Well, considering Macs didn't start shipping 64-bit processors until 2008, and didn't fully support it in the OS until 2010, I don't know if I'd call them inept. Actively maintained and sold software isn't the issue, but software that may only be 8 years old certainly is. People who bought some Adobe software for major dollars 7 years ago and haven't jumped onto the subscription model since are going to be the ones who are screwed. 8 years is a long time ago, yet a short time ago as well.
Except it's not just the physical jack (unless it's analog like the 3.5mm jack)... If you are using USB-C, lightning or other digital connectors, your headphones also have to support the audio profile AND the codec that is being used. New codecs are coming out all the time. Heck, the first USB-C Beats headphones don't support but half of the codecs in use today.... so they are already becoming obsolete, despite only being for sale for about 2 years...
It depends on the area. It's not as much the population of an area requiring certain things (well, they do), but the class of people.
If you have a bunch of tech workers move into an area, they will demand certain services. Things like parks, good schools, clean streets, local nightlife, baseball stadiums, etc. are all going to be demanded by people of a certain class, in addition to the basics of infrastructure, police, fire, etc. If you create 50,000 low-paying, blue-collar the demand will be much less since these people will be more worried about keeping taxes down. It's all those things that make a community "nice," raise the values of the homes and land in the area and make it more desirable.
I watched this happen in the town I grew up in, in Illinois. Before we moved there is was painfully blue-collar. Nothing going on, tract housing, low income. The big employer there was a recycler. A few years after we had been there, a large DoD contractor built a location (they were doing R&D for missile propulsion systems) and with them came some very highly-educated, upper class citizens. Nearly overnight we started getting parks concerted efforts to make the school system better. Taxes went up for everybody. Roads expanded, and the town got bigger. Other companies moved in that were dealing in that space and the area changed more and more.
You might thing that it's trivial to put an app on everybody's phones, and that may be the easiest part of this entire problem.... By the way, only about 60% of the cell phones in the USA, in use, run Android 4.0 or later OR iOS 5.0 or later. 40% either don't run either operating system or are that old. Yes, that is a problem when you start to talk to develop an app that everybody has. And, the app would need to work on all models, even flip phones and the 6 phones left out there that run that Microsoft OS.
So, all that aside, you still need to figure out a way to communicate this data to the PSAP. Over TCP/IP? Well, what if the person doesn't subscribe to data service. Or you are driving down the road in the boon-docks and you don't have good data service. How about over the cellular connection? Well, how does the PSAP get that data once you've sent it... over the highly-compressed audio connection that will strip out most bandwidth from the conversation?
So, once that data makes it to the PSAP, you still have to read that data. If it is inband, then you have a machine trying to parse that data. Will everybody use the same standard? One vendor is going to make that equipment? That sounds like a sweet contract. What about all those analog PSAPs out there (and yes, there are still a LOT of them). Are you going to force them to upgrade their software / hardware / telco connections? With what money?
I used to install 911 systems. The biggest problem is the RBOCs (phone companies). They've refused to upgrade their systems to allow any meaningful data to directly reach their systems. Many 911 systems out there today rely on old analog connections that can't carry enhanced data except for caller-id. The 911 systems simply use the caller-id to match a location.
Want to know how cell phones work when you call 911?
The user dials the number associated with emergency services on their phone. The phone gets handed to the cell company. At the same time, the GPS unit is activated on the phone and the phone attempts to get a lock. GPS information is sent to the cell company emergency services "smart router".
Meanwhile, the call gets routed to the PSAP. It uses the address of the closest tower to find out which correct PSAP is supposed to answer. The PSAP answers and gets connected to an operator. There, they are given the location of the antenna/tower that the user called through. SOME cell providers offer a link (depending on the software they are using) to get additional information about the call, which often requires pulling up seperate software and/or a website to get the location from the smart router. The location/may/ be updating in real time, or it may not be. I've seen many cases where the GPS didn't get a lock at first and the location pulled up in the smart router never gets updated beyond that. Oh, and if you use a cell company that hasn't directly partnered with your local PSAP, the operator may only get the street address of the closest tower.
