Well I am pushing a couple hundred meg now of financial related data, but should probably start deleting things as I have close to 20 years worth of stuff. Granted this is for myself and my wife and includes, credit card statements, pay stubs, checking account statements, savings account statements, loan payment histories, multiple 401k statements, multiple 403b statements, IRA statements, other investment statements, tax documents, etc going back almost 20 years. Also I scanned in other important documents for each family member like birth certificates, social security cards, passports, driver license, marriage certificate, etc. so I have electronic copies of those as well. Then for good measure I also scanned in other documents of importance like car titles, bills of sale for firearms (they contain the serial number, who I purchased them from, and when I purchased them), insurance policies, wills, etc. As I said this is a few hundred megs but depending on what else one wants to backup like family photos or movies I could see it getting to a few gig pretty easily without being considered an obscene amount of data.
Because tossing an encrypted 32GB USB flash drive in your desk that is a copy of another 32GB encrypted flash drive that is in a fire chest or safe at home that has backups of your important data is too low tech, too robust, and too inexpensive of a solution. This is my solution and the total cost to implement it was about $40 a couple of years ago. It is highly unlikely that both my house and work will burn down at the same time, and since the drives are encrypted someone stealing it out of my desk means I am out the cost to replace the drive but they don't get my data, same with the one in the safe, even if stolen they get a $11 USB stick now. I also included windows, OS X, and Linux versions of the encryption software as well.
Depends on the safe. If it is just one of those small fire chests they will take those, if it is something like a proper large safe, they had better bring a forklift or thermal lance.
This wouldn't surprise me. I have heard similar things about humans and our extended non reproductive years compared to other mammals. But in general evolution doesn't tend to care (yes I know) much about non reproductive years.
Say what you will but that was a great way to learn the basics of programming as it made it fun for kids. I should see if the online Apple II emulator has logo writer (I think that is what is was called) and introduce my kids to it. The oldest one already likes playing word munchers on it.
Beyond the most simplistic programming it becomes fairly abstract. The most concise description I have ever heard about a computer is that it is the dumbest machine that has ever been created. Once turned on it has to be told how to do everything and the instructions are very small like load the content memory location 0x47D809A7 into register ax. Granted this was an assembly language teacher but even higher level languages require thinking in very small steps that may not be apparent why one needs to do something first.
I had a friend who was going for an automotive engineering degree and he had to take a course in C programming so him and his friends in the major needed a lot of extra help to just muddle through the class and I provided a lot of tutoring on the side. I probably made a couple of thousand dollars from them over the course of 3 months at $10 bucks a session per person with a couple of sessions each week each lasting 2-3 hours. I managed to get it so that they all did fairly well in the course but as far as being programmers they couldn't do the hard work of getting the problem into small enough chunks on their own but if you could tell them in small enough steps they could translate those to actual C code. There really seems is a mindset that is needed for programming and a lot of people just can't seem to do it but they can act as a natural language translator. Then add in that when you take it a step further into proving something is correct (I do a lot of this in my job) and now you are really off in the land of abstract. Although I to like being able to say I can write a log parser that can take proactive action based off of what it sees and then feed it the output of/dev/urandom just to see that it won't go stupid, leak memory, core, deadlock, etc on a whim because a coworker didn't think it could handle that.
And there's nothing anyone can do except raise salaries and steal coders away from another job.
Its called the market business needs to realize that the market includes labor.
Sounds like your company's offerings need to be better still and you expand your search to those outside of the shitville of southern California, too many people, is either on fire or being washed down hill, earthquakes, a seemingly endless supply of California crazy, etc. You couldn't get me to move there with even the current high end of the pay scale but I might be convinced if I was paid enough to acquire what I have now in the Midwest and live a better lifestyle but companies don't seem to want to pay between a quarter and half a million. And that estimate seems reasonable given that I would want to live in a good school district with a single family house on about half an acre that backs up to a nice park with woods that is within a 40 minutes commute to work and a 2 hour drive to a 2.5 acres of lakefront property (owned outright) with about 1000 acres of public land open to hunting only about a 100 meter walk.
