They might have been opposite intentions but the background of "government is always right" cut through both films but Star Ship Trooper did a lot better job, IMO.
Well I vote for STAR Ship Trooper being better than Vendetta. It was a *SCARY* and it actually had a "OK" story line. Vendetta was just a confused story nobody could understand.
We have cities here in the states that are full of loonies (as I call them) they are the libertarian and republican nuts. I maintain its the water. The city in the Chicago area is called Libertyville tend to be just plain cracked. They are not too far away from another city that restricts Jewish people from residing there. Yes we have the nuts here but they are sufficiently far enough away from civilization that no one cares.
Cimexus wrote: This responsibility to your community extends into winter. I was interested to learn that homeowners have a ~legal obligation~ to clear snow from the sidewalk in front of their house within x hours of a snowfall, in the US. That kind of law would never, ever exist in Australia. Half of us just don't care about our yard or what it looks like. ------ Well its interesting here in Chicago IL. That is an ideal but in reality it almost never happens. Last winter I said I was going to sue a guy for not clearing his sidewalk as I had fallen twice. Even then it was a half ass job. In other words its a local thing. Some places enforce it others may pass an ordinance but not enforce it.
I do not remember exactly which English city this happened but.... There was a story here in the US about an English family being monitored (via CITV I think) to prove that they were sending their children to an "incorrect" school (no specifics were given). This is just as ominous (to me) as paying the neighbors to "spy" on the neighbors. The US I am sure is not far behind, BUT, in a large city the police are to busy taking coffee breaks to respond to reports of putting trash in the wrong can. The Bush administration (short though it may be around) would attempt something like this I am sure.
I am in agreement with you. Comcast for MANY MANY reasons is horrid. I run typically 100MB per month. I have a different setup than most I have an account that is paid for by the condo association, but it does increase my monthly assessments. I cannot opt out. So either I add the cost of DSL or I sit and can't complain. The TS from COMCAST at least is US based (as of at least last month) I formally had AMERITECH DSL and the support was sent over to INDIA and they *NEVER* had a clue. Although when it was based in the US it was iffy. I think I would pay extra for US based support.
Here is a hint and it may be way out of date. A LONG time ago the US ARMY used to hire Americans who were on long vacations in Europe. I do not remember the specifics other than they were lowly GS-5's or 6's. IIRC (iffy) its for a limited amount of time say 2 years . They do not advertise the fact just go over there and keep your ears open as to what bases have big computers. My boss was a GS-15 (about the highest you can go) Most of the other long term civilians were GS-12's (again this was *LONG* ago)
Vellmont said (in Part): There is no tier system. The submitter hasn't figured out that outside of academia, nobody really cares where you went to school only what you can actually do. -end quote I guess I have heard differently. But of course there are different types of colleges so I guess it does make a difference. If you consider any state college or Private (semi) university to be equal then you would be correct they are mostly equal (unless you add in MIT then all bets are off). There are "private" colleges that exist that I would not even consider a candidate from one of these. Unless they had 10+ years experience then maybe. The real world knows which "schools" these are.
Ahhh but that is where the republicans have got you. They appointed all the right wing judges they could and the right wing people lock in step and off to jail you go. Constitution? We don't need no stinkin bloody constitution.
I was in the army 40 years ago. A couple of times I followed orders and almost got court marshaled for doing so. I was lucky as my boss was a civilian and he stuck up for me (he was a GS-15). The army listened to him and told the officers to go fight other battles. The other time I almost got court marshaled was for having a poster up in the barracks that the captain thought was obscene. I went straight over to the JAG and made a formal complaint. The JAG asked what I wanted and I said reimbursement for the poster (IIRC around US$4.50). I got it. So using the system wisely does work, and you don't have to kill your officers:-)
Now this maybe folk lore so don't hold me to it. I was told by a reasonably reliable person that the NSA(CIA?) can retrieve data even if the data has been written over 10 times. We had a long discussion about this on an listserv and the 3-4 (spooks?) semi admitted that this was doable.
