I don't know, I think there are enough (fill in your desired ethnic/handicap/economic background) folks working on open source to qualify it for anything!
I'm pretty sure somewhere in the world there is a lesbian albino dwarf of Latvian decent working on the kernel. Ok, maybe not from Latvia, but you get my point.
Almost the same sort of satisfaction on recieves when you hear the Director who laid you off in you last company was himself laid off, and the whole plant moved overseas. Or finding out the guy who ripped you off a few years ago has been sentenced to a long curriculum at the state ass-packing school.
Of course, there is also the opposite effect. I just landed a side job because of some volunteer work I did a year ago. All things come back to you eventually.
...Is there such a thing as a FREE SOFTWARE LEECH?
By that measure, how many more people READ literature in this world than write it? How many more people VIEW art in this world than make it? How many more people LISTEN to music in this world than compose it, or even perform it?
The human race has been "Leeching" off of creative poeple at least since the discovery of fire. Up until we had this whole notion of Intellectual Property, this was considered by all parties to be a good thing.
Music without ears to hear it is a pattern of vibrations. Software without a user base is a random gob of bits.
Try relish packets from the local fast food joint. If you like pickle juice, at least the relish will give you a little more texture.
Add a ketchup packet and a mayo packet and you'll have 1000 island dressing.
I would also go out an buy one of those bulk packs of dehydrated chopped onion for like $2.00 at the supermarket. A little desicated onion in with the bioling water and noodles almost makes you think you are eating a real meal.
Man, the happiest thing my kid can say to me is "Dad, can I be a plumber or and electrician. Your college stories scare the shit out of me."
Ack must suppress memories... no health insurance... untreated concussion... living in my car... bumming money from broke parents...
I find it humerous how a few million to keep Amtrak running is too expensive, while a few billion to prop up the airline industry is essential. The reason rail seems so damn expensive has more to do with government subsidizing airport construction and highways.
Lets face it people, a train isn't glamerous technology, but it is a lot cheaper to keep running per mile than any other transportation technology out there. If you go to India or China, you don't see interstates or large fancy airports outside of the main cities. You do have rail going to any place with a post office, though.
In my opinion, the only reason cars, gas, and air travel is so important in this country has everything to do with bad habits and short thinking. The stock guy on the radio said it best the other day with the quote: "... of course that was back when long term meant years, not minutes or hours... "
Reading your post brought back memories of my own experience with poverty. I remember eating Ramen for so long, I developed an allergic reaction to the flavor packets. I would scrounge any scraps of vegitable matter or cheese, or ketchup packets just to give those noodles some taste. I remember commuting for an hour each way from my parents place, and sleeping in the labs.
Now I made some different choices. My grades sucked, so after getting bounced for non-payment (because of some computer screw up) I finally said screw this, and got a real job. I also started a consulting company on the side. Soon I made enough contacts to get my present gig, where even Sans degree I am making more than most of the poeple WITH degrees.
Now kids, before you decide to quit school, remember that I spent years doing shit jobs, kissing asses, and living low. Where I am at is a combination of having had the right skills at the right time in the right place.
That said, a 4 year degree isn't really worth much if it isn't accompanied by experience. It has been my experience that after enough time experience is worth more than the degree.
Like the poster above said, life is all about choices. Only you know what the right choices are in your life. (Though a good indication of having made the wrong choices is finding yourself stinking of urine, begging for change in front of a quick-shop.)
Also for the record, I would like to point out that I made a few wrong choices with debt and credit cards. I got my nose bent. I picked up and moved on. You bet your ass I watch what I spend now, and I read the fine print on financing.
I think the best explaination of sin is not simply the act of doing something wrong. It's not even willfully doing something wrong. Sin is doing something that you know will hurt someone else for very little benefit to those involved.
(Why do I feel some days that posts like this are going to end up in a textbook, er, electronic curriculum, some time in the distant future. Of course, whether its in awe of our wisdom, or to point out our stupidity we will never know.)
Looks a bit like not fulfilling a contractual obligation. It's no different than the power company pulling the plug if you don't pay your light bull.