The phone companies have the technology to make this work, and make it work well. It would require the RBOCs to upgrade their networks a bit and provide advanced services to the 911 centers. It would also require the police, phone companies and 911 centers to want to work together and do things the right way. Right now there are a lot of people who think their technology is right and that everybody else should just simply use it. What ends up is that we have a bunch of different software, all cobbled together in ways that make the system really, really bad.
Consumers tend to like apps as the solution to get to 911 services. Sure, they can get advanced services (like a real GPS location), and other nice things, but it relies on a bunch of technologies that are designed to work "at best effort". If you don't have data service and you launch the app, it won't work. If you call 911 and don't have phone service, your phone will actually roam to anybody and everybody's network you have a radio for and place the call.
This is actually a test OF the prod system. You can have a totally separate system for testing, but you do need to test the production system to make sure that some system hasn't broke, bird eaten through a wire, or service credential expired. Data Centers test transfer switches once a month in production. Across the midwest, they test tornado sirens once a month.
Last time I was in Germany (a few years ago), I was at a deli and I did the EVM thing. All of a sudden the register beeped and spit out a receipt for me to sign. I already had the pen in my hand by the cashier had no idea what was going on. It was the first time they had ever seen the receipt print out like that and ask for a signature.
I think in the grocery store, they had at least seen it a few times. I couldn't use that card at all for the train since the PIN function had been blocked, and the terminal had no way to use the signature.
Pretty much this. That and most "mom and pop" stores still use dial-up credit card readers. These readers, in order to have a faster handshake, connect at 2400 baud. The payload of an encrypted session with an EVM chip is about 50 - 75kb, which takes about 20 - 40 seconds over a 2400 baud connection. A non-EVM session transfers about 10kb worth of data and can be done in about 4 - 10 seconds.
In Europe, most credit card readers, even in small stores used ISDN-BRI or better. Even the EVM sessions would take under 10 seconds.
I would add one more thing -- that "leftpad-4.5.7" is from the same source as the author's source location. We've been finding that the minified code (blob, if you will) that the npm directory points to is not necessarily the exact same as what is in the author's source tree -- meaning what people would be inspecting is not necessarily what is being distributed.
It could be that leftpad is doing bad things to you code -- you just may not notice it because the source and the blob are totally different.
For 2015, 2016 and 2017, the speed of 25/1 is what they used as the definition of Broadband. The proposal is to lower this to 10/1 so that most cellular providers will meet the definition.
Not only does the price fluctuate, but the price to settle a transaction is about $20, and as high as $35 in the last few weeks. This is the amount that you pay regardless of the amount you are sending....
Kinda hard to pay for something worth $25, when you have to pay $20 to send it.
Not quite. I have two SAR (Search and Rescue) dogs, and they are able to able to smell things we just plain can't. One dog can cover a 40 acre plot of land and find every human within about a half hour. He's found a dozen people (live and dead), and in many cases, places where ground-pounders and police already cleared. Our other dog is a sent-specific trailing dog and will follow the scent that a human leave along a trail for miles.
In all cases, during training and live searches, the handler has no idea where the subjects are. There is no indication that they can follow -- they lead us.
God, you must be a joy to work with. Did you kick a puppy on your way to work as well?
There are situations where people care about their work, and the people they spend a majority of their life with. Even though I work for a large, bureaucratic organization, there are things I can do for my employees to make their lives better. They know this, and return the favor when they can. It's a two way street.
Any manager worth their weight should have a general idea of when you are close to retirement. I have the personnel files, and I know what official age you are set, the only thing that is the X factor is the amount of money you've saved up, and if you are waiting for a spouse to retire as well. My employees started telling me unofficially that they planned to retire within a year or so, and about 6 months out, they told me in writing what day they were looking to do it. It gave me time to put my plans together and make sure they had a good transition from their normal workload to nothing over that amount of time. It also let me put the plans in motion to hire replacements and ge them up to speed.
Less than 6 months will put more strain on the team. The larger the team, the less impact. If you care about those things (you do usually work with people you at least care about a little), then give more time. If you don't care, usually the worst laws in the US require only a few weeks notice.
I've heard of stories that people terminate people who are set to retire early, but I've never found a real case of that happening. If you've made it that far, and you give them a reasonable timeline (6 months), most people will go into the "wait it out" mode if they were planning on terminating you anyway.