If they can show they offered a job and offered a move to somebody in the US and got turned down six times, then they can do the H1-B thing.
Easy enough to do, just offer $25,000/year and have silly job requirements, like with the stupid offers I laugh at from recruiters.
If they hire an engineer on a H1-B, then they must pay the scholarship and internship for an American to make him qualified.
This may be more interesting in that it does increase the cost so let's say it costs $5000 for this scholarship the above offer now becomes $20,000/year.
That newly minted engineer now goes into the job pool.
See step 1.
I do appreciate that you are at least trying to address the problem but I don't believe that you method would work. My idea is to actually use the comments of assholes like these tech CEOs against them. They claim that they absolutely cannot find an American to fill these positions and that they are so critical that they have to import foreign workers instead of take the time and expense train an American. If this is really the case, I mean why wouldn't it be our corporate masters say it is so, then these must be some truly special individuals. I mean a company can run for months or years while performing a search for a new CEO but claim that these people are so critical they must be imported now. Now if we continue this reasoning it would seem that anyone who is being brought in on a H-1B visa should be very highly compensated, I mean like they are the highest compensated individual at the company they are performing work for or contracted to perform work through. Make it law that any H-1B visa holder must be the highest compensated person at the company they are performing work for or any company in the contracting chain and I would say that we can open the flood gates for an unlimited number of H-1B visas which is what the corporations want. By total compensation I mean base pay, bonuses, stock option, various allowances, benefits, relocation, retirement, everything. Then we will really see how critical the H-1B program is, and yes I do expect that we will see some people being brought over but they will truly be people who have unique special skills instead of low paid warm bodies to depress existing wages.
Given them a couple of years. After the state burns down this year or next , there will be massive mud slides that wash away a bunch of the state. This seems to happen a lot, first wild fires, then massive mud slides. A few years later repeat the cycle.
Well I still use it. I like it because it is fairly simple to use and very portable. I have a few TrueCrypt files that store info I would rather not become public (scanned tax documents, financial docs, scanned identity docs, other important docs) but would like to have an easy electronic access to if out somewhere. Also since a TrueCrypt volume is just a file I can easily back them up and move them. So I have the main files on my computer, keep a backup of them in the safe on a USB drive, have another backup on USB in my desk drawer and can drop the binaries and installer for windows, mac and Linux on the same USB drive. At work it has also been used to protect data sent through the mail to a fairly paranoid customer (it is justified paranoia), where we will send them a DVD that contains a TrueCrypt volume that has what ever they were getting and when it arrives they will call back here and get the password to open it.
I don't think if I was hiding under my desk I would be all that anonymous. I would likely be calling from my desk phone or my cellphone which happen to provide real caller ID info automatically
Unfortunately most people won't understand that there are different tools for different jobs. I remember seeing something on the BBC about a year ago where one of their reporters would use their cellphone camera when doing an interview for exactly the reason you mention, so it woudl seem reasonable to assume that Henri Cartier-Bresson would have used a cell phone camera. It is socially invisible where as a large video camera or still camera wouldn't be. For me having the big camera and proper equipment has opened up some opportunities that I might not have been able to get otherwise. Going to historic places off the beaten path and bringing it I have had offers to go to areas that are off limits to the general public.
I say this as someone who hasn't made the transition to digital and uses a camera that is at least 39 years old (the last one was made in the middle of 1976) and has been made fun of by numerous people for using an antique while they use their iPhones. The quickest way to put an end to that was to put on one of my large lenses when on top of Mount of Olives and show them that I could capture a full frame shot of Dome of the Rock and see the fine detail on the building, get out the macro tubes and show them a close up of a tiny flour, or get out a wide angle lens and use it in a narrow road or next to a tall building. Then again I like film and my old Pentax Spotmatic F so when it dies I will probably make the jump to an older film Hasselblad since I will have to start over with entirely different gear anyway.