When payment was not recieved, the contract was null and void. That is assuming you remembered to put a termination clause in the contract.
If no contract was involved, then no harm no foul. You don't pay me, you don't get to use my services.
As an armchair ethicist, this behavior may be an immoral response to an immoral action. But then again, so is a policy of not negotiating with terrorists. These are actions that are Ethical, but not moral. Never, never, confuse the two.
An example the other way around is giving change to a begger. To give him change is moral, but not ethical. It doesn't serve the bigger picture. The guy is going to be there same time, same place tomarrow. After a while of getting no change anymore he'll clean up, die, or move on. Social services are in place to allow for possibility 1 and prevent possibility 2. Possibility 3 is on his own time.
I don't put a backdoor in my systems. Rather than design a single root account, I have the equivilent of a wheel group that can be added and removed at will. It is unlikely that an entire department would get canned at a time, so the last man standing get to nominate the new wheel group.
Of course, by default I leave an wheel account for myself with a password I keep safely tucked away. I simply tell them that I have left myself an account just in case, and delete it if it makes you feel uncomfortable.
Normally they leave it in, and forget about it between regime changes.
I don't mind identifiers. I do hate having identifiers REQUIRED.
You thought predjudice was a thing of the past? Just imagine a world where everyone knows absolutely everything about you without so much as having met you? All of their half-baked assumptions about your background, or lack of background, will get to play a guiding role in your life without your so much as knowing it.
How many jobs now perform a credit check? How many catalogue companies mine your medical records? How many charities buy your name from a database based on where you live, what you buy, and who you gave money to in the past?
Hell is here people. If you are reading this post, you probably missed the last boat to that place with all the harps.
That said, and once you accept that you are no longer in control, it becomes like the weather. Hey it's cold and rainy, better wear a raincoat. Boy is it sunny, get that sunblock on.
Now my analysis of your internet habits leads me to believe that you are in the market for my patented TIN FOIL CAP. Why yes, only the TIN FOIL CAP can prevent 99% of all brain-wave intrusions...
I would question their use of Myst as a point of measure. Everyone remembers it as a very quirky, shallow, duct tape and chewing gum arrangment of hypercards. (Granted, in 1994 THAT was really cool, and yes I did play it all the way through.)
Having never played everquest, I really don't have any way to compare.
Of course you realize it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the Social Security Administration to use you SSN.
My college (Drexel) back in the 90's had to go through and re-issue everyone a new Student ID number after a lawsuit. You will also note that your local DMV now issues its own number instead of your SSN.
Banks and credit agencies don't index you by SSN, they have their own number they use. The SSN is just a way to validate you.
Hey, how about we in the open source community nominate one of our own to be a website to issue GINs. (Global Identification Numbers.) Hell, a lot of people already have them for PGP (ie public keys.) Why wait for government, when we can create our own, kinder, gentler, big brother.
(Yea I know about the liberty alliance, but opensource is all about doing it yourself.)
Short of Government Desk Jockeys, Domestic Intelligence Agencies, and Identity Thieves, I really don't who would find this all that useful.
The fact that I CHOOSE to call myself EvilTwinSkippy, and that I am EvilTwinSkippy on a few other websites is a voluntary choice on my part. I have selected that persona, and if the persona no longer suits me at some point, I'll put it down and start a new persona.
A number is a highly impersonal thing, like a license plate or a MAC address. Having gotten parking tickets because the meter maid was a digit off (how else could my white ford escort be mistaken for a blue chevy pickup) the oppertunity for error is amazing. Hell, my wife is getting junk mail (right down to credit card offers) for her sister because a catalogue company mixed up their 2 accounts. It also doesn't hurt that one is Sara and the other Dara. (S and D are right next to each other on a standard US Qwerty style keyboard.)
Now harmless junkmail is ok, but imagine if medical records got crisscrossed, or criminal records? And it doesn't even have to be family, imaging if you are TT-1231-12512 and TT-2231-12512 is a wanted terrorist? Or if TY-1231-12512 has an outstanding warrent in New Jersey for driving without a license?
