The 50th anniversary episode was in all aspects for me AMAZING. It tied up a lot loose ends that were created between the classic and new series. With the prelude mini-sode with Paul McGann, we have now seen every single regeneration of the Doctor. Paul McGann has been solidly firmed up in canon, the ultimate end of the Time War has been shown, and we might even have Gallifrey back.
BTW, if you haven't seen the other 50th anniversary goodies, I highly recommend them. "An Adventure in Time and Space" is basically the real-life story about Doctor Who's beginning with William Hartnell and the "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" is an amusing story about the classic doctors trying to get into the 50th anniversary special with some nice jokes for knowledgeable fans of the classic series.
Perhaps it isn't your cup of tea, but I quite enjoy the show and the history of the show. I've watched or listened to every episode from episode number 1 and enjoy it immensely. I've seen shows that I don't like and other people do and I just assume that it just isn't my cup of tea. I've also gone back and watched those shows and liked them significantly more years later. The writing on Doctor Who is hit and miss sometimes, but I think the characters are fairly well hashed out in general. The enjoyed the Clara story from the current series and am interested to see if they do any more with it or if she will just become a normal non-mysterious companion. I liked David Tennant a bit more than Matt Smith, but I thought Matt Smith did quite well and was very quirky, like people have come to expect the Doctor to be because of the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker.
Overall, I think it is better to just call it something you don't enjoy then to basically troll and insult all of the shows fans by calling everything about the show bad. I will agree that some of the episodes are hit and miss, but there have been some excellent episodes and some that I haven't enjoyed very much. I've also found with shows that I really have to get into them to enjoy them to there full extent. I need to get an understanding of the characters and the setting and just the general feel of the show and writing to enjoy it. I tend to really get into a show or not watch it at all. I don't have a middle ground.
BitTorrent does NOT know your secret. They create a hash that is derived from your secret (and some other information) and use the BitTorrent protocol to publish that hash. When a device sees another device with the same hash, they start to communicate and that is how they ultimately connect with each other, but each one still needs to have the same secret key.
So if I have not shared the key with anyone else, at the very least two of my computers needs to be online at any given time, and of those at least one with the most current version?
In there being no third-party, yes, you have to have the two computers on at the same time in order for the files to sync with each other.
I've been looking for a good solution to "divorce" myself from the cloud storage trend for quite a while and I'll started using BitTorrent Sync as soon as it was announced. They also now have an Android version for testing and it also works quite well. They use a secret key for each folder shared that is generated by the software, or can be created by you. Each folder has a full access and read only key, so you can share files at two different levels. These keys can be changed anytime and it has a key delivery mechanism of one-time keys that can be more easily shared. Obviously, in order to keep your files safe, you need two locations that separate, such as home and work or you could sync your files with a friend. The features have been coming very quickly and I'm pleased by all they have added. You can choose how much you want to use the BitTorrent network (your files are always encrypted with your key though so they cannot be viewed over the network) from using their trackers, a relay server, and the DHT network, to just using the LAN and hardcoding the host IPs into the software configuration. The more of the network you use, the easier it is to access your files from anywhere. So, if you don't trust BitTorrent, then you don't have to use them. The Android application (and the iPhone one when it come out I'm sure) has some additional features, such as the ability to easy transfer files between mobile devices by simply scanning a QR code and things like that. So far, I am very pleased with this software and have been recommending it to everyone.
I had a touch screen netbook with Windows 7 on it and I loved it. I found myself trying to use the touch features on non touch surface (my other computer at home and my work computer) only to be disappointed when it didn't work. Unfortunately, the netbook was slow and not really up to par with what I wanted, so I opted for a less feature rich and less useful Android tablet. Since then, I've wanted to go back, but I cannot justify the cost. On a laptop or desktop computer, touch is NOT a replacement for the keyboard, although it is could be a replacement for the mouse if the applications are designed with a touch screen in mind.
When people doing ANYTHING, people want justification if it is something that is seen as negative and I think we have this here. While I agree that a college degree is not a necessity to being a smart and intelligent person and also that a college degree doesn't make someone a smart and intelligent person, a college degree is an important piece of paper if you want job stability and security. I used to work in Silicon Valley during the .COM boom. I dropped out of college to work there and I made decent money. The first company that I was with got acquired and downsized and I was one of the people cut. I don't know if it was because of the lack of college degree or because of inexperience, but it happened. I then turned to taking online classes and finishing my degree. The next job a got with the degree paid me 50% more money and unfortunately went out of business. I don't regret dropping out of the college, but I'm very glad that I have a college degree 13 years later. I know that I wouldn't have the job that I have today without it.
When talking about the cost, the options for obtaining an accredited college degree have not be more open than they are now. There are many accredited online degree granting options that can be done at home, while you have a full time job. In other words, you can start working AND work on your degree if you don't want to take 4+ years out of your life for college. Some of these options are quite affordable compared to the traditional college experience.
Just like "The Sharper Image" and "Circuit City," the Twinkie name will live on. It is a name that is worth probably around half a billion dollars per year to a company that is able to manage it correctly. There may be a few months in which Twinkies are off the shelves, but they'll be back.
Getting fired from a company was the best thing to happen to me. Obviously, I didn't think so at the time, but it being 12 years later makes me realize how valuable getting fired was to my life and my career. I really was in the wrong job and it got my mind straight and I starting doing stuff I enjoyed much more and even got a massive raise from my previous job on top of that. When it happened, it was pretty much out of nowhere and I was furious. I couldn't sleep for several days just thinking about how angry I was at the company. Once I got a new job and a 50% raise from the previous one, I kind of got over it. I didn't lose $100 million dollars in the deal, but the company did get purchased by a publicly traded company, so I did lose some money in the firing. Overall, my life and career are better off because of it. It taught me some valuable lessons about job security (you can always be replaced) and my career path and, looking back, I'm glad it happened.
I disagree with you on certifications and I guess your entire attitude about IT in general. I will proudly say that is have the CISSP and a CCNA certifications. My employer paid for the CISSP because it looks good to our clients and I learned some stuff in the process. Speaking of critical thinking, do you think the way you don't even give people with certifications a chance passes the fairness test or the relevancy test? In addition, you make a huge assumption about people with certifications, that they are naive and easily scammed, and claim that the evidence is that they have a cert. You smell of personal bias and that is counter to the "essential critical thinking skills" of which you speak.
I once had a DVD drive that didn't support the disc check that was done to ensure you had an authentic disc in the drive. I tried to fix this via Internet searches and posts on the game makers support site, but without success. I'm thankful for the people that cracked this kind of DRM because without it I wouldn't be able to play my legally purchased games. Plus, since I had opened the package, the stores wouldn't take it back and the game maker wouldn't help me either assuming that I was trying to do something nefarious. Saying this, the DRM for this game will be cracked and we will be free to play it on any computer we want without worrying about hardware changes. The worse the DRM, the harder the hacking community will work to bypass it. In my opinion, when DRM becomes noticeable to the consumer it has crossed the line.