I would include the megapixel count in that PR campaign now. All of the compact point and shoot digital cameras are diffraction limited with their 1/2.3" sensors and silly pixel counts. I recently purchased a new camera for my wife (the digital camera she was using gave up the ghost) and was inundated with the lie that more pixels are better by the "helpful" sales staff. Thus far I haven't found a shibboleth that will let them know I know what I am doing and to go the hell away. Since my wife wants a camera for taking pictures of the kids fast image acquisition and focus speed are the points that differentiate one camera from another but try explaining that to the useless clerk. Sadly the best digital camera we own, going by image quality alone, is the first one we ever got about 12 years ago that strangely still works. It is only 8 megapixels and takes those awful XD cards but has a larger better quality lens, and a larger sensor but it is slow to focus, and slow to write. Also for a different take on the airy disc and what it means to photography there is this page that shows some real world effects.
I wouldn't get too worked up about cameras most people use they aren't great and will likely never capture great photos that will win awards and be in books. That isn't want people want, they want something that will capture reasonable pictures of their kids first birthday party. On the professional end there are the good DSLRs that wedding photographers and studios use with proper lighting. Finally you have the people who do photography as art and there you see film and digital being used but it is a personal preference at that point, not a technical decision. Personally I like film, I started with film, I learned on film, I understand how film behaves, and I have a camera that doesn't try to do what it wants instead of what I want, no automatic anything,
I think we all are. I still have the book I learned 6502 assembly with. Impressed the hell out of the computer programming teacher in high school with some of what I did as well as made things interesting for him.
My beef with T-Mobile (the lack of coverage hasn't been a problem for me and where I don't get coverage no one gets coverage) is their sales staff who seem to be clueless if you ask any question that isn't about the features of the damn phone. When they were touting the WiFi call feature that doesn't eat your minutes on their phones I specifically asked if it was applicable to my plan (their legacy prepaid) and was told yes, but that and reality don't mesh. On their site it doesn't specify if it is applicable to my plan as it just states "applicable plans*" so I asked and got the wrong answer. Also they were shocked that I was still using my original SIM that was originally used in a Nokia 5190 handset under VoiceStream.
That said they have been very straight forward with their pricing, caps, and what you get in all other cases, and don't play the BS games.
It is but it may be illegal in your state depending on the laws and what method is under taken. I have looked into this and it seems that by far the most effective method of stopping this is with a license plate cover that distorts the image or blocks IR, these cameras operate in IR. Now in my state Minnesota State Statute 169.79 Subd. 7 states:
All plates must be (1) securely fastened so as to prevent them from swinging, (2) displayed horizontally with the identifying numbers and letters facing outward from the vehicle, and (3) mounted in the upright position. The person driving the motor vehicle shall keep the plate legible and unobstructed and free from grease, dust, or other blurring material so that the lettering is plainly visible at all times. It is unlawful to cover any assigned letters and numbers or the name of the state of origin of a license plate with any material whatever, including any clear or colorless material that affects the plate's visibility or reflectivity.
So this makes it illegal to use the most effective method of stopping these things. Also it makes almost all of those vanity license plate holders illegal so consider that as it just gives them an excuse to pull you over. The other popular method of attempting to defeat ALPRs seems to be to use a few high output IR LEDs in attempt to dazzle the sensor by flooding surrounding pixels but in those don't seem to work all that well. Others have tried to flash IR LEDs but this may also be illegal in your state as it is in mine as there are usually laws governing flashing lights in motion.
My take would be instead to pump out enough IR over a large enough are to mess with the camera's exposure. Bye enough IR over a large enough of an area I am thinking of a few hundred watts over an area slightly larger than the license plate immediately surrounding it, but not covering the plate at all. From what I can tell this hasn't been attempted, but now we are talking real bright as the sun levels of power and that should screw up the metering on the camera. For LEDs I am thinking these as they appear to be about as high efficiency as I can find that put out a lot of IR.
Do people still put up the "Stoppie Here" stop sign shaped signs on the back corners for the victory lap showboating? I haven't been out there for the motorcycle races in years but that was fairly common the last time I was out there for them. I got some nice photos of some of the better ones.