I suggested the other day for everyone to encrypt their email (maybe with PGP) but you have an excellent point about everything else. How much do voice encryptors cost, Anyone?
The new CPU's are entirely different than the old CPU's it is like comparing a Model T to a 2008 car. Yes they both go but how fast and differently the "insides" (read engine) works the only thing they have in common might be a piston. The newer engines can do actually (millions of) terraflops per sec where as the old one was lucky to do say 1000 a second and they can do it cheaper. So yes any hashing method is faster and less expensive to do on modern computers than the old ones. Oh yes don't forget disk speed and cost I do not know the direct comparison but 96(or more) percent less might be a good number. Everything has come down in price except maybe human costs. I will leave to someone to factor in that cost.
OK, here is my *GUESS* as to why (and it is a GUESS). Way back 40+ years ago creating such an animal would have been "expensive" for using CPU resources (remember back then CPU's *WERE* expensive. The other part of the issue was people time. Trying to come up with anyway to do what you are suggesting might take weeks (or months) to do. Again it is a matter of resources that today are even more expensive. I am not sure what would happen if say the SSN would increase in length to say 15 digits. *SO* many programs would have to be re-written (or at least recompiled that it would probably take 5 years to implement. Plus you have DB issues that would involve many people. I am not trying to say it couldn't be done just that it would be expensive. Who is going to pay for this? Businesses would be screaming uncle to uncle sam. Then what do you do with all the current people? Better minds than mine could have a go at this and might come up with other issues. The SS people never envisioned the chaos that might follow if they had a clue as to what todays people and environment might be like. Heck they might have come up with a 100 digit number that no one would have been able to remember.
It is not so much as required as it is easy to find. Once upon a time before computers probably everything was stored alphabetically. Once it was determined that it would be easier to do a search on a set of numbers everyone had their own customer number. That sort of worked well until it was discovered that people tended to forget 50, 8 digit (or so) numbers. That plus people in the "old" days were basically honest once honesty went out then the SS# was a disaster waiting to happen.
Quite a few companies (and hospitals) do this. Today I was visiting one of my *MANY* doctors and while I was sitting there he called up and reserved a procedure time for me and gave (the hospital) my name and social security number. Also, if I am not mistaken the Army does this (all military services as well). I am pretty sure the IRS and probably the SS (chuckle). The company I used to work for did this (but was told to scrap it). It is quite common.
I used to work for a company that processed sales type data from quite a few stores. By the time we got the data there was *NO* way to associate what any one seller bought. In turn we sold the summary output to various companies so they could get an idea of how well a sales ad worked or some other thing like a cut in price in any specific market. The most *ANYONE* could get out of any reports we sold were number of items, which store, price, date. I the above picture there (IMO) is nothing wrong in collecting that type of data. Where I do agree is where if somehow you can identify the item sold and to who. Stores are doing just this when you use the store card (for a discount) what you give up is privacy. Personally I have never worried about groceries its the "other" items that would upset me.
That might work in their case. Let me tell you how the bank I worked for really pulled it off. Mind you I am not suggesting it be done this way. The Technical Support Group were all classified as exempt as we were not on any clock (per se). We basically were told to work as many hours a week to get the project done. If that meant coming in at 1AM and staying for 24 hours go for it. We routinely were expected to come in at odd hours to accomplish what ever task we were needed to be doing. Installing software for the majority of the time could be done ahead of time and then if needed to. The off hours came in to implement the software if it meant rebooting (IPLing) the system we had to ask the DC manager at least a week ahead of time for permission. Nobody got paid OT we were spied on by certain people in the group as to when we came and went. The boss knew the next day. During staff meetings the boss specifically named names if the person took off early or arrived late. This was done to ridicule the person. Some of the staff on the team were AVP's and besides getting over 100K salaries they also worked about the same as the rest of us (maybe a little more but not much). These people were extremely secretive about being officers. It was hush hush. At another job I put in typically 100 hour work weeks and then was laid off because I made the management look bad.
There is no good solution IMO. I have seen abuses by lazy people and workers that put in 200 percent. I have yet to see any solution that works well.