The 235 is what I settled on. I started with the Moto 360, and had it for a few years. It was OK, but it wasn't strong as a fitness tracker or a watch -- the two things I bought it for. The stuff it was good at, was still too early on to be useful.
The Garmin 235 is a really good fitness tracker, and a pretty good watch. It's always on, so I don't have to flick my wrist constantly to see what time it is, so it meets that checkbox.
Only issue I have with it, is the bluetooth on my phone keeps knocking off (well documented issue with the Pixel), and the Garmins don't really let you know if it lost it's connection. When that happens, the notifications stop coming, and if I keep my phone in my bag for long periods of time, I miss things I'm expecting.
This really isn't anything new. There are a ton of GSA approved vendors, many of them have "one-stop shopping" sites that do direct billing.
CDW-G, for example, allows you to already get anything computer/electronics related. Graybar, for construction materials Granger for supplies, etc.
When you buy from them, you don't need a bid (unless it's over your direct purchasing limit). This really isn't a change -- it just adds Amazon to the mix.
Plain and simple -- IT costs money. The people who operate and implement IT cost money. Every bit of IT that gets implemented, from email to that fancy CRM system require money to do right. Even if you move stuff to the cloud, outsource or push it out to front-line staff to do it themselves will always cost money.
The trick is to make that money you are putting toward IT to good use. You will spend it regardless if you make it your competitive advantage or not. So, the smart companies use technology as their competitive advantage rather than just as a cost center. Making IT a competitive advantage costs a bit more, but ultimately it will put more money into other parts of the business.
They've been a bank for the last 17 years. The bank traded under the name "x.com", and was recently renamed when Elon purchased the name. They were FDIC insured as a bank until 2015 when they opted out after being spun off from eBay. Most customer accounts were considered "money market" accounts, and weren't insured, which is why they didn't offer any protections a normal bank does. Business accounts could setup a savings deposit which was insured, but they did make it difficult enough to do that most didn't even try (or know they could). They've not accepted direct deposits since they closed their last branch at the eBay Town Center in San Jose in 2015.
True -- assuming that they didn't sell off their broadcasting license -- which quite a few did. A list of all the stations going dark is at : https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/pu...
Last summer the FCC allowed stations to enter into an auction for their active frequencies. This was for all stations that had an active UHF or VHF license. Many decided to participate in the auction and sell off their license.
A consequence of this is that with half of the stations going away, the remaining stations' licenses will be consolidated and pushed to a lower frequency, with the higher frequencies then being re-assigned to cell companies.
No -- last summer the FCC allowed stations to enter into an auction for their active frequencies. This was for all stations that had an active UHF or VHF license. Many decided to participate in the auction and sell off their license.
A consequence of this is that with half of the stations going away, the remaining stations' licenses will be consolidated and pushed to a lower frequency, with the higher frequencies then being re-assigned to cell companies. In places like Chicago, they are going from about 14 broadcasters with about 30 some virtual channels to about 7 broadcasters with about 16 virtual channels. The rest will go offline or just cable-tv only. I know in my area (Lansing, MI) we've already had two stations go dark since the auction finished (WHTV and whatever 50 was).
Analog is dead and has been. A few low-power stations still have analog licenses, but anybody who has purchased a TV in the last 10 years hasn't been able to pick them up since very few come with NTSC OTA tuners anymore.
Too bad the FCC just held an auction for a lot of the spectrum that these TV stations use. In many markets, half of the stations you can get over the air with "bunny ears" will go dark or cable-only within the next year. The spectrum is being sold off to the cell phone companies.
Grab the book "Make: Electronics (Learning by Discovery)". This is by far, the best book I've found for beginners. I used it for classes I teach at the HS level as well at our maker space. It demonstrates a lot of concepts pictorially, and also explains the science behind it.
Except for cell phones. The most expensive cell phone is the most popular on the market right now (those by Apple). Cheap Androids are getting only a small portion of the marketshare, and more expensive Android phones are the lionshare of the remainder.