Slashdot Mirror
Well I am pushing a couple hundred meg now of financial related data, but should probably start deleting things as I have close to 20 years worth of stuff. Granted this is for myself and my wife and includes, credit card statements, pay stubs, checking account statements, savings account statements, loan payment histories, multiple 401k statements, multiple 403b statements, IRA statements, other investment statements, tax documents, etc going back almost 20 years. Also I scanned in other important documents for each family member like birth certificates, social security cards, passports, driver license, marriage certificate, etc. so I have electronic copies of those as well. Then for good measure I also scanned in other documents of importance like car titles, bills of sale for firearms (they contain the serial number, who I purchased them from, and when I purchased them), insurance policies, wills, etc. As I said this is a few hundred megs but depending on what else one wants to backup like family photos or movies I could see it getting to a few gig pretty easily without being considered an obscene amount of data.
Because tossing an encrypted 32GB USB flash drive in your desk that is a copy of another 32GB encrypted flash drive that is in a fire chest or safe at home that has backups of your important data is too low tech, too robust, and too inexpensive of a solution. This is my solution and the total cost to implement it was about $40 a couple of years ago. It is highly unlikely that both my house and work will burn down at the same time, and since the drives are encrypted someone stealing it out of my desk means I am out the cost to replace the drive but they don't get my data, same with the one in the safe, even if stolen they get a $11 USB stick now. I also included windows, OS X, and Linux versions of the encryption software as well.
Depends on the safe. If it is just one of those small fire chests they will take those, if it is something like a proper large safe, they had better bring a forklift or thermal lance.
This wouldn't surprise me. I have heard similar things about humans and our extended non reproductive years compared to other mammals. But in general evolution doesn't tend to care (yes I know) much about non reproductive years.
Of all the days to not have mod points. I actually believe I have used a similar metaphor for Snookie at one point.
Say what you will but that was a great way to learn the basics of programming as it made it fun for kids. I should see if the online Apple II emulator has logo writer (I think that is what is was called) and introduce my kids to it. The oldest one already likes playing word munchers on it.
Beyond the most simplistic programming it becomes fairly abstract. The most concise description I have ever heard about a computer is that it is the dumbest machine that has ever been created. Once turned on it has to be told how to do everything and the instructions are very small like load the content memory location 0x47D809A7 into register ax. Granted this was an assembly language teacher but even higher level languages require thinking in very small steps that may not be apparent why one needs to do something first.
/dev/urandom just to see that it won't go stupid, leak memory, core, deadlock, etc on a whim because a coworker didn't think it could handle that.
I had a friend who was going for an automotive engineering degree and he had to take a course in C programming so him and his friends in the major needed a lot of extra help to just muddle through the class and I provided a lot of tutoring on the side. I probably made a couple of thousand dollars from them over the course of 3 months at $10 bucks a session per person with a couple of sessions each week each lasting 2-3 hours. I managed to get it so that they all did fairly well in the course but as far as being programmers they couldn't do the hard work of getting the problem into small enough chunks on their own but if you could tell them in small enough steps they could translate those to actual C code. There really seems is a mindset that is needed for programming and a lot of people just can't seem to do it but they can act as a natural language translator. Then add in that when you take it a step further into proving something is correct (I do a lot of this in my job) and now you are really off in the land of abstract. Although I to like being able to say I can write a log parser that can take proactive action based off of what it sees and then feed it the output of
And there's nothing anyone can do except raise salaries and steal coders away from another job.
Its called the market business needs to realize that the market includes labor.
Sounds like your company's offerings need to be better still and you expand your search to those outside of the shitville of southern California, too many people, is either on fire or being washed down hill, earthquakes, a seemingly endless supply of California crazy, etc. You couldn't get me to move there with even the current high end of the pay scale but I might be convinced if I was paid enough to acquire what I have now in the Midwest and live a better lifestyle but companies don't seem to want to pay between a quarter and half a million. And that estimate seems reasonable given that I would want to live in a good school district with a single family house on about half an acre that backs up to a nice park with woods that is within a 40 minutes commute to work and a 2 hour drive to a 2.5 acres of lakefront property (owned outright) with about 1000 acres of public land open to hunting only about a 100 meter walk.
No evolution doesn't care how long you live, only that you live long enough to reproduce.