I used to work at a large bank and practically every piece of OEM software had a license that was tied to the CPU serial number IIRC we had 12 systems and each one of those had between 2-12 serial numbers. Every year (almost) we would do a swap out of a system and replace it with a new system. This entailed hours of phone calls to various vendors. We would have all the information ready at least two days before the planned uninstall and re-install. 80 percent of the time it went on without an issue. Yes a lot of sweat and time was put in. What was really fun were these two scenarios 1. The vendor would give us the incorrect key and the product would not work on the new system. What happened next was sort of semi fun. We would call the vendor at 3 AM (or so) and ask what the correct key was. we got one of three answers call back when the office opens at 9 AM locally or a temporary key that would let us continue. The 3rd type was we are closed call back at 9 AM local time. It was a hard call to make as de-installation of the new computer would take 5-6 hours and to re-install the old one another 4-5 hours (lots of cabling to redo. It also dependent on how critical the software was. We just woke up a high up VP and let him make the call. It only happened a few times but we managed to get rid of a few software vendors because of that issue. We also from then on only signed with vendors that had 24x7X365 support.
What would be fun is if *EVERYONE* used encryption. The government would be buying so many CPU's to try and decode everyone's email. We would have a chance of breaking the governments will to try and do so.
I used to work at a Bank (ABNAMRO) in Chicago. They have basically (either in process or done) almost all the IT jobs to India. IIRC that amounts to about 1500 jobs. I have not heard whether the jobs over in Netherlands (parent company) got out sourced as well or not. My sense is no as they were always on the Americans to cut costs. I think I heard a vague rumor that the Netherlands HQ wouldn't dare move jobs over seas as the people and Government would have a sh** fit. Since our government is run by the republicans no one is going to stand up and say "no".
Slashdot Mirror
They might have been opposite intentions but the background of "government is always right" cut through both films but Star Ship Trooper did a lot better job, IMO.
Well I vote for STAR Ship Trooper being better than Vendetta. It was a *SCARY* and it actually had a "OK" story line. Vendetta was just a confused story nobody could understand.
We have cities here in the states that are full of loonies (as I call them) they are the libertarian and republican nuts. I maintain its the water. The city in the Chicago area is called Libertyville tend to be just plain cracked. They are not too far away from another city that restricts Jewish people from residing there. Yes we have the nuts here but they are sufficiently far enough away from civilization that no one cares.
Cimexus wrote:
This responsibility to your community extends into winter. I was interested to learn that homeowners have a ~legal obligation~ to clear snow from the sidewalk in front of their house within x hours of a snowfall, in the US. That kind of law would never, ever exist in Australia. Half of us just don't care about our yard or what it looks like.
------
Well its interesting here in Chicago IL. That is an ideal but in reality it almost never happens. Last winter I said I was going to sue a guy for not clearing his sidewalk as I had fallen twice. Even then it was a half ass job. In other words its a local thing. Some places enforce it others may pass an ordinance but not enforce it.
I do not remember exactly which English city this happened but....
There was a story here in the US about an English family being monitored (via CITV I think) to prove that they were sending their children to an "incorrect" school (no specifics were given).
This is just as ominous (to me) as paying the neighbors to "spy" on the neighbors. The US I am sure is not far behind, BUT, in a large city the police are to busy taking coffee breaks to respond to reports of putting trash in the wrong can. The Bush administration (short though it may be around) would attempt something like this I am sure.
I am in agreement with you. Comcast for MANY MANY reasons is horrid. I run typically 100MB per month. I have a different setup than most I have an account that is paid for by the condo association, but it does increase my monthly assessments. I cannot opt out. So either I add the cost of DSL or I sit and can't complain.
The TS from COMCAST at least is US based (as of at least last month) I formally had AMERITECH DSL and the support was sent over to INDIA and they *NEVER* had a clue. Although when it was based in the US it was iffy. I think I would pay extra for US based support.
Here is a hint and it may be way out of date. A LONG time ago the US ARMY used to hire Americans who were on long vacations in Europe. I do not remember the specifics other than they were lowly GS-5's or 6's. IIRC (iffy) its for a limited amount of time say 2 years .