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Well, considering Macs didn't start shipping 64-bit processors until 2008, and didn't fully support it in the OS until 2010, I don't know if I'd call them inept. Actively maintained and sold software isn't the issue, but software that may only be 8 years old certainly is. People who bought some Adobe software for major dollars 7 years ago and haven't jumped onto the subscription model since are going to be the ones who are screwed. 8 years is a long time ago, yet a short time ago as well.
Except it's not just the physical jack (unless it's analog like the 3.5mm jack)... If you are using USB-C, lightning or other digital connectors, your headphones also have to support the audio profile AND the codec that is being used. New codecs are coming out all the time. Heck, the first USB-C Beats headphones don't support but half of the codecs in use today.... so they are already becoming obsolete, despite only being for sale for about 2 years...
It depends on the area. It's not as much the population of an area requiring certain things (well, they do), but the class of people.
If you have a bunch of tech workers move into an area, they will demand certain services. Things like parks, good schools, clean streets, local nightlife, baseball stadiums, etc. are all going to be demanded by people of a certain class, in addition to the basics of infrastructure, police, fire, etc. If you create 50,000 low-paying, blue-collar the demand will be much less since these people will be more worried about keeping taxes down. It's all those things that make a community "nice," raise the values of the homes and land in the area and make it more desirable.
I watched this happen in the town I grew up in, in Illinois. Before we moved there is was painfully blue-collar. Nothing going on, tract housing, low income. The big employer there was a recycler. A few years after we had been there, a large DoD contractor built a location (they were doing R&D for missile propulsion systems) and with them came some very highly-educated, upper class citizens. Nearly overnight we started getting parks concerted efforts to make the school system better. Taxes went up for everybody. Roads expanded, and the town got bigger. Other companies moved in that were dealing in that space and the area changed more and more.
You might thing that it's trivial to put an app on everybody's phones, and that may be the easiest part of this entire problem.... By the way, only about 60% of the cell phones in the USA, in use, run Android 4.0 or later OR iOS 5.0 or later. 40% either don't run either operating system or are that old. Yes, that is a problem when you start to talk to develop an app that everybody has. And, the app would need to work on all models, even flip phones and the 6 phones left out there that run that Microsoft OS.
So, all that aside, you still need to figure out a way to communicate this data to the PSAP. Over TCP/IP? Well, what if the person doesn't subscribe to data service. Or you are driving down the road in the boon-docks and you don't have good data service. How about over the cellular connection? Well, how does the PSAP get that data once you've sent it... over the highly-compressed audio connection that will strip out most bandwidth from the conversation?
So, once that data makes it to the PSAP, you still have to read that data. If it is inband, then you have a machine trying to parse that data. Will everybody use the same standard? One vendor is going to make that equipment? That sounds like a sweet contract. What about all those analog PSAPs out there (and yes, there are still a LOT of them). Are you going to force them to upgrade their software / hardware / telco connections? With what money?
I used to install 911 systems. The biggest problem is the RBOCs (phone companies). They've refused to upgrade their systems to allow any meaningful data to directly reach their systems. Many 911 systems out there today rely on old analog connections that can't carry enhanced data except for caller-id. The 911 systems simply use the caller-id to match a location.
Want to know how cell phones work when you call 911?
The user dials the number associated with emergency services on their phone. The phone gets handed to the cell company. At the same time, the GPS unit is activated on the phone and the phone attempts to get a lock. GPS information is sent to the cell company emergency services "smart router".
Meanwhile, the call gets routed to the PSAP. It uses the address of the closest tower to find out which correct PSAP is supposed to answer. The PSAP answers and gets connected to an operator. There, they are given the location of the antenna/tower that the user called through. SOME cell providers offer a link (depending on the software they are using) to get additional information about the call, which often requires pulling up seperate software and/or a website to get the location from the smart router. The location /may/ be updating in real time, or it may not be. I've seen many cases where the GPS didn't get a lock at first and the location pulled up in the smart router never gets updated beyond that. Oh, and if you use a cell company that hasn't directly partnered with your local PSAP, the operator may only get the street address of the closest tower.
The phone companies have the technology to make this work, and make it work well. It would require the RBOCs to upgrade their networks a bit and provide advanced services to the 911 centers. It would also require the police, phone companies and 911 centers to want to work together and do things the right way. Right now there are a lot of people who think their technology is right and that everybody else should just simply use it. What ends up is that we have a bunch of different software, all cobbled together in ways that make the system really, really bad.