I thought it was because the noodly appendages couldn't push down as hard on people below sea level?
I remember when Slashdot would stay up while slashdotting other sites.
If they can show they offered a job and offered a move to somebody in the US and got turned down six times, then they can do the H1-B thing.
Easy enough to do, just offer $25,000/year and have silly job requirements, like with the stupid offers I laugh at from recruiters.
If they hire an engineer on a H1-B, then they must pay the scholarship and internship for an American to make him qualified.
This may be more interesting in that it does increase the cost so let's say it costs $5000 for this scholarship the above offer now becomes $20,000/year.
That newly minted engineer now goes into the job pool.
See step 1.
I do appreciate that you are at least trying to address the problem but I don't believe that you method would work. My idea is to actually use the comments of assholes like these tech CEOs against them. They claim that they absolutely cannot find an American to fill these positions and that they are so critical that they have to import foreign workers instead of take the time and expense train an American. If this is really the case, I mean why wouldn't it be our corporate masters say it is so, then these must be some truly special individuals. I mean a company can run for months or years while performing a search for a new CEO but claim that these people are so critical they must be imported now. Now if we continue this reasoning it would seem that anyone who is being brought in on a H-1B visa should be very highly compensated, I mean like they are the highest compensated individual at the company they are performing work for or contracted to perform work through. Make it law that any H-1B visa holder must be the highest compensated person at the company they are performing work for or any company in the contracting chain and I would say that we can open the flood gates for an unlimited number of H-1B visas which is what the corporations want. By total compensation I mean base pay, bonuses, stock option, various allowances, benefits, relocation, retirement, everything. Then we will really see how critical the H-1B program is, and yes I do expect that we will see some people being brought over but they will truly be people who have unique special skills instead of low paid warm bodies to depress existing wages.
Bear meat is pretty greasy but I don't think even they would eat something as slimy as either of those 2. Maybe pigs?
Given them a couple of years. After the state burns down this year or next , there will be massive mud slides that wash away a bunch of the state. This seems to happen a lot, first wild fires, then massive mud slides. A few years later repeat the cycle.
Well I still use it. I like it because it is fairly simple to use and very portable. I have a few TrueCrypt files that store info I would rather not become public (scanned tax documents, financial docs, scanned identity docs, other important docs) but would like to have an easy electronic access to if out somewhere. Also since a TrueCrypt volume is just a file I can easily back them up and move them. So I have the main files on my computer, keep a backup of them in the safe on a USB drive, have another backup on USB in my desk drawer and can drop the binaries and installer for windows, mac and Linux on the same USB drive. At work it has also been used to protect data sent through the mail to a fairly paranoid customer (it is justified paranoia), where we will send them a DVD that contains a TrueCrypt volume that has what ever they were getting and when it arrives they will call back here and get the password to open it.
I don't think if I was hiding under my desk I would be all that anonymous. I would likely be calling from my desk phone or my cellphone which happen to provide real caller ID info automatically
But only if it wasn't a blond college aged girl. Then they would have her saved in no time without a scratch.
Unfortunately most people won't understand that there are different tools for different jobs. I remember seeing something on the BBC about a year ago where one of their reporters would use their cellphone camera when doing an interview for exactly the reason you mention, so it woudl seem reasonable to assume that Henri Cartier-Bresson would have used a cell phone camera. It is socially invisible where as a large video camera or still camera wouldn't be. For me having the big camera and proper equipment has opened up some opportunities that I might not have been able to get otherwise. Going to historic places off the beaten path and bringing it I have had offers to go to areas that are off limits to the general public.
I say this as someone who hasn't made the transition to digital and uses a camera that is at least 39 years old (the last one was made in the middle of 1976) and has been made fun of by numerous people for using an antique while they use their iPhones. The quickest way to put an end to that was to put on one of my large lenses when on top of Mount of Olives and show them that I could capture a full frame shot of Dome of the Rock and see the fine detail on the building, get out the macro tubes and show them a close up of a tiny flour, or get out a wide angle lens and use it in a narrow road or next to a tall building. Then again I like film and my old Pentax Spotmatic F so when it dies I will probably make the jump to an older film Hasselblad since I will have to start over with entirely different gear anyway.
