Most of the tech companies in the area treat programmers/developers (and IT as a whole) as a fossil fuel, to be immediately burned for their energy and quickly forgotten. Attitudes are slowly changing and quality of life is improving at a glacial pace. Still, it's a hard market to thrive in-- long hours, pay that is commonly bottom 25% of national medians, and special types of business people that can only be the result of inbreeding. Expect to be worked like a rented mule, especially in the health care sector.
STL does have its gems (Enterprise RAC, Savvis, Panera, MasterCard etc.), but they're pretty difficult to get in to with all of the competition.
While it's a bit dated on the technology front, it's an incredible (and true) story of tracking and prosecuting an international espionage ring as told by a Berkeley post-grad astronomer who really had no business working in the Lawrence Berkely computer lab. It's fun, often humorous, and includes cautionary wisdom about using a microwave to dry ones' sneakers.
We're not at the point where people are shipped off to the nearest gulag in a boxcar for exercising a basic constitutional right. Why bother with the subterfuge when we have a much more efficient mechanism to silence people? The justice system is shockingly effective at destroying lives and careers-- just being accused is enough to disqualify you from many opportunities.
More than likely, the people you saw being carted off in restraints and disappearing from the grid are COINTELPRO-esque operators. Not saying that the FBI is involved, but it's pretty easy for local law enforcement and corporate entities to insert their own personnel into otherwise peaceful protests to attempt to turn the crowd into something worthy of a police response. We saw plenty of it as the Occupy movements wore on.
These external actors are the easiest to martyr to deliver the threat of adjudication to the rank and file protestor. Consider it really, really good theater.
As a previous poster suggested, about the only shoestring option that you have (and able to withstand legal scrutiny) is whitelisting. The downside is that it's a morale killer and you have to answer regularly to accusations of playing the morality police.
As you stand a chance of experiencing legal penalties, your leadership should belly up for a proper tool. My personal pick through my years of managing this function is Websense Web Security. It's not as expensive as you might think, especially for what it brings to the table. Their pricing fits nicely for nearly any size of organization. I currently manage a 5000 seat deployment, and I couldn't be happier with the job it does for me, or the minimal amount of care and feeding that the system requires.
The skew is due to the performance and availability of the competing flagship GPU's. ATI really hasn't had anything that can stand level to the 8800GTX for a while, and the HD2900 is a scarce upgrade over a 1950 PRO-- both are still amiable performers, but no longer considered "the BEST" by the eye-candy starved gear heads.
Expect that gap to widen even more once the newly revised ~$200 8800 GT hits the streets.
As others have wisely mentioned, you SHOULD start with a pair of decent binoculars; be careful though, while its tempting to get super-powered deep drinking aperature binoculars, they are difficult to use without a stable mount (shakiness=sucks.) You can do very well with a pair of Bushnell 4x50's when you start off-- >$50, decent optics and sturdy.
Once you've resolved to purchase a telescope, again, start small. While you want to marvel at everything in the heavens, you need to learn how to find these objects, and train your eye(s) on how to study them-- as you graduate to more powerful telescopes, the reward is much greater. My personal recommendation is to look at one of Orion's 100-130mm Dobs-- the 4.5" short tube is probably my favorite. Its affordable, not very heavy, doesn't take up much room, has commendable resolving power given its size, easy to maintain, and most importantly because you're interested in astrophotography, it comes with a very straightforward equatorial mount. An equatorial mount that can be easily fitted with drive motors is a crucial requirement to successful astrophotography study.
Once you feel comfortable with your telescope, it'll be time to move into astrophotography. There are a million and one solutions, most of which are capable of making your wallet weep. I'd recommend scouring the internet for a camera project that seems to be within your technical and financial means. You'll be able to find a good many freeware software suites that will help assemble your exposures for some pretty stunning imagery.
I've had the most success with a modified Logitech web cam. I won't bore you with the lengthy mod, but it did give me an excuse to use a peltier wafer to cool the CCD for 20-second-plus exposures. As it cost less than $200 to build, I'm especially happy.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the tech companies in the area treat programmers/developers (and IT as a whole) as a fossil fuel, to be immediately burned for their energy and quickly forgotten. Attitudes are slowly changing and quality of life is improving at a glacial pace. Still, it's a hard market to thrive in-- long hours, pay that is commonly bottom 25% of national medians, and special types of business people that can only be the result of inbreeding. Expect to be worked like a rented mule, especially in the health care sector.