Consumers tend to like apps as the solution to get to 911 services. Sure, they can get advanced services (like a real GPS location), and other nice things, but it relies on a bunch of technologies that are designed to work "at best effort". If you don't have data service and you launch the app, it won't work. If you call 911 and don't have phone service, your phone will actually roam to anybody and everybody's network you have a radio for and place the call.
This is actually a test OF the prod system. You can have a totally separate system for testing, but you do need to test the production system to make sure that some system hasn't broke, bird eaten through a wire, or service credential expired. Data Centers test transfer switches once a month in production. Across the midwest, they test tornado sirens once a month.
Last time I was in Germany (a few years ago), I was at a deli and I did the EVM thing. All of a sudden the register beeped and spit out a receipt for me to sign. I already had the pen in my hand by the cashier had no idea what was going on. It was the first time they had ever seen the receipt print out like that and ask for a signature.
I think in the grocery store, they had at least seen it a few times. I couldn't use that card at all for the train since the PIN function had been blocked, and the terminal had no way to use the signature.
Pretty much this. That and most "mom and pop" stores still use dial-up credit card readers. These readers, in order to have a faster handshake, connect at 2400 baud. The payload of an encrypted session with an EVM chip is about 50 - 75kb, which takes about 20 - 40 seconds over a 2400 baud connection. A non-EVM session transfers about 10kb worth of data and can be done in about 4 - 10 seconds.
In Europe, most credit card readers, even in small stores used ISDN-BRI or better. Even the EVM sessions would take under 10 seconds.
I would add one more thing -- that "leftpad-4.5.7" is from the same source as the author's source location. We've been finding that the minified code (blob, if you will) that the npm directory points to is not necessarily the exact same as what is in the author's source tree -- meaning what people would be inspecting is not necessarily what is being distributed.
It could be that leftpad is doing bad things to you code -- you just may not notice it because the source and the blob are totally different.
https://www.fcc.gov/reports-re...
For 2015, 2016 and 2017, the speed of 25/1 is what they used as the definition of Broadband. The proposal is to lower this to 10/1 so that most cellular providers will meet the definition.
Try again next time.
Not only does the price fluctuate, but the price to settle a transaction is about $20, and as high as $35 in the last few weeks. This is the amount that you pay regardless of the amount you are sending....
Kinda hard to pay for something worth $25, when you have to pay $20 to send it.
Not quite. I have two SAR (Search and Rescue) dogs, and they are able to able to smell things we just plain can't. One dog can cover a 40 acre plot of land and find every human within about a half hour. He's found a dozen people (live and dead), and in many cases, places where ground-pounders and police already cleared. Our other dog is a sent-specific trailing dog and will follow the scent that a human leave along a trail for miles.
In all cases, during training and live searches, the handler has no idea where the subjects are. There is no indication that they can follow -- they lead us.
So -- read up. Your tests are bull shit.
God, you must be a joy to work with. Did you kick a puppy on your way to work as well?
There are situations where people care about their work, and the people they spend a majority of their life with. Even though I work for a large, bureaucratic organization, there are things I can do for my employees to make their lives better. They know this, and return the favor when they can. It's a two way street.
Any manager worth their weight should have a general idea of when you are close to retirement. I have the personnel files, and I know what official age you are set, the only thing that is the X factor is the amount of money you've saved up, and if you are waiting for a spouse to retire as well. My employees started telling me unofficially that they planned to retire within a year or so, and about 6 months out, they told me in writing what day they were looking to do it. It gave me time to put my plans together and make sure they had a good transition from their normal workload to nothing over that amount of time. It also let me put the plans in motion to hire replacements and ge them up to speed.
Less than 6 months will put more strain on the team. The larger the team, the less impact. If you care about those things (you do usually work with people you at least care about a little), then give more time. If you don't care, usually the worst laws in the US require only a few weeks notice.
I've heard of stories that people terminate people who are set to retire early, but I've never found a real case of that happening. If you've made it that far, and you give them a reasonable timeline (6 months), most people will go into the "wait it out" mode if they were planning on terminating you anyway.