I would include the megapixel count in that PR campaign now. All of the compact point and shoot digital cameras are diffraction limited with their 1/2.3" sensors and silly pixel counts. I recently purchased a new camera for my wife (the digital camera she was using gave up the ghost) and was inundated with the lie that more pixels are better by the "helpful" sales staff. Thus far I haven't found a shibboleth that will let them know I know what I am doing and to go the hell away. Since my wife wants a camera for taking pictures of the kids fast image acquisition and focus speed are the points that differentiate one camera from another but try explaining that to the useless clerk. Sadly the best digital camera we own, going by image quality alone, is the first one we ever got about 12 years ago that strangely still works. It is only 8 megapixels and takes those awful XD cards but has a larger better quality lens, and a larger sensor but it is slow to focus, and slow to write. Also for a different take on the airy disc and what it means to photography there is this page that shows some real world effects.
I wouldn't get too worked up about cameras most people use they aren't great and will likely never capture great photos that will win awards and be in books. That isn't want people want, they want something that will capture reasonable pictures of their kids first birthday party. On the professional end there are the good DSLRs that wedding photographers and studios use with proper lighting. Finally you have the people who do photography as art and there you see film and digital being used but it is a personal preference at that point, not a technical decision. Personally I like film, I started with film, I learned on film, I understand how film behaves, and I have a camera that doesn't try to do what it wants instead of what I want, no automatic anything,
I think we all are. I still have the book I learned 6502 assembly with. Impressed the hell out of the computer programming teacher in high school with some of what I did as well as made things interesting for him.
My beef with T-Mobile (the lack of coverage hasn't been a problem for me and where I don't get coverage no one gets coverage) is their sales staff who seem to be clueless if you ask any question that isn't about the features of the damn phone. When they were touting the WiFi call feature that doesn't eat your minutes on their phones I specifically asked if it was applicable to my plan (their legacy prepaid) and was told yes, but that and reality don't mesh. On their site it doesn't specify if it is applicable to my plan as it just states "applicable plans*" so I asked and got the wrong answer. Also they were shocked that I was still using my original SIM that was originally used in a Nokia 5190 handset under VoiceStream.
That said they have been very straight forward with their pricing, caps, and what you get in all other cases, and don't play the BS games.
All plates must be (1) securely fastened so as to prevent them from swinging, (2) displayed horizontally with the identifying numbers and letters facing outward from the vehicle, and (3) mounted in the upright position. The person driving the motor vehicle shall keep the plate legible and unobstructed and free from grease, dust, or other blurring material so that the lettering is plainly visible at all times. It is unlawful to cover any assigned letters and numbers or the name of the state of origin of a license plate with any material whatever, including any clear or colorless material that affects the plate's visibility or reflectivity.
So this makes it illegal to use the most effective method of stopping these things. Also it makes almost all of those vanity license plate holders illegal so consider that as it just gives them an excuse to pull you over. The other popular method of attempting to defeat ALPRs seems to be to use a few high output IR LEDs in attempt to dazzle the sensor by flooding surrounding pixels but in those don't seem to work all that well. Others have tried to flash IR LEDs but this may also be illegal in your state as it is in mine as there are usually laws governing flashing lights in motion.
My take would be instead to pump out enough IR over a large enough are to mess with the camera's exposure. Bye enough IR over a large enough of an area I am thinking of a few hundred watts over an area slightly larger than the license plate immediately surrounding it, but not covering the plate at all. From what I can tell this hasn't been attempted, but now we are talking real bright as the sun levels of power and that should screw up the metering on the camera. For LEDs I am thinking these as they appear to be about as high efficiency as I can find that put out a lot of IR.
Do people still put up the "Stoppie Here" stop sign shaped signs on the back corners for the victory lap showboating?
I haven't been out there for the motorcycle races in years but that was fairly common the last time I was out there for them. I got some nice photos of some of the better ones.
I still like "A ship shipping ship shipping shipping ships".
Why can't it be both?
Though if I did have to choose given that it was GCHQ I would have to go with #2.