They do not advertise the fact just go over there and keep your ears open as to what bases have big computers. My boss was a GS-15 (about the highest you can go) Most of the other long term civilians were GS-12's (again this was *LONG* ago)
Vellmont said (in Part): There is no tier system. The submitter hasn't figured out that outside of academia, nobody really cares where you went to school only what you can actually do.
-end quote
I guess I have heard differently. But of course there are different types of colleges so I guess it does make a difference.
If you consider any state college or Private (semi) university to be equal then you would be correct they are mostly equal (unless you add in MIT then all bets are off). There are "private" colleges that exist that I would not even consider a candidate from one of these. Unless they had 10+ years experience then maybe.
The real world knows which "schools" these are.
Don't you watch Judge Judy?
Courts are full of people who don't bother to get married.
I know its the "thing" to do (not getting married) but the law is on the married peoples side so why not?
Ahhh but that is where the republicans have got you. They appointed all the right wing judges they could and the right wing people lock in step and off to jail you go. Constitution? We don't need no stinkin bloody constitution.
Your item:
Develop a thug caste: Not yet, I think so at least.
You haven't been reading the newspapers? Can we say "FBI" ? yes I know you could say it. Doesn't that make you feel better?
I was in the army 40 years ago. A couple of times I followed orders and almost got court marshaled for doing so. I was lucky as my boss was a civilian and he stuck up for me (he was a GS-15). The army listened to him and told the officers to go fight other battles. The other time I almost got court marshaled was for having a poster up in the barracks that the captain thought was obscene. I went straight over to the JAG and made a formal complaint. The JAG asked what I wanted and I said reimbursement for the poster (IIRC around US$4.50). I got it. So using the system wisely does work, and you don't have to kill your officers:-)
Now this maybe folk lore so don't hold me to it. I was told by a reasonably reliable person that the NSA(CIA?) can retrieve data even if the data has been written over 10 times. We had a long discussion about this on an listserv and the 3-4 (spooks?) semi admitted that this was doable.
I suggested the other day for everyone to encrypt their email (maybe with PGP) but you have an excellent point about everything else. How much do voice encryptors cost, Anyone?
The new CPU's are entirely different than the old CPU's it is like comparing a Model T to a 2008 car. Yes they both go but how fast and differently the "insides" (read engine) works the only thing they have in common might be a piston. The newer engines can do actually (millions of) terraflops per sec where as the old one was lucky to do say 1000 a second and they can do it cheaper. So yes any hashing method is faster and less expensive to do on modern computers than the old ones. Oh yes don't forget disk speed and cost I do not know the direct comparison but 96(or more) percent less might be a good number. Everything has come down in price except maybe human costs. I will leave to someone to factor in that cost.
OK, here is my *GUESS* as to why (and it is a GUESS). Way back 40+ years ago creating such an animal would have been "expensive" for using CPU resources (remember back then CPU's *WERE* expensive. The other part of the issue was people time. Trying to come up with anyway to do what you are suggesting might take weeks (or months) to do. Again it is a matter of resources that today are even more expensive. I am not sure what would happen if say the SSN would increase in length to say 15 digits. *SO* many programs would have to be re-written (or at least recompiled that it would probably take 5 years to implement.
Plus you have DB issues that would involve many people. I am not trying to say it couldn't be done just that it would be expensive. Who is going to pay for this? Businesses would be screaming uncle to uncle sam. Then what do you do with all the current people? Better minds than mine could have a go at this and might come up with other issues. The SS people never envisioned the chaos that might follow if they had a clue as to what todays people and environment might be like. Heck they might have come up with a 100 digit number that no one would have been able to remember.
It is not so much as required as it is easy to find. Once upon a time before computers probably everything was stored alphabetically. Once it was determined that it would be easier to do a search on a set of numbers everyone had their own customer number. That sort of worked well until it was discovered that people tended to forget
50, 8 digit (or so) numbers. That plus people in the "old" days were basically honest once honesty went out then the SS# was a disaster waiting to happen.