URU is a very bad idea. A very very very bad idea, especially for causual use by business and beaurocrats.
Well hey, one more thing to yell at the kids for the next time they are "browsing" in the fridge.
My wife and I were actually trying to work out the best way to integrate a computer in the fridge. We worked out stat scales to determine how long different food items were in the fridge, etc. The problem was that you still ended up hand-labeling everything. And for that trouble, it was easier just to write the date the item went in the fridge on the package.
At least BMW kept the computers to just the engine and the radio. I've heard presentations from General Motors about how they want to design a car that will automatically control the car in emergencies.
Yeah, that will be perfectly safe. Just like stopping a 20 mile per hour impact with a 200 mile per hour impact...
Damn, and I've just been using those big signs 40 feet in the air, and practically visible from orbit to find the nearest fill up station and oil change place.
Well at least it will help me blow by all of those retail establishments placed right next to the exit.
I agree with large chunks of this paper, but its hyperbole makes it completely unsuitable for me to pass it up the chain of command for digestion.
Precisely how am I supposed to get my "Golf Playing Executive" to take seriously any article that (rightly or not) denegrates his profession wholesale. How am I going to convince my fellow admins who happen to run Windows (not in my shop mind you) to take seriously this article when they are called unskilled, cheap labor?
Did I miss something in my courses in Persuasive writing or public speaking? Rule one of propaganda is NEVER insult the people you are trying to influence.
I was surfing late one evening, trying to by a machine
The only thing for sale was ghastly and green
It has a Microsoft Logo, no keyboard or screen
And no disk or ports either, just License 18.
See me comin' better step aside
A lot of PCs didn't and a lot of men died
I got one fist of 98 and the other of XP
And if the OS don't crash ya, then certainly IE.
Explain to me how a copy shop can outsource to India, or a Coffee house is going to bring in contractors?
Hell, most small business deal with simple things like roofs, plumbing, or direct customer service. Explain how Mr. Patel on the other end of the telephone is going to improve their bottom line?
Frankly I found the research to be quite extensive and grounded on common sense. Which is a bit more than I can say for... (this post terminated to stop feeding the trolls.)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm pretty sure somewhere in the world there is a lesbian albino dwarf of Latvian decent working on the kernel. Ok, maybe not from Latvia, but you get my point.
6. ???
7. Profit!!!
Almost the same sort of satisfaction on recieves when you hear the Director who laid you off in you last company was himself laid off, and the whole plant moved overseas. Or finding out the guy who ripped you off a few years ago has been sentenced to a long curriculum at the state ass-packing school.
Of course, there is also the opposite effect. I just landed a side job because of some volunteer work I did a year ago. All things come back to you eventually.
By that measure, how many more people READ literature in this world than write it? How many more people VIEW art in this world than make it? How many more people LISTEN to music in this world than compose it, or even perform it?
The human race has been "Leeching" off of creative poeple at least since the discovery of fire. Up until we had this whole notion of Intellectual Property, this was considered by all parties to be a good thing.
Music without ears to hear it is a pattern of vibrations. Software without a user base is a random gob of bits.
Try relish packets from the local fast food joint. If you like pickle juice, at least the relish will give you a little more texture.
Add a ketchup packet and a mayo packet and you'll have 1000 island dressing.
I would also go out an buy one of those bulk packs of dehydrated chopped onion for like $2.00 at the supermarket. A little desicated onion in with the bioling water and noodles almost makes you think you are eating a real meal.
Man, the happiest thing my kid can say to me is "Dad, can I be a plumber or and electrician. Your college stories scare the shit out of me."
Ack must suppress memories ... no health insurance ... untreated concussion ... living in my car ... bumming money from broke parents ...
Lets face it people, a train isn't glamerous technology, but it is a lot cheaper to keep running per mile than any other transportation technology out there. If you go to India or China, you don't see interstates or large fancy airports outside of the main cities. You do have rail going to any place with a post office, though.
