There's a guy who runs a hardware review site who was bragging awhile ago that his 6 year old (or thereabouts) could beat the boss in Quake III on easy setting. The rest of his groupies were giving him "mad props" for the photos, but I couldn't help but sit there and wonder what that was doing to that child.
While I'm all for a person's rights to do whatever as long as it doesn't hurt someone against their will, it still make me sick as a parent whose kid may have to go to school with that little boy.
Oh, and I'm a parent who has played his share of FPS. Just not in front of the kids. At work, only.:)
Okay, we've got Rob promising to ask the ten highest-moderated questions. Why don't we have him look for booth babes and ask if he can get the source to their hearts or maybe even walk up to various vendors and ask if his butt would look good in pleather?
Sure, A76 is 20 years old but did you see what it was back then? Tiny, compared to the 63 page behemouth that it is now. And it looks a LOT different.
One of the concerns that I have as a Federal employee is that whenever you introduce private industry into the mix you introduce something else: a profit. While one side may contend that this would mean that the company would run a tight ship that would run more efficiently, I would contend from experience in the private sector that, instead, the private company would find ways to cut costs at the expense of the position (and, more importantly, the job performed).
For example, I am a system administrator who oversees a LOT of sensitive personal information about citizens in our region (don't worry, they gave it to us willingly). The software that we work with is quite proprietary and old, and it takes quite a bit of time to get a new person up and running effectively. One of the things that keeps me working here (it's not the pay, as this position is grossly underpaid compared to work performed when compared to the private sector) is the steady work and benefits.
If this position is privatized, then you take away both of those benefits and are left with someone who, when they find a better position somewhere else in the private sector, is more likely to leave than a government employee. This introduces additional downtime in a position which is crucial to keeping the office functioning.
We're not talking about just janitorial staff, security, secretaries, the media guy down the hall in this replacement, or a few high-level contracted positions. We're talking about between a quarter and a half of all Federal employees suddenly being offered up to private business and their corruptions. We've already seen what the privatization of airport screeners did for airport security. It was so bad due to corporate cost-cutting that you could get damned near anything onto a commercial jet liner pre-9/11. They had to Federalize that job to get it run right. Do you really think that this would not be a case study in what could be expected out of further privatization of sensitive national work?
Regardless, the point is moot. George was able to get it done and a few years down the road we will start to hear how corporate greed allowed sensitive data to get into "the wrong hands". Federal government positions were what jobs should be: job security, a living wage, and decent benefits. Instead of private business mirroring this model and having happy and loyal employees, the Raiders in the White House have decided to bring the flawed corporate model into the Federal Government. What a pity that it had to happen this way.
This obviously wasn't a karma piece. Just had to get it off of my chest.
President Bush just put A76 on the Federal Register, meaning that between 425,000 and 850,000 Federal jobs will be outsourced in the next 10 years. Ten percent of those jobs will be outsourced in FY2003, including jobs that have access to your sensitive personal information.
I've been checking out Kiplinger's Tax Cut from my local library for a few years now. Very thorough software, and it only costs me money when I return it late.;)
Geez, I know that things can be dull up in the Great White North, but pay phones? Don't you guys have Nintendo up there to keep you from dying of boredom?
The submitter of the/. story was one of the people who made that first phone call. Seems that the little metal radiation-deflection strip/tinfoil hat combination wasn't quite enough to lessen the effects of the signal.
Apparently it's because there are apparently two drives in the case, which would, apparently, mean that there are two one-year warrantees. Which would mean two years, apparently.
I'm a semi-regular visitor of FatWallet and the thing that disappoints me the most is that people continued to post published deals for those retailers who sent DMCA letters to Fat Wallet. It is a sad commentary to how whoreish people will be just to get "a good deal", no matter how morally-corrupt the retailer (or their attorney team).
If these retailers are crap and you don't approve of their actions, then quit shopping there and stick to it. Merely saying that you think it sucks and then when the ad comes out talking about all the "kewl goods" you picked up at the sale shows that you approve of their actions.
Slashdot Mirror
There's a guy who runs a hardware review site who was bragging awhile ago that his 6 year old (or thereabouts) could beat the boss in Quake III on easy setting. The rest of his groupies were giving him "mad props" for the photos, but I couldn't help but sit there and wonder what that was doing to that child.
:)
While I'm all for a person's rights to do whatever as long as it doesn't hurt someone against their will, it still make me sick as a parent whose kid may have to go to school with that little boy.
Oh, and I'm a parent who has played his share of FPS. Just not in front of the kids. At work, only.
Okay, we've got Rob promising to ask the ten highest-moderated questions. Why don't we have him look for booth babes and ask if he can get the source to their hearts or maybe even walk up to various vendors and ask if his butt would look good in pleather?