STL does have its gems (Enterprise RAC, Savvis, Panera, MasterCard etc.), but they're pretty difficult to get in to with all of the competition.
The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll
While it's a bit dated on the technology front, it's an incredible (and true) story of tracking and prosecuting an international espionage ring as told by a Berkeley post-grad astronomer who really had no business working in the Lawrence Berkely computer lab. It's fun, often humorous, and includes cautionary wisdom about using a microwave to dry ones' sneakers.
We're not at the point where people are shipped off to the nearest gulag in a boxcar for exercising a basic constitutional right. Why bother with the subterfuge when we have a much more efficient mechanism to silence people? The justice system is shockingly effective at destroying lives and careers-- just being accused is enough to disqualify you from many opportunities.
More than likely, the people you saw being carted off in restraints and disappearing from the grid are COINTELPRO-esque operators. Not saying that the FBI is involved, but it's pretty easy for local law enforcement and corporate entities to insert their own personnel into otherwise peaceful protests to attempt to turn the crowd into something worthy of a police response. We saw plenty of it as the Occupy movements wore on.
These external actors are the easiest to martyr to deliver the threat of adjudication to the rank and file protestor. Consider it really, really good theater.
-SS
As a previous poster suggested, about the only shoestring option that you have (and able to withstand legal scrutiny) is whitelisting. The downside is that it's a morale killer and you have to answer regularly to accusations of playing the morality police.
As you stand a chance of experiencing legal penalties, your leadership should belly up for a proper tool. My personal pick through my years of managing this function is Websense Web Security. It's not as expensive as you might think, especially for what it brings to the table. Their pricing fits nicely for nearly any size of organization. I currently manage a 5000 seat deployment, and I couldn't be happier with the job it does for me, or the minimal amount of care and feeding that the system requires.
-SS
...is a scholar of Constitutional law...
At this point, I'd be happy with a President who can at least spell "Constitutional Law." Hell, maybe even say the term with a straight face.
-SS
The skew is due to the performance and availability of the competing flagship GPU's. ATI really hasn't had anything that can stand level to the 8800GTX for a while, and the HD2900 is a scarce upgrade over a 1950 PRO-- both are still amiable performers, but no longer considered "the BEST" by the eye-candy starved gear heads. Expect that gap to widen even more once the newly revised ~$200 8800 GT hits the streets.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/26/1917259
As others have wisely mentioned, you SHOULD start with a pair of decent binoculars; be careful though, while its tempting to get super-powered deep drinking aperature binoculars, they are difficult to use without a stable mount (shakiness=sucks.) You can do very well with a pair of Bushnell 4x50's when you start off-- >$50, decent optics and sturdy.
Once you've resolved to purchase a telescope, again, start small. While you want to marvel at everything in the heavens, you need to learn how to find these objects, and train your eye(s) on how to study them-- as you graduate to more powerful telescopes, the reward is much greater. My personal recommendation is to look at one of Orion's 100-130mm Dobs-- the 4.5" short tube is probably my favorite. Its affordable, not very heavy, doesn't take up much room, has commendable resolving power given its size, easy to maintain, and most importantly because you're interested in astrophotography, it comes with a very straightforward equatorial mount. An equatorial mount that can be easily fitted with drive motors is a crucial requirement to successful astrophotography study.
Once you feel comfortable with your telescope, it'll be time to move into astrophotography. There are a million and one solutions, most of which are capable of making your wallet weep. I'd recommend scouring the internet for a camera project that seems to be within your technical and financial means. You'll be able to find a good many freeware software suites that will help assemble your exposures for some pretty stunning imagery.
I've had the most success with a modified Logitech web cam. I won't bore you with the lengthy mod, but it did give me an excuse to use a peltier wafer to cool the CCD for 20-second-plus exposures. As it cost less than $200 to build, I'm especially happy.
Best of luck!
-SS