In my opinion, the only reason cars, gas, and air travel is so important in this country has everything to do with bad habits and short thinking. The stock guy on the radio said it best the other day with the quote: "... of course that was back when long term meant years, not minutes or hours ... "
Workman:Why you ... I'll be back!
No I specialize in small businesses where decisions generally have to fit on the back on an envelope.
Now I made some different choices. My grades sucked, so after getting bounced for non-payment (because of some computer screw up) I finally said screw this, and got a real job. I also started a consulting company on the side. Soon I made enough contacts to get my present gig, where even Sans degree I am making more than most of the poeple WITH degrees.
Now kids, before you decide to quit school, remember that I spent years doing shit jobs, kissing asses, and living low. Where I am at is a combination of having had the right skills at the right time in the right place.
That said, a 4 year degree isn't really worth much if it isn't accompanied by experience. It has been my experience that after enough time experience is worth more than the degree.
Like the poster above said, life is all about choices. Only you know what the right choices are in your life. (Though a good indication of having made the wrong choices is finding yourself stinking of urine, begging for change in front of a quick-shop.)
Also for the record, I would like to point out that I made a few wrong choices with debt and credit cards. I got my nose bent. I picked up and moved on. You bet your ass I watch what I spend now, and I read the fine print on financing.
I think the best explaination of sin is not simply the act of doing something wrong. It's not even willfully doing something wrong. Sin is doing something that you know will hurt someone else for very little benefit to those involved.
(Why do I feel some days that posts like this are going to end up in a textbook, er, electronic curriculum, some time in the distant future. Of course, whether its in awe of our wisdom, or to point out our stupidity we will never know.)
When payment was not recieved, the contract was null and void. That is assuming you remembered to put a termination clause in the contract.
If no contract was involved, then no harm no foul. You don't pay me, you don't get to use my services.
As an armchair ethicist, this behavior may be an immoral response to an immoral action. But then again, so is a policy of not negotiating with terrorists. These are actions that are Ethical, but not moral. Never, never, confuse the two.
An example the other way around is giving change to a begger. To give him change is moral, but not ethical. It doesn't serve the bigger picture. The guy is going to be there same time, same place tomarrow. After a while of getting no change anymore he'll clean up, die, or move on. Social services are in place to allow for possibility 1 and prevent possibility 2. Possibility 3 is on his own time.
Well, contractors, volunteers, and in-house programmers. It's especially useful for debugging problems during authentication.
Of course I wrap it in a conditional that requires the system to be in test mode:
if $debug { if { $credantials(user) == "EvilTwinSkippy" } { bypass_security } else { validate credentials } } else { validate credentials }
I don't put a backdoor in my systems. Rather than design a single root account, I have the equivilent of a wheel group that can be added and removed at will. It is unlikely that an entire department would get canned at a time, so the last man standing get to nominate the new wheel group.
Of course, by default I leave an wheel account for myself with a password I keep safely tucked away. I simply tell them that I have left myself an account just in case, and delete it if it makes you feel uncomfortable.
Normally they leave it in, and forget about it between regime changes.
What if I don't have an Electrical Meter? What if I share it in a small apartment building?
Now, because we would then be "RUU"ing the day it came out.
I don't mind identifiers. I do hate having identifiers REQUIRED.
You thought predjudice was a thing of the past? Just imagine a world where everyone knows absolutely everything about you without so much as having met you? All of their half-baked assumptions about your background, or lack of background, will get to play a guiding role in your life without your so much as knowing it.
How many jobs now perform a credit check? How many catalogue companies mine your medical records? How many charities buy your name from a database based on where you live, what you buy, and who you gave money to in the past?
Hell is here people. If you are reading this post, you probably missed the last boat to that place with all the harps.
That said, and once you accept that you are no longer in control, it becomes like the weather. Hey it's cold and rainy, better wear a raincoat. Boy is it sunny, get that sunblock on.
Now my analysis of your internet habits leads me to believe that you are in the market for my patented TIN FOIL CAP. Why yes, only the TIN FOIL CAP can prevent 99% of all brain-wave intrusions...