You wanna be the one to tell the Postal worker that he can't have his Segway? I don't.
In a completely unrelated story, a 43-year old man was startled today to find out that shooting himself in the foot does, in fact, hurt.
"...all sorts of video games (if you know where to look).
That sounds cool. Where might I find information?
"The Bar-Monkey is a bar built around a 486 running linux..."
Thanks, guys! When the lights were down it looked a LOT better than that.
Sucks when I get home with a coyote-ugly PC.
Sure, A76 is 20 years old but did you see what it was back then? Tiny, compared to the 63 page behemouth that it is now. And it looks a LOT different.
One of the concerns that I have as a Federal employee is that whenever you introduce private industry into the mix you introduce something else: a profit. While one side may contend that this would mean that the company would run a tight ship that would run more efficiently, I would contend from experience in the private sector that, instead, the private company would find ways to cut costs at the expense of the position (and, more importantly, the job performed).
For example, I am a system administrator who oversees a LOT of sensitive personal information about citizens in our region (don't worry, they gave it to us willingly). The software that we work with is quite proprietary and old, and it takes quite a bit of time to get a new person up and running effectively. One of the things that keeps me working here (it's not the pay, as this position is grossly underpaid compared to work performed when compared to the private sector) is the steady work and benefits.
If this position is privatized, then you take away both of those benefits and are left with someone who, when they find a better position somewhere else in the private sector, is more likely to leave than a government employee. This introduces additional downtime in a position which is crucial to keeping the office functioning.
We're not talking about just janitorial staff, security, secretaries, the media guy down the hall in this replacement, or a few high-level contracted positions. We're talking about between a quarter and a half of all Federal employees suddenly being offered up to private business and their corruptions. We've already seen what the privatization of airport screeners did for airport security. It was so bad due to corporate cost-cutting that you could get damned near anything onto a commercial jet liner pre-9/11. They had to Federalize that job to get it run right. Do you really think that this would not be a case study in what could be expected out of further privatization of sensitive national work?
Regardless, the point is moot. George was able to get it done and a few years down the road we will start to hear how corporate greed allowed sensitive data to get into "the wrong hands". Federal government positions were what jobs should be: job security, a living wage, and decent benefits. Instead of private business mirroring this model and having happy and loyal employees, the Raiders in the White House have decided to bring the flawed corporate model into the Federal Government. What a pity that it had to happen this way.
This obviously wasn't a karma piece. Just had to get it off of my chest.
President Bush just put A76 on the Federal Register, meaning that between 425,000 and 850,000 Federal jobs will be outsourced in the next 10 years. Ten percent of those jobs will be outsourced in FY2003, including jobs that have access to your sensitive personal information.
Thanks, George.
I've been checking out Kiplinger's Tax Cut from my local library for a few years now. Very thorough software, and it only costs me money when I return it late. ;)
Geez, I hope that PayPal doesn't freeze their funds on them.
"Reagan closed the book on that in 1983 when he retrieved some 300 POW's."
A book? Crap! That means George W's not going to be meddling in that one.
Sorry, but I'm going to wait until it comes out in book form.
You got a BOBBLE-HEAD DOLL OF THE CEO?! Dude, I would so quit that place.
Out of curiosity, where do you work? What are the benefits like? Would they pay to relocate?
What's next? ATI doing Natalie Portman/hot grits drivers?
Next time add a few obvious spelling errors in the post so that the editors don't have to add them themselves.
Geez, I know that things can be dull up in the Great White North, but pay phones? Don't you guys have Nintendo up there to keep you from dying of boredom?
Slashdot thyself.
I know that it is vogue for Slashdolts to not read links, but not reading the submission itself?
I thought that snide and condescending comments added to /. stories by the editors WAS a standard?
...we'll take the best of the ones offered and link them in a /. story to see how they do under load.
The submitter of the /. story was one of the people who made that first phone call. Seems that the little metal radiation-deflection strip/tinfoil hat combination wasn't quite enough to lessen the effects of the signal.
What's Richard Gere been doing lately?
Apparently it's because there are apparently two drives in the case, which would, apparently, mean that there are two one-year warrantees. Which would mean two years, apparently.
This guy watches Red Green. I was shocked to see that none of the pics on his site had a stitch of duct tape.
I'm a semi-regular visitor of FatWallet and the thing that disappoints me the most is that people continued to post published deals for those retailers who sent DMCA letters to Fat Wallet. It is a sad commentary to how whoreish people will be just to get "a good deal", no matter how morally-corrupt the retailer (or their attorney team).
If these retailers are crap and you don't approve of their actions, then quit shopping there and stick to it. Merely saying that you think it sucks and then when the ad comes out talking about all the "kewl goods" you picked up at the sale shows that you approve of their actions.