Quite a few companies (and hospitals) do this. Today I was visiting one of my *MANY* doctors and while I was sitting there he called up and reserved a procedure time for me and gave (the hospital) my name and social security number. Also, if I am not mistaken the Army does this (all military services as well). I am pretty sure the IRS and probably the SS (chuckle). The company I used to work for did this (but was told to scrap it).
It is quite common.
I used to work for a company that processed sales type data from quite a few stores. By the time we got the data there was *NO* way to associate what any one seller bought. In turn we sold the summary output to various companies so they could get an idea of how well a sales ad worked or some other thing like a cut in price in any specific market. The most *ANYONE* could get out of any reports we sold were number of items, which store, price, date.
I the above picture there (IMO) is nothing wrong in collecting that type of data. Where I do agree is where if somehow you can identify the item sold and to who. Stores are doing just this when you use the store card (for a discount) what you give up is privacy. Personally I have never worried about groceries its the "other" items that would upset me.
Well the CTO's CIO's that I know couldn't be called pretty boy's, more like ugly aunt wanda:)
That might work in their case. Let me tell you how the bank I worked for really pulled it off. Mind you I am not suggesting it be done this way. The Technical Support Group were all classified as exempt as we were not on any clock (per se). We basically were told to work as many hours a week to get the project done. If that meant coming in at 1AM and staying for 24 hours go for it. We routinely were expected to come in at odd hours to accomplish what ever task we were needed to be doing. Installing software for the majority of the time could be done ahead of time and then if needed to. The off hours came in to implement the software if it meant rebooting (IPLing) the system we had to ask the DC manager at least a week ahead of time for permission. Nobody got paid OT we were spied on by certain people in the group as to when we came and went. The boss knew the next day. During staff meetings the boss specifically named names if the person took off early or arrived late. This was done to ridicule the person. Some of the staff on the team were AVP's and besides getting over 100K salaries they also worked about the same as the rest of us (maybe a little more but not much). These people were extremely secretive about being officers. It was hush hush.
At another job I put in typically 100 hour work weeks and then was laid off because I made the management look bad.
There is no good solution IMO. I have seen abuses by lazy people and workers that put in 200 percent. I have yet to see any solution that works well.
I used to work at a large bank and practically every piece of OEM software had a license that was tied to the CPU serial number IIRC we had 12 systems and each one of those had between 2-12 serial numbers. Every year (almost) we would do a swap out of a system and replace it with a new system. This entailed hours of phone calls to various vendors. We would have all the information ready at least two days before the planned uninstall and re-install. 80 percent of the time it went on without an issue. Yes a lot of sweat and time was put in. What was really fun were these two scenarios 1. The vendor would give us the incorrect key and the product would not work on the new system. What happened next was sort of semi fun. We would call the vendor at 3 AM (or so) and ask what the correct key was. we got one of three answers call back when the office opens at 9 AM locally or a temporary key that would let us continue. The 3rd type was we are closed call back at 9 AM local time. It was a hard call to make as de-installation of the new computer would take 5-6 hours and to re-install the old one another 4-5 hours (lots of cabling to redo. It also dependent on how critical the software was. We just woke up a high up VP and let him make the call. It only happened a few times but we managed to get rid of a few software vendors because of that issue. We also from then on only signed with vendors that had 24x7X365 support.
What would be fun is if *EVERYONE* used encryption. The government would be buying so many CPU's to try and decode everyone's email. We would have a chance of breaking the governments will to try and do so.
Don't forget the possibility:
Indiana Jones and Laura Croft go head to head trying to find the fountain of youth
I used to work at a Bank (ABNAMRO) in Chicago. They have basically (either in process or done) almost all the IT jobs to India.
IIRC that amounts to about 1500 jobs. I have not heard whether the jobs over in Netherlands (parent company) got out sourced as well or not. My sense is no as they were always on the Americans to cut costs. I think I heard a vague rumor that the Netherlands HQ wouldn't dare move jobs over seas as the people and Government would have a sh** fit. Since our government is run by the republicans no one is going to stand up and say "no".