I would question their use of Myst as a point of measure. Everyone remembers it as a very quirky, shallow, duct tape and chewing gum arrangment of hypercards. (Granted, in 1994 THAT was really cool, and yes I did play it all the way through.)
Having never played everquest, I really don't have any way to compare.
My college (Drexel) back in the 90's had to go through and re-issue everyone a new Student ID number after a lawsuit. You will also note that your local DMV now issues its own number instead of your SSN.
Banks and credit agencies don't index you by SSN, they have their own number they use. The SSN is just a way to validate you.
Hey, how about we in the open source community nominate one of our own to be a website to issue GINs. (Global Identification Numbers.) Hell, a lot of people already have them for PGP (ie public keys.) Why wait for government, when we can create our own, kinder, gentler, big brother.
(Yea I know about the liberty alliance, but opensource is all about doing it yourself.)
Short of Government Desk Jockeys, Domestic Intelligence Agencies, and Identity Thieves, I really don't who would find this all that useful.
The fact that I CHOOSE to call myself EvilTwinSkippy, and that I am EvilTwinSkippy on a few other websites is a voluntary choice on my part. I have selected that persona, and if the persona no longer suits me at some point, I'll put it down and start a new persona.
A number is a highly impersonal thing, like a license plate or a MAC address. Having gotten parking tickets because the meter maid was a digit off (how else could my white ford escort be mistaken for a blue chevy pickup) the oppertunity for error is amazing. Hell, my wife is getting junk mail (right down to credit card offers) for her sister because a catalogue company mixed up their 2 accounts. It also doesn't hurt that one is Sara and the other Dara. (S and D are right next to each other on a standard US Qwerty style keyboard.)
Now harmless junkmail is ok, but imagine if medical records got crisscrossed, or criminal records? And it doesn't even have to be family, imaging if you are TT-1231-12512 and TT-2231-12512 is a wanted terrorist? Or if TY-1231-12512 has an outstanding warrent in New Jersey for driving without a license?
URU is a very bad idea. A very very very bad idea, especially for causual use by business and beaurocrats.
...Must fight urge to post gratiuitous Beowulf Cluster of those line...
My wife and I were actually trying to work out the best way to integrate a computer in the fridge. We worked out stat scales to determine how long different food items were in the fridge, etc. The problem was that you still ended up hand-labeling everything. And for that trouble, it was easier just to write the date the item went in the fridge on the package.
At least BMW kept the computers to just the engine and the radio. I've heard presentations from General Motors about how they want to design a car that will automatically control the car in emergencies.
Yeah, that will be perfectly safe. Just like stopping a 20 mile per hour impact with a 200 mile per hour impact...
Well at least it will help me blow by all of those retail establishments placed right next to the exit.
Precisely how am I supposed to get my "Golf Playing Executive" to take seriously any article that (rightly or not) denegrates his profession wholesale. How am I going to convince my fellow admins who happen to run Windows (not in my shop mind you) to take seriously this article when they are called unskilled, cheap labor?
Did I miss something in my courses in Persuasive writing or public speaking? Rule one of propaganda is NEVER insult the people you are trying to influence.
No more disk space, I've clean run out, My longhorn license lapsed,
My data is lost, and can't be found, nor can the tech support.
Down Redmond way, Every server's clock, thinks today is 1969
It seems deep down, in the 32 bit core, date math is not unsigned.
The only thing for sale was ghastly and green
It has a Microsoft Logo, no keyboard or screen
And no disk or ports either, just License 18.
See me comin' better step aside
A lot of PCs didn't and a lot of men died
I got one fist of 98 and the other of XP
And if the OS don't crash ya, then certainly IE.
Hell, most small business deal with simple things like roofs, plumbing, or direct customer service. Explain how Mr. Patel on the other end of the telephone is going to improve their bottom line?
Frankly I found the research to be quite extensive and grounded on common sense. Which is a bit more than I can say for ... (this post terminated to stop feeding the trolls.)