The 235 is what I settled on. I started with the Moto 360, and had it for a few years. It was OK, but it wasn't strong as a fitness tracker or a watch -- the two things I bought it for. The stuff it was good at, was still too early on to be useful.
The Garmin 235 is a really good fitness tracker, and a pretty good watch. It's always on, so I don't have to flick my wrist constantly to see what time it is, so it meets that checkbox.
Only issue I have with it, is the bluetooth on my phone keeps knocking off (well documented issue with the Pixel), and the Garmins don't really let you know if it lost it's connection. When that happens, the notifications stop coming, and if I keep my phone in my bag for long periods of time, I miss things I'm expecting.
This really isn't anything new. There are a ton of GSA approved vendors, many of them have "one-stop shopping" sites that do direct billing.
CDW-G, for example, allows you to already get anything computer/electronics related.
Graybar, for construction materials
Granger for supplies, etc.
When you buy from them, you don't need a bid (unless it's over your direct purchasing limit). This really isn't a change -- it just adds Amazon to the mix.
Plain and simple -- IT costs money. The people who operate and implement IT cost money. Every bit of IT that gets implemented, from email to that fancy CRM system require money to do right. Even if you move stuff to the cloud, outsource or push it out to front-line staff to do it themselves will always cost money.
The trick is to make that money you are putting toward IT to good use. You will spend it regardless if you make it your competitive advantage or not. So, the smart companies use technology as their competitive advantage rather than just as a cost center. Making IT a competitive advantage costs a bit more, but ultimately it will put more money into other parts of the business.
They've been a bank for the last 17 years. The bank traded under the name "x.com", and was recently renamed when Elon purchased the name. They were FDIC insured as a bank until 2015 when they opted out after being spun off from eBay. Most customer accounts were considered "money market" accounts, and weren't insured, which is why they didn't offer any protections a normal bank does. Business accounts could setup a savings deposit which was insured, but they did make it difficult enough to do that most didn't even try (or know they could). They've not accepted direct deposits since they closed their last branch at the eBay Town Center in San Jose in 2015.
True -- assuming that they didn't sell off their broadcasting license -- which quite a few did. A list of all the stations going dark is at : https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/pu...
Last summer the FCC allowed stations to enter into an auction for their active frequencies. This was for all stations that had an active UHF or VHF license. Many decided to participate in the auction and sell off their license.
A consequence of this is that with half of the stations going away, the remaining stations' licenses will be consolidated and pushed to a lower frequency, with the higher frequencies then being re-assigned to cell companies.
A 3-second google search comes up with the FCC site with all the details : https://www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/... with a list of all the stations going dark on this report : https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/pu...
No -- last summer the FCC allowed stations to enter into an auction for their active frequencies. This was for all stations that had an active UHF or VHF license. Many decided to participate in the auction and sell off their license.
A consequence of this is that with half of the stations going away, the remaining stations' licenses will be consolidated and pushed to a lower frequency, with the higher frequencies then being re-assigned to cell companies. In places like Chicago, they are going from about 14 broadcasters with about 30 some virtual channels to about 7 broadcasters with about 16 virtual channels. The rest will go offline or just cable-tv only. I know in my area (Lansing, MI) we've already had two stations go dark since the auction finished (WHTV and whatever 50 was).
Analog is dead and has been. A few low-power stations still have analog licenses, but anybody who has purchased a TV in the last 10 years hasn't been able to pick them up since very few come with NTSC OTA tuners anymore.
Too bad the FCC just held an auction for a lot of the spectrum that these TV stations use. In many markets, half of the stations you can get over the air with "bunny ears" will go dark or cable-only within the next year. The spectrum is being sold off to the cell phone companies.
My voice is my password. Please verify me.
Grab the book "Make: Electronics (Learning by Discovery)". This is by far, the best book I've found for beginners. I used it for classes I teach at the HS level as well at our maker space. It demonstrates a lot of concepts pictorially, and also explains the science behind it.
Except for cell phones. The most expensive cell phone is the most popular on the market right now (those by Apple). Cheap Androids are getting only a small portion of the marketshare, and more expensive Android phones are the lionshare of the remainder.